Life
Born at Fontenay-le-Comte, Vendée into a family of "noblesse de robe", Rapin pursued legal studies, practiced law at the parlement of Poitiers, and became "échevin" (municipal leader) and later mayor (1569–1570) of Fontenay-le Comte. At the start of the civil wars, he participated at the defense of Poitiers against the forces of Gaspard de Coligny (1569) and survived the capture of Fontenay by the Huguenots (1570). He later became vice-senechel of Fontenay and Niort, and, in 1585, "lieutenant criminel" (both are officers of public justice) in the Île-de-France region. With the arrival of the Holy League to power in Paris, Rapin was stripped of his positions, but the favor of Henry III of France brought him the important post of "prévôt" in the army. With Henry's assassination at the hands of a radical Jesuit, Rapin rallied to the new king Henry IV and attacked the League and the Jesuits in his writings. He retired from public life in 1605 and died in 1608 at Poitiers, on the way to see friends in Paris.
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