Sébastien de Luxembourg-Martigues

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Sébastien de Luxembourg, Vicomte de Martigues, Marc Duval, 16th century, oil on oak, Fondation Bemberg, Toulouse

Sébastien de Luxembourg-Martigues (* around 1530, † November 19, 1569 during the siege of Saint-Jean-d'Angély ) was a French nobleman and military man from the time of the Huguenot Wars . He was nicknamed Chevalier sans peur (knight without fear).

family

Sébastien de Luxembourg was the son of François II. De Luxembourg and Charlotte de Brosse, the daughter of René de Brosse and sister of Jean IV. De Brosse, Comte de Penthièvre and Duc d'Étampes . Even Vicomte-Prince de Martigues and Comte de Penthièvre since 1559, he was on September 15, 1569 by King Charles IX. appointed Duc de Penthièvre.

He married in January 1561 in Meaux Marie de Beaucaire (1535–1613), from whom he had two daughters:

Career

Italian War 1552–1556

His first important military action was to take part in the siege of Metz (1552) . The French, besieged by Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba, resisted for four months before the Spanish withdrew in January 1553. In the following months he took part in the sieges of Thérouanne and then Hesdin by Emperor Charles V , where he managed to avoid capture after taking these cities.

In 1558 he helped the Duke of Guise to take Calais and then Guînes .

Help for Marie de Guise

In the years 1559-1560 he took part in the French expedition to Scotland to support Marie de Guise , regent for her daughter Maria Stuart . The expedition numbered about 1,800 men. The Viscount de Martigues was in command of a thousand of them. The French, heavily outnumbered, were forced to surrender at Leith .

Huguenot Wars

In 1562, after the siege of Rouen , Sébastien de Luxembourg replaced the Comte de Randon as Colonel General of the infantry and distinguished himself in the Battle of Dreux , where he led a decisive attack against the Admiral of Coligny .

In 1565 he was appointed governor of Brittany . He joined forces with the Catholic extremists as soon as he took office on June 2, but this was disapproved by Caterina de 'Medici . On June 26, at the request of Nantes, he issued several orders against the Calvinists , forbidding them to run a public school, to display symbols of their religion, and to carry out baptisms or burials. The Protestants opposed these orders, which is why the situation was clearly tense from October 1567. The situation calmed down somewhat after the governor's departure in January 1568, but the resumption of the war and the threat of a siege of Nantes made it worse again. Martigues ordered to prepare for the disarming of the Protestants and to forbid them from entering the city (with the exception of the nobles). However, the exhausted city could barely meet all of the requirements demanded by the governor to avoid a siege, despite the fact that the governor threatened its leaders.

Soon the Protestants tried to flee the city to join La Rochelle , where the Prince of Condé and Coligny gathered troops. Under the leadership of Dandelots (Coligny's brother), 3,000 men began to gather at Beaufort-en-Vallée . Martigues, who had only 800 men, was ordered to regroup and cross the Loire . to prevent. The two armies surprisingly met at La Daguenière and Saint-Mathurin , where the Protestants were defeated. The Catholics then joined the Duke of Montpensier , who allowed the Protestants to cross the Loire.

The Duke of Anjou came as reinforcement and Sébastien de Luxembourg-Martigues took command of the vanguard . Defeated in Pamproux , the Catholics were forced to retreat, where Martigues managed to prevent the destruction of the Catholic army. The King of France then raised the county of Penthièvre to a duchy for him on September 15, 1569. After this defeat, Martigues took part in the Catholic victory of Moncontour , where he twice defeated the Protestant vanguard on October 3, 1569. He died days later on November 19 at Saint-Jean-d'Angély , where he was shot in the head from an arquebus . His body was buried in the Franciscan Church in Guingamp .

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Susan Doran, Mary Queen of Scots , British Library, 2007, ISBN 9780712349161 , Chapter II: Queen-Dauphine and Queen of France 1558-1560 , pp. 40-59
personal data
SURNAME Luxembourg-Martigues, Sébastien de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Viscount de Martigues, Duc de Penthièvre
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French nobleman, governor of Brittany
DATE OF BIRTH around 1530
DATE OF DEATH November 19, 1569
Place of death Saint-Jean-d'Angély