Gaspard de Coligny (February 16, 1519 in Châtillon-sur-Loing-August 24, 1572 in Paris) Count of Coligny, Baron of Beaupont and Beauvoir, Montjuif, Roissiat, Chevignat and other places, Lord of Châtillon, Admiral of France. He is one of the best known members of the illustrious house of Coligny.
He is the son of Gaspard I de Coligny, Marshal of France under François I, and his wife Louise de Montmorency. He is the brother of Odet, cardinal of Châtillon and of François de Coligny d'Andelot.
1519-1530, provincial childhood
Gaspard de Coligny was born in Châtillon. His father was from an old family and had married in 1514 Louise de Montmorency, widow of Fercy de Mailly with whom she had three children. One of Louise's brothers was Anne de Montmorency, who was constable of France between 1538 and 1541[1]. Gaspard I died in Guyenne in 1522. Gaspard II was three years old, and had already stood out for his taste for war games. He was raised by his mother, Louise, with his three brothers:his eldest Pierre (1515-1528) and Odet (1517) and his youngest François (1520).
The young Colignys received a humanist education. Their tutor, Nicolas Bérault, corresponded with Érasme and Guillaume Budé. At that time, a gentleman studied the trivium and the quadrivium, but also the court arts (in particular dance and tennis) and the arts of war (horse riding and fencing) which Gaspard and his brothers were introduced to under the tutelage of a former soldier, Guillaume de Prunelay. Since the father's death, Montmorency's uncle had supervised this education and he noted with satisfaction Gaspard's progress in Latin, which augured well for an ecclesiastical future. But the young man rebelled. He wanted to pursue a career in the military.
1530-1542, adolescence at the court of Francis I
In 1530, Louise de Montmorency, Gaspard's mother, was named lady-in-waiting to Eleonore of Austria and the family found themselves at court. This was one of the most brilliant in Europe. The great houses competed there for the favor of the king and the Montmorency clan enjoyed a growing influence there.
Politically, France, its rival the empire of Charles V and the Papal States were the greatest European powers. To this must be added England, whose support could tip the balance one way or the other in the event of a conflict. On the religious level, France had embarked on the path of a certain independence with the concordat of Bologna. Humanism was spreading and with it a criticism of religious practices which called for reforms and provoked opposition within the university and religious orders worried about the spread of Lutheran ideas[2]. In 1530 appeared an edition of the vulgate translated by Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples. The king's own sister, Marguerite d'Angoulême, was influenced by reformist ideas and when the Colignys arrived at court the king still tolerated this effervescence.
In 1533, the year of the schism between Rome and England, Francis I married his son Henry, the Dauphin, to Pope Clement VII's niece, Catherine de Medici. Grateful, the Pope offered France seven cardinal places, of which Odet de Coligny, who was barely 16, was one of the beneficiaries.
In 1534 the affair of the placards broke out which was to trigger a severe repression against the Lutherans. Francis I was nonetheless embarrassed as he did not want to alienate the pro-reform German princes.
During this time Coligny continued his studies in the company of the children of the king with Guillaume du Maine, abbot of Beaulieu[3] as his master. He studied Cicero, Ptolemy, and discovered cosmography then in full swing. The court moved around a lot, and the young Colignys followed the king from castle to castle. Gaspard had made friends, notably the young François de Guise. With his brother François, he enjoyed a certain popularity which meant that the disgrace of Montmorency in 1541 did not affect their presence at court. Montmorency had sought to avoid the war with the imperial forces, this one became inevitable. In 1542, the Colignys were going to make their debut
1542-1546:the first arms [
Odet had chosen an ecclesiastical career, Montmorency's uncle was dismissed from court, the young Colignys only had weapons left to make a name for themselves. When war was declared against Charles V, Gaspard campaigned in Luxembourg, Flanders and Italy, where he took part in the short-lived victory of Cérisoles. Peace signed with the Emperor (1544) he took part in the naval offensive commanded by Claude d'Annebaut against the English. Several times wounded in these fights, he distinguished himself for his audacity. Peace was signed with Henry VIII of England in 1546 leaving Coligny free to make, as was the custom at the time for young people of good family, a trip to Italy. He notably stayed in Ferrara with the Duchess of Este, but the death of Francis I on March 31, 1546 precipitated his return to France[1].
The reign of Henry II
One of the new king's first acts was to recall Gaspard's uncle, the Constable de Montmorency. Gaspard, meanwhile, was appointed ordinary gentleman of the king's chamber and decorated with the order of Saint-Michel. In 1547, he received the post of colonel general of the infantry. This same year was marked by the death of his mother, Louise de Montmorency, who had come very close to the ideas of the reform, and by his marriage to Charlotte de Laval, daughter of Count Guy XVI de Laval. The following year his younger brother, François, in turn married a wealthy heiress. But the court of Henri II was a hotbed of intrigue where the clan of Montmorency and that of Guise, supported by the all-powerful mistress of the king, Diane de Poitiers disputed the favors of Henri II.
