'François, Duc de Montmorency' (
June 17 1530 -
May 6 1579), was the eldest son of the first Duc de Montmorency,
Anne.
He was
Duke of Montmorency, Count of
Dammartin, Baron of
Chateaubriant and Lord of
L’Isle-Adam.
Grand Master of France and
Peer of France.
Life
François was the eldest son of Anne de Montmorency,
constable of France. He accompanied the King to the border of
Germany and was present at the capture of
Damvillers and of
Ivoy in 1552. He took part in the heroic resistance of the town of
Thérouanne against the attacks of the troops of
Charles V: finally, it had to fall and he was made prisoner on
May 30,
1553.
On his return from captivity, he was made knight on
Michaelmas and was provided with the Government of
Paris and the
Ile-de-France (
1556). He was sent to the aid of the
pope Paul IV and retoke with the
Spanish the port of
Ostia and some other places around
Rome. He took part in the Battle of
Saint-Quentin on
August 10,
1557, defended
Picardy against the Spanish and helped in the siege of
Calais, in
1558. The King sent him with an embassy to
Queen Elizabeth I of
England, to get from her a commitment to observe the Peace treaty of
Cateau-Cambrésis. With the death of the
King Henri II, he had to yield the title of Grand Master, inherited from his father, to the
Duke of Guise. The King then gave him the position of
Marshal of France in
1559.
He married against his will in 1557 to
Diane de France, natural daughter of Henry II.
"Monsieur de Montmorency, known as
Brantôme, was a valorous, wise captain and extremely political. For this, when the King went to make the tour of his kingdom, he was left as
Governor of Paris. Having found people of Paris, mutinous, seditious and ebullient, he was flexible and handy like a glove of chevrotin of Vendôme, to which the King was greatly satisfied ".
In
1560, he attended the
Estates-General, held in
Orleans. The disorders of the Wars of Religion having occurred, he sided with the Catholics, participating in the battle of
Dreux on
December 19,
1562, and with the capture of
Le Havre. He also took part in the battle of
Saint-Denis (
November 10 1567) where his father died.
Once he became Duke, François continued the house of Montmorency’s rivalry with that of the
Guise. This rivalry did not cease but increased. In
1570, he had the very difficult task to make the
Peace of Saint-Germain accepted in Paris. In
1572, he was sent to Queen Elizabeth I of England to get her to sign an alliance with France. It was on this occasion that he received the
Order of the Garter. In France, François was more unpopular than ever. His incapacity to control the Parisian mutineers finally meant he had to give up his post of governor of the city. He left the city a few days before the
St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. It was he who discreetly took down the corpse of
Coligny, his cousin, from the gallows of
Montfaucon, where he was hanging.
In
1574,
Charles IX appointed him to the court, but the hatred was so strong between him and the Duke of Guise meant he had to leave again. Not having anything more to lose, he takes part in the plot of Malcontents, the "Third Party" with the duke of
Alençon, but he was stopped and locked up in the
Bastille with the Marshal of
Cossé-Brissac. He was released in April
1575, and the King recognized his innocence by letters, recorded at the Parliament. He died in the Castle of
Écouen on
May 6,
1579.
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