Marie-Monique Léoutre, Serving France, Ireland and England: Ruvigny, Earl of Galway, 1648-1720

Abstract

Anyone even vaguely familiar with the history of French Protestant exiles to Ireland in the 1600s will identify their settlement at Portarlington, straddling the borders of counties Laois and Offaly, as the second most important outside Dublin. There, French was used in church services until the 1820s, and the area is proud of this Huguenot heritage. But outside scholarly circles, few if any would recognise the name of Henri de Massue, second marquis de Ruvigny (1648-1720), who had establishe...