Maxims

The House of La Rochefoucauld is one of the most ancient and illustrious in France. The family's founder, according to Andrew Du Chesne, was one Foucauld, or Fulk, a cadet, as is supposed, of the house of Lusignan, or Lezignem, and connected with the ancient Dukes of Guienne. He appeared about the period A. D. 1000 as Seigneur, or Lord, of the Town of La Roche in the Angoumois. He was described in contemporary charters as Vir nobilissimus Fulcaldus, and his renown seems to have been sufficiently extensive to confer his name on La Roche which has ever since borne, and bestowed on his descendants—the distinctive appellation of La Roche Foucauld. Guy le huitième Seigneur de la Roche Foucauld is mentioned by Froissart as having performed in 1380 a celebrated tilt in the lists at Bordeaux upon which he came attended by 200 of his kinsmen and connections.