Background
Ancillon was born on the 28th of July 1659at Metz into a distinguished family of Huguenots. His father, David Ancillon (1617–1692), was obliged to leave France on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and became pastor of the French Protestant community in Berlin.
Education
Ancillon studied law at Marburg, Geneva and Paris.
Career
He pleaded the cause of the Huguenots-the French Protestants-of Metz at the court of Louis XIV, urging that an exception be made for them in the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685). Ancillon’s efforts were unsuccessful, however, and he moved to Berlin, where he was appointed by Frederick III, the elector of Brandenburg, as judge of the French refugees in that state. Made director in 1687 of the Academy of Nobles, the principal educational establishment of the state, he cooperated with the German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in the founding of the Academy of Berlin, a society of arts and sciences.
Appointed historiographer to the elector in 1699, Ancillon replaced, in the same year, his uncle, Joseph Ancillon, as judge of all the French refugees.
As councillor of embassy at the imperial court, he was involved in the negotiations that resulted in the election of Frederick the Elector to be king in 1701 as Frederick I. His works include the Histoire de l’établissement des français réfugiés dans les états de S. A. E. Brandenbourg (1690; “The History of the Establishment of the French Refugees in Brandenburg State”) and L’Irrévocabilité de l’édit de Nantes (1688; “The Irrevocability of the Edict of Nantes”).
Charles Ancillon died on July 5, 1715 in Berlin.
Personality
His style stiff and cold, and it was his personal character rather than his reputation as a writer that earned him the confidence of the elector.