COMINES, PHILIPPE DE, (c. 1445 1509), French statesman and historian, was born at the castle of Comines, in Flanders. He was brought up at the court of his god father, Philip V., duke of Burgundy, and in 1464 was taken into the service of Charles the Bold, count of Charolais. When in 1468 Charles, now duke of Burgundy, detained Louis XI., king of France, at Peronne, Comines brought about a reconciliation be tween the two princes; in 1472 Louis persuaded him to desert the duke's service for his own, made him chamberlain, loaded him with honours and estates and in 1476 appointed him seneschal of Poitou. After Louis's death in 1483 Comines was at first one of the coun sellors of the regent, Anne of Beaujeu, but he was justly suspected of intriguing against the regency, with the dukes of Bourbon and Orleans, was banished from court, and in 1486 was imprisoned at Loches for some months in one of the cages used by his old master, Louis XI. On March 24, 1488, he was sentenced to the confisca tion of a quarter of his property and was confined to one of his estates for ten years ; but he was soon taken into favour again by Charles VIII., and employed as ambassador on various missions. He died in Oct. 1509 at Argenton, an estate acquired through his marriage with Helene de Chambes.
The Memoires, which he wrote in his latter years, earn for Comines the title of one of the greatest historians of his age; his portrait of Louis XI. is one of the classics of history.
The first part of the Memoires, Cronique et hystoire du roy Louis onziesme, faicte et composee par Philippe de Comines, written between 1489 and 1491, was first printed in 1524; the second part, Croniques du roy Charles huytiesme, was written between 1495 and 1498, and printed in 1528. Seven mss. are known, derived from a single holo graph. Later editions were issued by D. Sauvage (1552) , D. Godefroy (1649) and Lenglet Dufresnoy (London 1747). More recent editions are by B. de Mandrot (1901-03) and J. Calmette (3 vols. 1924-25) . The first English translation was made by T. Danett, The Historie of Philip de Commines (1596, repr. See H. Timpe, Etude sur la vie et les memoires de Philippe de Comines; and for a detailed bibliography Ulysse Chevalier, Repertoire des sources historiques du moyen age,