Fénelon's cuckoo: Andrew Michael Ramsay and Archbishop Fenelon

As a former associate of François Fénelon and the editor of his papers and works, Andrew Michael Ramsay was well placed to act as the Archbishop’s first biographer. While Ramsay’s 'Vie de Fénelon' (1723) became the template for nearly two hundred years of later biographers, the work reveals Ramsay’s manipulation of the political principles of Fénelon as he promoted a Jacobite restoration to the British throne. In conjunction with his earlier political works, Ramsay promulgated a vision of Fénelon’s political and spiritual ideas that were misleading. This chapter discusses Ramsay’s impact on the legacy of Fénelon and the motivations for his intervention.