A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Lussan, (Margaret de)
Some have said she was the natural daughter of prince Thomas of Savoy, because prince Eugene was kind to her. An education much above her birth enabled Margaret de Lussan to compose the various works which she has left us. M. Huet, to whom she accidentally became known, advised her to write romances, in which she succeeded tolerably well, with the help of De la Serre, sieur de Langlade, author of nine or ten operas, who was her intimate friend, after having been her lover. This gentleman inherited an income of 25,000 livres, which he consumed by gaming, and died 1756, aged 94. Mademoiselle de Lussan was more admired for her mental than her personal qualifications; for she squinted, and had a very brown skin, with a masculine voice and gait; but she was gay, lively, extremely humane, constant in her friendships, liable to anger, but never to hatred.
She published, under her own name. The History of Charles VI. of Louis IX. and of the Revolution of Naples; but they were written by M. Baudot de Juilly, to whom she gave half of what she gained by these works, and half a pension of two thousand livres, which she received from the Mercury. Her works are: 1, Histoire de la Comptesse de Gondés, 12mo. 2 vols. 1727 and 1752; 2, Anecdotes de la Cour de Philippe Auguste, 6 vols. 1733; 3, Les Veillées de Thessalie, 4 vols. 1741; 4, Mémoires Secret, et Intrigues de la Cour de France sous Charles VII. 1741; 5, Anecdotes de la Cour de François I. 8 vols. 1748; 6, Marie d'Angleterre, Reine d'Ecosse, 1749; 7, Annales Galantes de la Cour de Henri II, 9 vols. 1749; 8, Mourat et Turquia, Histoire Africaine, 1752; 9, La Vie du brave Crillon, 2 vols.