François de Callières

Callières served discreetly in several European negotiations in the following years: Carlo Emmanuele II, Duke of Savoy employed him in attempting an alliance with France that was cut short by the Duke's death in 1675, but as the Savoyard envoy to Bavaria, Callières was involved in early stages of the negotiations that would eventually bring a Bavarian princess to the court of Louis as bride of the Grand Dauphin.

Three galante works followed, a volume of the latest courtly expressions and the right moves,[2] one reporting bons mots and witty anecdotes of railery[3] and one on the bon usage of the French spoken at Court, contrasted with middle-class expressions, for people of quality to avoid.

[4] In 1694, when the misfortunes of war[5] and a bad harvest in France had brought Louis round to negotiating with the League of Augsburg, Callières' Polish connections in Amsterdam alerted him that the United Provinces were ready for peace.

In his memoirs, Saint-Simon gives a good character of Callières, a gentleman with the courage to tell the truth to the King.

His great work begins with the maxim Today the opening of his second chapter has stronger resonances than ever, two centuries after it was published: At his death, still unmarried, he left a house in the rue Saint-Augustin filled with French, Italian and Dutch paintings, a large and well-chosen library, and the bulk of his estate to the poor of Paris.