Gervais de La Rue was a native of
Caen. He received his education at the
university of that town, and was ultimately raised to the rank of professor. His first historical enterprise was interrupted by the
French Revolution, which forced him to take refuge in
England, where he took the opportunity to examine a vast mass of original documents in the
Tower of London and elsewhere, and received much encouragement, from
Sir Walter Scott among others. From England, he moved to
Holland, still in prosecution of his favorite task. In 1798, he returned to France. The rest of his life was spent in his native town, where he was chosen principal of his university. While in England, he had been elected a member of the
Royal Society of Antiquaries; and in his own country he was made a corresponding member of the Institute, and was enrolled in the
Légion d'Honneur. Besides numerous articles in the
Memoirs of the Royal Society of London, the ''Mémoires de l'Institut
, the Mémoires de la Societé d'Agriculture de Caen
, and in other periodical collections, he published separately Essais historiques sur les Bardes, les Jongleurs, et les Trouvères normands et anglo-normands
(3 vols., 1834), and Recherches historiques sur la Prairie de Caen
(1837); and after his death appeared Mémoires historiques sur le palinod de Caen
(1841), Recherches sur la tapisserie de Bayeux
(1841), and Nouveaux Essais historiques sur la ville de Caen'' (1842). In all his writings, he displayed a strong partiality for everything Norman, and rated the Norman influence on French and English literature as of the very highest moment. ==Main publications==