Paul de Rapin
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Paul de Rapin (March 25, 1661 - 1725), sieur of Thoyras, was a French historian.
The son of Jacques de Rapin, and avocat at Castres (Tarn), he was educated at the Protestant academy of Saumur, and in 1679 became an advocate, but soon afterwards joined the army. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and the death of his father led him to come to England; but, unable to find work there, he went on to Holland where he enlisted in a company of French volunteers at Utrecht, commanded by his cousin, Daniel de Rapin.
He accompanied William III to England in 1688, and during the Irish campaign he took part in the siege of Carrickfergus and the Battle of the Boyne, and was wounded at the Battle of Limerick. Soon afterwards he was promoted to captain; but in 1693 he resigned in order to become tutor to the Earl of Portland's son. After travelling with the boy, he settled with his family in Holland, first at the Hague, then, to save money, at Wesel, in 1707; there he began his great work, L'Histoire d'Angleterre. Though he was of a strong constitution, the seventeen years he spent on it ruined his health.
Rapin was also the author of a Dissertation sur les Whigs et les Torys (1717). L'Histoire d'Angleterre, embracing the period from the invasion of the Romans to the death of Charles I, was printed at the Hague in 1724 in 8 volumes. It was translated into English and improved with notes by Matthew Tindal, in 2 volumes. Rapin's history of England was almost the only one available in France in the first half of the 18th century.