Jean de Laval-Châteaubriant

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Jean de Laval, portrait by Jean Clouet , around 1530, Musée Condé

Jean de Laval-Châteaubriant ( January 1486 ; † February 11, 1543 (after St.)) was a Breton nobleman from the House of Montfort-Laval ; he was lord of Gavere , from 1521 Seigneur de Dinan and from 1531 Lieutenant-général and Governor of Brittany . In addition, he is best known as the husband of the royal mistress Françoise de Foix .

Life

Jean de Laval is a son of François de Laval, Seigneur de Montafilant, and Françoise de Rieux, Dame de Malestroit . His paternal grandparents were Guy XIV. De Laval and Françoise de Dinan . He was the nephew of Guy XV. de Laval and the cousin of Guy XVI. de Laval . On September 4, 1505, he married in Morlaix by marriage contract Françoise de Foix , the minor daughter of Jean de Foix Vicomte de Lautrec ( Grailly house ) and Jeanne d'Aydie-Comminges, the daughter of Odet d'Aydies ; Jeanne was the sister of Odet de Foix , the friend of King Francis I. On March 19, 1508, their only daughter, Anne, was baptized in the church of Saint-Jean-de-Béré in Châteaubriant , who died on April 12, 1521 and was in Châteaubriant was buried; the daughter is considered to be legitimate, although her “father unknown” ( pater ignotus ) is entered. In 1515 he sold Gavere to Jacques II. De Luxembourg, Seigneur de Fiennes in 1516 Jean de Laval was called to the royal court of the king. Around 1518 Françoise de Foix became the mistress ("favorite") of King Francis I, the connection lasted until around 1528; after his return from the battle of Pavia (1525) and the ensuing captivity (1526), ​​Francis I turned to Anne de Pisseleu , Françoise de Foix retired to her husband's fief in Brittany. She died on October 16, 1537 in Châteaubriant and was buried here.

1531 was Guy XVI. de Laval died, his son and heir Claude ( Guy XVII. de Laval ) was only nine years old and an orphan, as his mother had been dead since 1525. Jean de Laval as Guy's cousin and Anne de Montmorency as Guy's brother-in-law became his guardians - and they both agreed to marry their ward to Claude de Foix, daughter of Marshal Odet de Foix, who died in 1528 and who was also under Jean's tutelage (he was hers uncle by marriage) and one of the richest heiresses in France. The marriage contract was signed on October 22, 1535.

Jean de Laval succeeded his cousin as lieutenant-général and governor of Brittany . In that office he had difficulty proving the use of the considerable sums allocated to carrying out major public works in his province. According to the memoirs of the Maréchal de Vieivillle , Anne de Montmorency discovered the irregularities during an inspection trip to Brittany and immediately caused a sensation. Jean de Laval responded the very next day: he gave Montmorency a document declaring him his heir - whereupon Montmorency reported to the king that he had wasted his time in Brittany, that there was no better administered province and that the governor could be given discharge for all the money he had received.

Jean de Laval died on February 11, 1543. Châteaubriant inherited the Connétable Anne de Montmorency , bypassing the actual heir, his cousin Guy XVII. de Laval.

memoirs

In 1868, Mémoires de messire Jean de Laval, comte de Châteaubriant, écrits par lui-même, en 1538, et publiés pour la première fois, avec un avant-propos , were published in Geneva , which, however, differ from what is stated in the title - is a work by the writer Paul Lacroix (1806–1884).

literature

  • Père Anselme , Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France , 3rd edition, Volume 7, 1733, p. 77
  • Mémoires de la vie de François de Scépeaux, sire de Vieilleville et Comte de Duretal, Maréchal de France; Contenants plusieurs Anecdotes des Regnes de François I, Henri II, François II, et Charles IX, composés par Vincent Carloix, son secrétaire . Paris: HL Guerin, LF Delatour, 1757. 5 volumes (These memoirs are viewed as untrustworthy; their attribution to Carlois is doubted, the editing dates from the 18th century).
  • Detlev Schwennicke , European Family Tables , Volume 14, 1991, Plate 145
  • Malcolm Walsby, The Counts of Laval: Culture, Patronage and Religion Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century France , Routledge, 2017, chapter Career of Guy XVII

Remarks

  1. ↑ Gavere / Gavre is located south of Gent and therefore did not belong to France; Emperor Charles V raised Gavere to a principality in 1540 in favor of Jacques de Luxembourg's daughter Françoise. (European Family Tables, Volume I.2, 1999, Plate 233)
  2. ↑ Châteaubriant , in: Larousse Encyclopédie, Volume 2, 1960, p. 918
  3. ↑ Here she was - according to the information provided by Antoine Varillas (1624–1666) - abused by her husband, who was ultimately also responsible for her death, cf. Châteaubriant , in: Larousse Encyclopédie, Volume 2, 1960, p. 918. The Musée d'Orsay is made clearer in the catalog for the exhibition “Salons” (2018): “After she left the court of Francis I ... became Françoise de Foix forced to return to Châteaubriant. There, on the orders of her husband, as soon as she arrived, she was locked in a room in which she could only see her daughter at a certain time of the day and for a certain time; but after the death surprised this sweet child, who seemed to beg for mercy for his mother, the count had no more leniency for Françoise de Foix and, it is said, let her perish shortly afterwards. ”( Après avoir quitté la cour de François Ier, où elle avait été attirée contre le gré de son époux, Françoise de Foix fut contrainte de retourner à Châteaubriant. Là, par les ordres de son mari, elle fut, aussitôt son arrivée, enfermée dans une pièce où elle n'avait la liberté de recevoir que sa fille, à une certaine heure du jour, et pendant un certain tems [sic]; mais la mort ayant surpris cet enfant chéri, qui semblait demander grâce pour sa mère, le comte ne garda plus aucun ménagement envers Françoise de Foix, et la fit périr elle-même, dit-on, peu de temps après. ) ( online ). Note: The only known daughter Anne had been dead for seven years when Françoise returned.
  4. ↑ Walsby
  5. ↑ Mémoires de la vie de François de Scépeaux, Sire de Vieilleville et Comte de Durtal, Maréchal de France , Volume 1, Chapters 31 and 32, pp. 88ff
personal data
SURNAME Laval-Châteaubriant, Jean de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French nobleman, governor of Brittany
DATE OF BIRTH January 1486
DATE OF DEATH February 11, 1543