Roger I. de Saint-Lary

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Roger I. de Saint-Lary, Seigneur de Bellegarde (* around 1525, † December 20, 1579 Saluzzo ) was one of the favorites of the French King Henry III. at his accession to the throne in 1574.

biography

Roger I de Saint-Lary is the son of Perroton (or Pierre) de Saint-Lary in Comminges , Baron de Bellegarde in the county of Astarac , and Marguerite d'Orbessan, whom he married in 1522; Marguerite d'Orbessan is the daughter of Pierre d'Orbessan and Jeanne de Termes. He is the uncle of Roger II de Saint-Lary , who was a favorite of Kings Henry III. and Henry IV was; she is the niece of Paul de La Barthe de Thermes , Seigneur de Thermes (ou Termes), Marshal of France .

Ascent

Roger I de Saint-Lary was initially earmarked for an ecclesiastical career and received the tonsure before becoming Prévôt of Oulx . When he was studying in Avignon , he had to leave the city after a duel with a fatal outcome. This led him to give up the clergy, around 1553 to take up a military career under the command of his great-uncle Paul de la Barthe de Termes in Corsica . In 1556 he was a guidon of his company. In 1557 he fought in Piedmont under the command of Charles I. de Cossé, comte de Brissac and took part in the sieges of Valfenera , Cherasco and Fossano . He allied himself with Albert de Gondi , for which the Marshal de Termes reproached him. On his return to France he took part in the Battle of Gravelines (July 13, 1558) and the Siege of Calais . He was then promoted to lieutenant in his great-uncle's company. After the death of Marshal of Thermes in 1562 he received the lieutenance in his company under Albert de Gondi and took part in the siege of Rouen (1562) . Albert de Gondi introduced him to the court and made him Commander of the Order of Calatrava in France.

He entered the service of Queen Mother Caterina de 'Medici and accompanied the court to Provence during the great tour that began in March 1564, and during which he had to ensure the protection of Chancellor Michel de L'Hospital . In 1565 he traveled to Malta , which was besieged by the Ottomans ( Siege of Malta (1565) ). From 1567 he was in Italy. Under Charles IX. he was a colonel, in February 1569 he was appointed Maréchal de camp . He served in Piedmont until the Peace of Saint-Germain (1570) .

His marriage

Roger de Saint Lary was appointed heir by his great-uncle, whom he had accompanied on his campaigns in Piedmont since his reign. On August 20, 1565 he married with dispensation (thanks to his patron Emanuel Philibert of Savoy ) his great-aunt Margherita di Saluzzo Cardè, heiress of the Margraviate of Saluzzo , widow of Marshal de Thermes, of whom he had a daughter (married into the de Las family) and had a son, César de Saint-Lary (killed in the Battle of Coutras in 1587 at the age of 25). Brantôme suggests that Margherita was pregnant with her son when she remarried in 1562. The dispensation will not arrive until three years later.

Oddly enough, Roger de Saint Lary had loved his great-uncle's wife while he was alive, but once he married her he treated her very badly, much to the delight of the court. De Thou relates in his memoirs: “The passion that his new wife had kindled in his heart subsided as soon as he saw himself in her possession; he despised her as soon as she became his wife and entered into a new deal that no longer did him honor ... ". Brantôme also reports on the mistreatment of Margherita by Bellegarde: "He did not treat his wife too well, to use the adage: the love and marriages made by Techtelmechtel end in hazelnuts."

The favor of Henry III.

He became the friend of the Duke of Anjou and accompanied him to the siege of La Rochelle (1573) , where he distinguished himself but was also wounded. When the Duke of Anjou was elected King of Poland , he accompanied him there too.

He became the king's darling much to the discontent of the other courtiers. On September 6, 1574, he was appointed Marshal of France à titre surnuméraire (i.e., redundant , since there were already two Marshals), which astonished his contemporaries. He was also a member of the Conseil privé du Roi and Gentilhomme ordinaire de la Chambre du Roi

As a confidante of the Duke of Savoy, he was able to convince the king to return the Piedmontese fortresses that France was occupying, which ran counter to the previous policy of the Queen Mother Caterina de 'Medici. Rejected on all sides, he lost the king's favor at the end of the year. He was removed from the court and placed in the Dauphiné , where he takes part in the reconquest of Protestant-dominated places, but fails before Livron .

Eviction and betrayal

The Queen Mother, who distrusted his influence on the king, had him appointed French ambassador to the Kingdom of Poland in 1575 . But Saint-Lary refused to take office and fled to Emanuel Philibert of Savoy on the pretext of ill health.

After his return to France he received the army command in the Languedoc in 1577 together with Henri I. de Montmorency , the Maréchal de Damville. Here too they fought the Protestants and besieged Nîmes . However, the two men quickly clashed, whereupon Saint-Lary approached Lesdiguières and the Protestants in the Dauphiné. It is alleged that Bellegarde was the one who gave the order to have Jean de Fons, keeper of the seals in the Présidial de Nîmes , murdered with pistols in his house in Beaucaire (January 13, 1578) because he was in Louise Dandron (or d 'Andron) who Jean de Fons was married to. Also in 1578 he was made Knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit .

The king had promised him the governorate of Saluzzo before Saint-Lary withdrew in favor of Charles de Birague, cousin of the chancellor of the same name . After the death of Marshal François de Montmorency in 1579, Bellegarde realized that he would not finally receive the title of French Marshal (which was bestowed on Jacques II de Goÿon de Matignon that year ) - he saw himself from the king for his loyalty badly rewarded and decided to take Saluzzo with the help of the Duke of Savoy and Lesdiguières. He recruited an army in the Dauphiné and succeeded in the operation in June 1579 . The Queen Mother then traveled to the Dauphiné in order to obtain the withdrawal from Saluzzo from Bellegarde by using the mediation of Lesdiguières, then the Duke of Savoy. They met in Montluel on October 17th . Caterina de 'Medici received from Bellegarde a declaration of allegiance to the king against Saluzzo's government. In order to pacify the Dauphiné, the king had to accept this.

Roger de Saint-Lary died in December 1579 , poisoned, it is believed, by Caterine de 'Medici. Admission to the Order of the Holy Spirit had not yet taken place at this point.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ "Saint-Lary" is Saint-Lary-Boujean near Samatan , Monblanc , Montgras , Montastruc , Frontignan , Gensac-Savès and Boulogne , where Saint-Lary was enfeoffed; out of the question are Saint-Lary (Couserans) , Saint-Lary (Astarac) and Saint-Lary-Soulan (Vallée d'Aure); Bellegarde in Astarac is Bellegarde-Adoulins , a fiefdom that came from his great-grandfather Roger de Lagorsan
  2. ↑ "Il ne traitait pas trop bien sa femme, pour pratiquer le proverbe, amour et mariages qui se font par amourettes, finissent par noisettes."
personal data
SURNAME Saint-Lary, Roger I. de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Saint-Lary, Roger I. de, Seigneur de Bellegarde
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French nobleman, Marshal of France
DATE OF BIRTH around 1525
DATE OF DEATH December 20, 1579
Place of death Saluzzo