Étienne de Vesc

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Étienne de Vesc (ca 1445 – 6 October 1501),

First Italian War
(1494–95).

Biography

Étienne de Vesc's forebears originated in

romances of chivalry; his services to the King included some embassies, as far away as Spain. In 1475 he took a wife, from a rich family of bourgeois background, whose late father had been an avocat au parlement de Paris and whose mother had remarried into a family of goldsmiths
.

His devoted attendance during a long illness of the young prince and other services were well rewarded by Louis,[3] and he took part in the dauphin's wedding, July 1483. After his attendance at the king's deathbed later that year, Vesc was a member of the council of regency. Among his duties was an embassy to Avignon to diplomatically check the ambitions of the Cardinal Legate Giulio Della Rovere, nephew of the late Pope Sixtus IV.

In the entourage of Charles, Vesc had doubtless made the acquaintance of Jean II de Châlons, prince of Orange, seigneur de Caromb,

enclave within France until 1792. Pope Innocent VIII confirmed his rights as seigneur in what was papal territory in 1489, and Vesc constructed a grand château, completed in 1486. In addition to the outright purchase, Jean de Châlons granted him fiefs as well, securing part of Vesc's allegiance as his vassal. Vesc scarcely had time to reside in his château; he was appointed sénéchal of Carcassonne
, then of Beaucaire and Nîmes, largest in extent in France, positions of great importance.

In the Italian campaign

Main article:
First Italian War

The extinction of the House of Anjou in the person of René, count of an independent Provence and King of Naples (1480), rendered Charles VIII the heir to Angevin titles to the Kingdom of Naples. According to Commines' chronicle, Étienne de Vesc was among the most ardent proponents of a chivalrous adventure to recapture the rights of the King of France to Naples, and to gain some duchies in the south, pressed by his own ambition, thirsty for grandeur and titles.[5] Commines reflected on Vesc's naivety in matters of war. The preliminary arrangements for the entry into Italy were in Vesc's hands.

caravels, he was welcomed by the Neapolitans: Vesc on 6 July had scarcely time to shut himself up in the Castello Nuovo: Charles, at the battle of Fornovo the same day, was forced to abandon his rich baggage train laden with booty from Naples and return to France. Expected reinforcements never arrived in Naples. Vesc, with the viceroy M. de Montpensier and the rest of the French who remained, embarked in a small flotilla laden with booty and artillery for Salerno
on 25 October, leaving Naples to the Neapolitans and Ferdinand.

In March 1496 he was sent back to France to organize rescue efforts, loading the contents of a warehouse of butin sacré et profane.[6] In May he was once again with the young king, who was already planning a return engagement. Vesc was reimbursed for his expenses defending Gaeta and placed in charge of sending required materials to the garrisons, who were being forced out of one fortress after another in the Kingdom of Naples. Gaeta, the last French toehold in the Regno, capitulated, 19 November 1497, and the last of the expedition was over, an expense of two and a half million francs.

Vesc continued to be enthusiastic about a return to Italy, but the royal council was against it. In February 1498 a treaty reassigned Naples to the Aragonese.

In April Charles VIII died. Étienne de Vesc was retained in his posts of concierge du Palais and Sénéchal of Beaucaire by

expedition to Naples
.

His magnificent late Gothic tomb is to be found in the church of Caromb, Drôme.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Baron de Grimaud, seigneur de Caderousse, de Caromb, de Saint-Hippolyte, de Suzette, de Châteauneuf-Redotier, and de Savigny-sur-Orge by right of his wife, with lands at Forcalqueiret, Châteaurenard, and Boulbon-Châteauneuf; he was fifty-six at the time of his death.
  2. ^ "Trustworthy and sure".
  3. bailli
    of Meaux, a quasi-military position as a local representative of the King.
  4. département in southern France
    .
  5. ^ "poussé par l'ambition, une soif de titre, de grandeur et de biens, qu'il s'est occupé d'abord de la Provence (lors de l'annexion) car il possédait quelques seigneuries dans la région, et que Naples l'intéressait pour obtenir quelques duchés" Quoted by Gallian (reference).
  6. ^ "booty both sacred and profane" suggests rich vessels and reliquaries from churches and perhaps some "profane" antiquities from the rich and sophisticated Neapolitan royal villas.

External links

  • Jean Gallian, Histoire de Caromb: Caromb sous les Vesc Source for information in this article.
  • Much information about de Vesc (under the name of "Stephen de Vers") in: Andrew R. Scoble, ed. (1856), The memoirs of Philip de Commines, volume 2, London: Henry G. Bohn, pp. 283–284
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