Gaspard de Pontevès

Gaspard de Pontevès (* 1557 in Marseille , † 1610 in Avignon ) was a Provencal nobleman during the Huguenot Wars , who was particularly active from 1589 to 1595. He was Comte de Carcès, hereditary grand seneschal of Provence from 1582 to 1610 and governor of Provence from 1592 to 1594 , as well as one of the leaders of the Catholic League in Provence .

biography

family

Gaspard d Pontevès, Comte de Carcès, is the son of Jean de Pontevès (1512–1582) and Marguerite de Brancas-Céreste ( House of Brancas ). He married on February 27, 1588 in Dijon Éléonore de Prez de Montpezat († after 1658), daughter of Melchior des Prez and Henriette de Savoie-Villars, from whom he had two children:

• Jean de Pontevès (1590-1656), 3rd Comte de Carcès; ⚭ July 18, 1651 Marie d'Aloigny de Rochfort
• Gabrielle de Pontevès; ⚭ February 19, 1612 Guillaume de Simiane († 1642), Marquis de Gordes .

Henriette de Savoie-Villars, daughter of Honorat II. De Savoie, marquis de Villars , married Charles II. De Lorraine, duc de Mayenne (1554–1611), who is thereby the stepfather of Gaspard's wife; Henri I. de Lorraine, duc de Guise was his brother.

Gaspard de Pontevès had inherited the title of Count of Carcès and the office of Grand-Sénéchal de Provence when his father died in 1582 , both of which he bequeathed to his son Jean in 1610; his heir was François de Simiane, the son of his sister Gabrielle.

Marseille and the League (1589–1592)

Together with his cousin Hubert de Garde de Vins , Gaspard de Pontevès led the league in Provence. He benefited from the reputation of his father, who had already led the Catholics of Provence, and the traditionally dominant position of his family within the Provencal nobility. At the beginning of his activity his position was naturally still weak.

After the murder of the Duke of Guise , the national leader of the League, on December 23, 1588, the Council of the City of Marseille decided on March 11, 1589 to join the Catholic League; a procession, headed by Gaspard de Pontevès and the clergy, went to the Réal gate to erect a cross. With this symbolic act, the city no longer recognized the authority of King Henry III. In response, Heinrich III. Gaspard de Pontevès of lese majeste ( lèse majesté- ) guilty. In April 1589, the Parlement in Aix-en-Provence also joined the League and recognized the Duke of Mayenne , brother of the murdered Guise, as Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom. A small minority in Parliament withdrew to Pertuis . The Provencal League was under threat from the forces of La Valette , brother of the Duke of Épernon , who had given him his post in 1587. The league could not be sustained without outside support. That is why Hubert de Vins negotiated Charles Emanuel I , Duke of Savoy . The Provencal League with the Duke of Savoy, Charles-Emmanuel I of Savoy, Charles-Emmanuel. The Provencal League was then split into two camps:

• a French wing under Gaspard de Pontevès
• a Savoyard wing under Hubert de Vins and Chrétienne d'Aguerre, the Comtesse de Sault

When he was elected First Consul of Marseilles in October 1589, Gaspard de Pontevès had the councilors who were hostile to him removed so that one of his supporters was elected, Pierre Caradet de Bourgogne. In October 1590, Pontevès opposed Charles de Casaulx and had Cornelio Remuzan elected First Consul. After Casaulx took power and was appointed First Consul, Pontevès wanted to remove the city of Marseille from the authority of this new dictator. On August 5, 1592, he took up position in Gardanne with 1400 arquebuses and 400 horsemen and sent his lieutenant Saint-Roman to conquer the Porte d'Aix. Near that city gate, just as he was distributing gunpowder to his men, a soldier dropped a burning wick on one of the powder kegs. A series of explosions ensued, injuring several men and sounding the alarm in the city - this is called the journée des brûlés in Marseille . Gaspard de Pontevès had to withdraw.

Governor of Provence (1592–1595)

After the death of La Valette, who was fatally wounded during the siege of Roquebrune , the Duke of Mayenne signed a letter on July 27, 1592, with which Gaspard de Pontevès, Comte de Carcès, was appointed Governor of Provence. The Duke of Épernon, who still held the provincial government, invaded Provence at the head of Gascon mercenaries. On June 25, 1593 he attacked Aix-en-Provence, which was defended by the Comte de Carcès and defended itself victoriously. After the conversion of the new King Henry IV to Catholicism on April 25, 1593, the Parlement of Provence, the kingdom's first rebelling Parliament, recognized the Bourbons as king on January 5, 1594. Henry IV then withdrew the Duke of Épernon from Provence and confirmed with a letter of May 10, 1594 the Comte de Carcès in his office as governor, which he had received from the Duke of Mayenne. On October 22, 1595, this post was entrusted to Charles de Lorraine , Duke of Guise, son of the murdered Henri de Lorraine.

literature

• Raoul Busquet, Histoire de Marseille , Édition Robert Laffont, Paris, 1978.
• Wolfgang Kaiser, Marseille in the civil war. Social structure, religious conflict and factional struggles in Marseille, 1559-1596 , publications by the Max Planck Institute for History , 103, Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht , 1991; French: Marseille au temps des troubles. Morphologie sociale et luttes de factions 1559-1596 , Recherches d'histoire et de sciences sociales, 52, Paris, Éditions de l ' École des hautes études en sciences sociales , 1992 (French translation)
• Édouard Baratier (ed.), Histoire de Marseille , Toulouse, private, Collection Univers de la France et des pays francophones , 1990, 1st edition 1973, ISBN 2-7089-4754-0
• Arlette Playoust, Foi et violence, la Provence au temps de la Réforme , Archives départementales des Bouches-du-Rhône , 1998, ISBN 2-86013-036-5 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kaiser (French), p. 286
2. ↑ Kaiser (French), p. 288
3. ↑ Kaiser (French), p. 289
4. ^ Kaiser (French), p. 291
5. ↑ Kaiser (French), p. 246
6. ^ Kaiser (French), p. 200
7. ↑ Busquet, p. 257
8. ↑ Busquet, p. 258