“ He did not derive much profit from this new favour, as he died on the 29th of June following, without his nomination having been sanctioned by the pope.
Marca, clever and covetous, was also an historian of note. When very young he showed his interest in the past history of his native land, and in 1617, at the age of twenty-three, he had set to work looking through archives, copying charters, and corresponding with the principal men of learning of his time, the brothers Dupuy, André Duchesne and Jean Besly, whom he visited in Poitou. His Histoire de Béarn was published at Paris in 1640. ”

“ If Marca’s criticism is too often undecided, both in the ancient epochs, where he supports the text by a certain amount of guesswork and in certain points where he touches on religion, yet he always gives the text correctly. ”

“ But he was ambitious, and turned to a larger sphere. He ardently called for the armed intervention of King Louis XIII. in Béarn, and on this occasion published his first writing, Discours d’un Béarnais, très fidèle sujet du roi, sur l’édit du rétablissement de l’exercice de la religion catholique dans tout le Béarn (1618) . After the easy campaign of 1620, the possessions which had been taken by the Protestants were given back to the Roman Catholic church ”