An anonymous and little known novel which first appeared in 1790. Montmorency, the name of one of the oldest and most distinguished families in France, derived from the city of Montmorency, now in the Val-d'Oise departement, in the immediate neighbourhood of Enghien-les-Bains and Saint-Denis, about 9 miles (15 km) northwest of Paris. The family, since its first appearance in history in the person of Bouchard I of Montmorency in the 10th century, has furnished six constables and twelve marshals of France, several admirals and cardinals, numerous grand officers of the Crown and grand masters of various knightly orders, and was declared by Henry IV to be, after that of the Bourbons, the first house in Europe.