Brother of
Louis de Courcillon de Dangeau, he was born into a
Calvinist family but converted very early in his life to
Catholicism. He first gained repute for his skill at
playing cards, to the extent that "jouer à la Dangeau" became an expression in the language of the time and he attracted the attention of Louis XIV. In 1665, he was named colonel of the king's regiment, and accompanied him as an aide de camp in all of his campaigns. He became, in 1667, governor of
Touraine and undertook several diplomatic missions to
Trier,
Mainz and
Modena. A patron of men of letters, he became friends with
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, who dedicated his
Satire on the Nobility to him.
Jean de La Bruyère depicted him in his
Les Caractères through the traits of "Pamphile". He was elected a member of the
Académie française on 11 January 1668, despite not having published anything, and in 1704 he became an honorary member of the
Académie des sciences, of which he became president for a year in 1706 before being replaced by
Jean-Paul Bignon. From 1684 to 1720, he kept a journal on daily life at the court of
Versailles. Extracts from it were published by
Voltaire in 1770, by
Madame de Genlis in 1817 and by
Pierre-Édouard Lémontey in 1818. It was whilst writing notes on these memoirs that
Saint-Simon undertook to write his own Mémoires. The 19 volumes of the complete edition of
Journal de la cour de Louis XIV appeared for the first time between 1854 and 1860. In 1686, Philippe de Courcillon married his second wife Sophia Maria Wilhelmina von Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort (1664, Wertheim – 1736, Paris), at Versailles. She was the daughter of
Ferdinand Karl, Count of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort (1616–1672) and his wife Countess Anna Maria of Fürstenberg (1634–1705). Together they had at least one son, also called Philippe de Courcillon, who fought at the
Battle of Malplaquet (during the
War of the Spanish Succession) on 11 September 1709. ==Anecdote==