Gaspard IV. De Coligny

Gaspard IV. De Coligny

Gaspard IV. De Coligny (born June 9, 1620 in Châtillon-sur-Loing ; † February 9, 1649 in Vincennes Castle ) was Count and from 1648 Duke of Coligny , Duke of Châtillon , Baron de Beaupont, Beauvoir, Montjuif, Roissiat et Chevignat, Seigneur de Montmuran et Tinténiac, Peer of France (1648). He was the son of Gaspard III. de Coligny and Anne de Polignac.

biography

Gaspard was baptized Protestant on June 20, 1620, his godparents were François de Bonne, duc de Lesdiguières and Madame de La Trémouille. Until the death of his older brother in 1644 he appeared under the name Andelot, from then on as Marquis de Châtillon. At the urging of his lover Marion Delorme , he gave up his Calvinist faith in May 1643. In 1646 his father died, in the same year the king confirmed the uprising of Châtillon-sur-Loing, which he had in favor of Gaspard III. de Coligny had made as a duchy and peerage. In November 1648, the county of Coligny in Bresse was raised to a duchy for him.

Military career

Gaspard IV entered under the command of his father Gaspard III. joined the army and served as aide-de-camp during the siege of Yvoy (1637) and Saint-Omer (1638), as well as when Piccolomini lifted the siege of Mouzon in 1639 . In 1639, after the death of the Comte d'Onsain, he was appointed Mestre de camp and thus commander of a Beauce regiment.

On June 21, 1640 he set up an infantry regiment under his name (Andelot), with which he participated in the siege of Arras . At the Battle of La Marfée (1641) he was almost alone on the battlefield with his father. His regiment was disbanded after this defeat (July 1641). He laid down the command of the Beauce regiment and took over the command of a Piedmontese regiment, where he replaced the Marquis de Senecey.

In 1642 Coligny served under Marshal Gramont in the Battle of Honnecourt . On May 19, 1643 he fought in the Battle of Rocroi under the Duke of Enghien , later the Great Condé . On May 27, 1643 he was appointed Maréchal des camps et armées du Roi, in July and August of that year he took part in the siege of Thionville , in which he was wounded twice, and later in the siege of Sierck .

In March 1644 he left the Piedmontese regiment and went to siege Gravelines . Again under the Duke of Enghien, he fought in the Battle of Alerheim (1645) and took part in the conquest of Trier . As the successor of his father in office as general of the French troops in the Netherlands (1646) he besieged Kortrijk .

In 1647 he fought again under Condé's command, now in Catalonia as Colonel General of the Light Cavalry. He took part in the siege of Lleida (Lerida), which was lifted on June 17, 1647. On March 22, 1648 he was appointed lieutenant general. Still under Condé's command, he took part in the siege of Ypres . In the Battle of Lens (August 20, 1648) he commanded the Corps de bataille.

The end

During the uprising of the Parliament against Jules Mazarin , he commanded a part of the French army as the newly appointed Duc de Coligny, and in this position was commissioned by Condé to recapture Charenton . He was badly wounded in the attack on this place. He was brought to Vincennes Castle, where he died on February 9, 1649 at the age of 28. The king appointed him Marshal of France on his deathbed and ordered - an extraordinary privilege - his burial in the Basilica of Saint-Denis . The funeral took place on February 20th.

family

Gaspard de Coligny married Elisabeth Angélique de Montmorency in 1645 (the marriage contract dates from June 18, 1645) , the second daughter of François de Montmorency-Bouteville , Comte de Bouteville et de Luxe , who was executed in 1627 for a duel on the Place de Grève , and Élisabeth-Angélique de Vienne, and sister of the later Marshal of Luxembourg . It took place after an abduction and against his father's will, but in the presence of Condé. Elisabeth-Angélique had a son after Gaspard's death: Henry-Gaspard or Louis-Gaspard (* 10 or 11 July 1649, † 1657), Duke of Coligny, Baron de Beaupont, Beauvoir, Montjuif, Roissiat et Chevignat, Seigneur de Châtillon etc., Pair de France.

See also Coligny house

Coligny in literature

Alexandre Dumas the Elder lets Gaspard de Coligny, who appears here as Châtillon, die in Vingt ans après at the battle of Charenton at the hands of the musketeer Aramis.