The Montmorency

First Duke and a partner of Francis I in the war, who appointed him as Constable in 1538. He led the royal troops during the first war of religion, and he was killed at the battle in Saint-Denis. Two of his nephews converted to protestantism, namely Gaspard de Coligny, the French admiral killed during the saint Bartholomew, and his younger brother François d’Andelot.

The constable’s second son, earlier known as the Count of Damville, became the 3rd Duke of Montmorency upon his brother’s death. As Governor of the Languedoc region, he took the lead of the Dissatisfied in late 1574. In 1585, Henri III dismissed him from his post in Languedoc. Being against the second League, he rallied to Henri of Navarre who appointed him Constable in 1593.

The second son of the Constable, rather conciliatory towards the Protestants, became close to the Duke of Alençon, was imprisoned in the Bastille on Catherine de Medici’s order.