Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) wrote The Three Musketeers trilogy in 1844-1846. Dumas based the story on the fictional Memoirs of Monsieur d’Artagnan a Lieutenant in the King’s Musketeers written by Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras who wrote it around 1700. Dumas’ story is based in 1628 and follows the adventures of d ‘Artagnan and his friends Athos, Porthos, and Aramis who are Musketeers for King Louis XIII. Sandras also wrote the fictional Memoirs of Comte de Rochefort in 1678, but apparently Dumas didn’t take much from them about Rochefort other than the name and his position in the service of Richelieu.
The character of Comte de Rochefort who Michael plays, actually appeared in two of the books Dumas wrote about the musketeer d’Artagnan. Interestingly, in the books he is described as fair haired with a scar across his cheek. The eyepatch thing although extremely sexy, I believe was adapted by Richard Lester for his 1970s film version where Christpher Lee played Rochefort.
In Dumas’ first book the characters of d’Artagnan and Rochefort meet in the beginning and become enemies, but in the end they are friends. The first sequel, Twenty Years Later , saw Rochefort imprisoned by Cardinal Richelieu’s sucsessor, Mazarin, because he refused to work for him, but he is freed from prison after five years. Still friends with d’Artagnan, he speaks on his behalf to Mazarin in hopes of helping d’Artagnan get a promotion. He later joins a rebel group called the Frondeurs. The term frondeur is used to refer to anyone who suggests that the power of the king should be limited, and refers to anyone who shows insubordination or engages in cristicism of the powers in place. At the end of the book Twenty Years Later there was a riot involving the Frondeurs and in the confusion, d’Artagnan kills Rochefort. By then Rochefort was in his late fifties or early sixties.
Alexandre Dumas died of a stroke in 1870 at age 68. He was buried in a cemetery in Villers-Cotteręts, France until 2002 when French president, Jacques Chirac had his body exhumed. In a televised ceremony, his new coffin was carried by men dressed as musketeers and was transported to the Pantheon of Paris where many famous French authors are buried, like Voltaire and Victor Hugo. The works of Dumas have been translated into almost a hundred languages and made or inspired over 200 motion pictures.
