Claude de La Trémoille, duc de Thouars

Eloi Firmin Féron : Claude de La Trémoïlle, Duke of Thouars and La Trémoille, Palace of Versailles

Claude de La Trémoille , (* 1566 - † October 25, 1604 in Thouars ) was a member of the house of La Trémoille , Duke of Thouars and La Trémouille, Prince of Talmont and Taranto , Count of Laval , Taillebourg and Benon , Count of Guînes and Baron de Sully .

Life

Claude was a son of the Duke of Thouars, Louis III. de La Trémoille , and his wife Jeanne († 1596), daughter of the Duke and Connétables Anne de Montmorency . In 1577 he succeeded his father as the second Duke of Thouars. His sister Charlotte Catherine (1568-1629) was the wife of Henri I de Bourbon since 1586 . First on the side of King Henry III. involved in campaigns against Huguenots , Claude converted to Protestantism in 1587 and moved to the camp of King Henry of Navarre . In the following years the duke became an important Huguenot leader.

Initially still in the favor of King Henry, he favored Claude's cousin Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne when he became King of France in 1589. Claude fought for the king in the battles of Coutras and Ivry , for which the Duke of Thouars was made Peer of France in 1599 .

In 1598 his cousin Henri brokered the marriage of Claude with his sister-in-law Charlotte Brabantina of Orange-Nassau , whom he married on March 11 of the same year. His wife, with her contacts with the Protestant houses of Orange and Bouillon, was of great importance in the diplomacy of the Huguenots. She also kept her husband from the Duke of Biron's plot against the crown and swore him to the king.

progeny

• Henri (1598–1674), Duke of La Trémoille, Prince of Talmont
  ⚭ 1619 Marie (1600–1665), daughter of Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne
• Charlotte (1599–1668)
  ⚭ 1626 James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby
• Elisabeth (1601–1604)
• Frederic (1602–1642), Count of Benon and Laval

literature

• Madeleine Marie Louise Saint-René Taillandier: Henry IV. The Huguenot on France's throne . Hugendubel, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-424-01240-8 .
• William A. Weary: The House of La Tremoille, Fifteenth through Eighteenth Centuries. Change and Adaptation in a French Noble Family . In: The Journal of Modern History . Volume 49, No. 1, The University of Chicago Press 1977.