Margeret, Jacques

Margeret, Jacques 

Born circa 1550 or 1560 in Auxonne, France; died no earlier than 1618. Author of notebooks about Russia; mercenary soldier and adventurer. Frenchman by nationality.

In France, Margeret fought on the side of Henry IV and then served the Austrian, Transylvanian, and Polish monarchs. In 1600 he traveled to Russia and took part in the battle near Dobrynichi. In 1605-06 he headed the personal bodyguard of the First False Dmitrii. After Dmitrii’s death Margeret left Russia in September 1606 and lived in France. It was there in 1607 that he published his notebooks on Russia. He returned again to Russia and entered the service of the Second False Dmitrii and was later in the service of the Polish hetman S. Zolkiewski. Margeret participated in the battle of Klushino of 1610, in the suppression of the uprising by the population of Moscow against the interventionists in March 1611, and in the devastation of Moscow. He traveled back to Poland in 1611 and later returned to France. Margeret’s notebooks on Russia are a valuable historical source, but they require a critical approach. The notebooks give a detailed account of political events in Russia between 1590 and September 1606. In the notebooks, Margeret alleged that the First False Dmitrii was the son of Ivan IV.

WORKS

“Sostoianie Rossiiskoi derzhavy i velikogo kniazhestva Moskovskogo s prisovokupleniem izvestii o dostopamiatnykh sobytiakh, sluchivshikhsia v pravlenie chetyrekh gosudarei, s 1590 po sent. 1606.” In [N. Ustrialov], Skazaniia sovremennikov o Dmitrii Samozvantse, part 1. St. Petersburg, 1859.

V. I. KORETSKII