Gabriel de Lorges, Count of Montgomery

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Gabriel de Lorges
Count of
Place de Grève, Paris
, France
Spouse(s)
Isabeau de La Touche
​
​
(m. 1550)​

Gabriel de Lorges, Count of Montgomery, Lord of Lorges and Ducey (5 May 1530 – 26 June 1574), was a French nobleman of Scottish extraction and captain of the

Huguenots.[1]
In French-language contexts, his name is spelled Montgommery.

Career

On 30 June 1559, during a jousting match to celebrate the

Habsburg enemies, and two major marriages, namely that of Marguerite, the king's sister, with the Duke of Savoy Emmanuel-Philibert, and that of Elisabeth, the king's eldest daughter, with Philip II, king of Spain, a splinter of wood from Montgomery's shattered lance pierced Henry's eye and entered his brain, fatally injuring him. From his deathbed Henry absolved Montgomery of any blame, before dying on 10 July 1559. However, finding himself disgraced, Montgomery retreated to his estates in Normandy.[1] There he studied theology and converted to Protestantism,[1]
making him an enemy of the state.

The fatal tournament between Henry II and Montgomery (Lord of Lorges)
wall of Philippe Auguste in Paris, where Montgomery was briefly imprisoned after accidentally killing Henry II in a jousting
accident. Rue des Jardins-Saint-Paul, Paris


During the First War (1562-63) he fought for the Huguenots, capturing Bourges and leading several campaigns in his native Normandy. He led the defense of Rouen, and escaped the city just as it fell to the enemy.

He remained in France after the Peace of Amboise brought an end to the fighting. He took up arms again in 1567 when the wars of religion were renewed, and served under Condé in the major campaigns of 1567, 1568, and 1569.

Shortly after Condé's death at Jarnac in March 1569, Montgomery was tasked with restoring Jeanne d'Albret, the Huguenot queen of Navarre, to her territories in Béarn, which had been conquered by Catholic forces. He led a rapid campaign, which resulted in the destruction of a Catholic army at Orthez in August 1569.

Montgomery then, in early January, linked up with the survivors of the disastrous battle of Moncontour. The combined army, led by Coligny and the young princes of Condé and Navarre, fought the Catholics to a standstill at Arnay-le-Duc and imposed a favorable peace on the Crown.

He was one of the few leaders to survive the

Queen Elizabeth I for his extradition
, but Elizabeth refused.

German print of the Siege of La Rochelle (1572–1573), with the city in the background, and the fleet of Montgomery in the upper left corner

Montgomery returned to France with a fleet in an attempt to relieve the

children deprived of their titles
.

A freely adapted version of Montgomery's life is told in

Alexandre Dumas' novel The Two Dianas (1846–47), and he appears as a central character in Johann August Apel's story "Klara Mongomery" in the Gespensterbuch
(1811).

Marriage and issue

He married (1550) Isabeau de La Touche (died 1593), by whom he had four sons and four daughters:

Sons

Daughters

  • Suzanne de Montgomery
  • Elisabeth de Montgomery
  • Claude de Montgomery
  • Roberte de Montgomery, wife of Gawen Champernowne (died 1591) of Dartington in Devon, by whom she had issue. In 1582 she divorced him for adultery and in 1595 married Thomas Horner of Cloford.[3]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Montgomery, Gabriel, Seigneur de Lorges, Comte de" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 783.
  2. New International Encyclopedia
    (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
  3. ^ Vivian, Lt.Col. J. L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p. 163, pedigree of Champernowne

References

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