The embassy in London
The reign of Henry II began with a resumption of persecutions against the reformers and threats from the English side which still refused to make Boulogne occupied. England was then eyeing the throne of Scotland, which Mary Stuart had inherited on the death of King James I of Scotland in 1542. A marriage between Edward VI of England, who had just succeeded Henry VIII who died in 1548, would have brought together the crowns of England and Scotland, which the Guises, in particular François, uncle of Marie Stuart by her sister Marie, did not want at any price. Coligny was part of the delegation that went to London to negotiate peace. He met the young Edward VI under whose reign the Anglican reform was radicalized to approach Protestantism. Back in Paris, judging that he was poorly rewarded for the efforts he had made in the king's service, Coligny retired to his estates and took advantage of his leisure to draft a very rigorous military code which was intended to moralize the behavior of the troops.
Wars against Spain
The king soon recalled her and Coligny set out again on the campaign. Dismissed from the siege of Metz by François de Guise, he contributed to the victory of Renty. He was named Admiral of France in 1533 and then Governor of Picardy.
In 1557, after the break of the truce of Vaucelles with Charles V, the Spanish army besieged Saint-Quentin, defended by Coligny. After much resistance, he had to surrender, but his action prevented the invasion.
After the death of King Henry II, weary of the intrigues of the court, he resigned all his jobs and retired to his estates:in this retirement, reading the books of the innovators changed his religious opinions, and he embraced the Reformation.
Coligny converted, essentially at the instigation of his wife and his brother, Odet, Cardinal de Coligny.
Wars of religion
In 1562, when war broke out between the Protestant party and the Catholic party, Coligny was appointed by the first lieutenant general; he fights under the orders of the prince of Condé, and loses with this prince the battle of Dreux against the duke François de Guise.
He chose the Huguenot captain Jean Ribault in 1562 to establish a colony in Florida with 150 of his co-religionists with the authorization of King Charles IX.
In 1563, he was accused of having ordered the assassination of the Duke of Guise by Poltrot de Méré. The death of the latter, assassinated under the walls of Orléans, brought a few years of peace.
The arms having been taken up by both sides in 1567, he left the court with Condé to take refuge in Burgundy, then in La Rochelle. He is considered, along with Louis I de Condé, François de Coligny and Guyonne XVIII de Laval, as the instigator of the "pursuit of Meaux", in 1567, which is an attempt by Protestants to seize King Charles IX of France and Queen- mother Catherine de Medici.
Coligny takes part in the undecided combat of Saint-Denis. The third war of religion saw the defeats accumulate:first Jarnac (March 13, 1569, where Condé was assassinated. Then, despite the victory of La Roche-l'Abeille, he lost time at the siege of Poitiers because his mercenaries , unpaid, wanted booty, and he had to raise the siege before being beaten and wounded at Moncontour (October 3, 1569), where he was defeated by the Duke of Anjou, the future Henri III.
Coligny then fled south with his troops, escaped Monluc and Montmorency-Damville, and joined the army of the "Viscounts" in Languedoc. He was then able to regain the initiative, raise troops, loot the Catholic villages, take Saint-Étienne, win the victory at Arnay-le-Duc and go back to 1570 as far as La Charité-sur-Loire, thus threatening Paris. The king yields, and it is then the peace of Saint-Germain (August 8, 1570).
Statue of Coligny, oratory of the Louvre (contrary to what the statue indicates, it is well born in 1519).
Statue of Coligny, oratory of the Louvre (contrary to what the statue indicates, he was indeed born in 1519).
Coligny then sought to get back into the good graces of Charles IX, who condemned him to death and had his property confiscated. In 1571, he returned to court and the king welcomed him.
The Catholics at court, however, hated him, and his influence over the king remained limited. His proposal to intervene in Flanders against Spain was thus rejected three times.
The Saint-Barthélemy massacre was preparing, and the admiral was one of the first victims.
On August 22, 1572, shortly after the marriage of Henri de Navarre (the future Henri IV), Maurevel fired on Coligny from a house belonging to the Guises. Historians share responsibility for this attack:
* Catherine de Medici in person
* the Guises
* the Duke of Alba, on behalf of Philip II of Spain
Still, Charles IX goes to the bedside of the wounded, and promises him justice. But the assassination of all the Protestant leaders is decided, and on the night of August 23 to 24, 1572, the Saint-Barthélemy massacre takes place. Coligny is finished off in bed, and his body is thrown out of the window into the courtyard by Charles Danowitz.