Gabriel Sénac de Meilhan

Gabriel Sénac de Meilhan (May 7, 1736 – August 16, 1803) was a French writer.
Biography
Son of Jean-Baptiste de Sénac, physician to Louis XV, he was born in Versailles. He entered the civil service in 1762; two years later he bought the office of master of requests, and in 1766 further advanced his position by a rich marriage. He was successively intendant of La Rochelle, of Aix-en-Provence and of Valenciennes. In 1776 he became intendant-general for war, but was soon compelled to resign.
He had hoped to be made Minister of Finance, and was disappointed by the nomination of Necker, of whom he became a bitter opponent. He was intimate with the comtesse de Tess, sister of the duc de Choiseul, and in 1781 met Madame de Créquy, then sixty-seven years of age, and began a long friendship with her. His first book was the fictitious Mémoires d'Anne de Gonzague, princesse palatine (1786), thought by many people at the time to be genuine. In the next...