Jean de Monluc
His Grace Jean de Montluc | |
---|---|
Ambassador to Poland | |
In office 1573–1574 | |
Monarch | Henry III of France |
Succeeded by | Jean Choisnin |
Envoy to Scotland | |
In office March 1560 – June 1560 | |
Monarch | Francis II of France |
French Embassy in Rome | |
In office 1524–1540 | |
Personal details | |
Born | c. 1508 Bishop |
Metropolis | Lyon |
See | Valence et Die |
Appointed | 1553 |
Installed | 1554 |
Term ended | 1574 |
Predecessor | Jacques de Tornon |
Successor | Charles de Gélas de Léberon |
Jean de Monluc, c. 1508 to 12 April 1579, was a French nobleman, clergyman, diplomat and courtier. He was the second son of François de Lasseran de Massencome, a member of the
Early career
Jean began his religious career as a young Dominican novice, in either their Convent in Condom or the one in Agen. From the beginning he showed outstanding talent as a public speaker. He was introduced to Queen Marguerite de Navarre, the sister of King Francis I of France, who often stayed in her chateau at Nérac, just north of Condom, and quickly became part of her entourage, abandoning his life as a Dominican friar.[2]
French diplomat
In 1524 Jean de Monluc served as an attaché to the French Embassy in Rome. In 1536, now a
In ca. 1542 Monluc was sent on a mission to Venice. His assignment was to explain to the Venetians why it had been a good idea for Francis I to ally himself with the Ottoman Turks. It was a thankless task, and a hopeless mission, but one which used Monluc's great gifts of oratory in the service of the King.[7]
Monluc distinguished himself in several embassies. In 1545, Jean de Monluc went on an embassy for Francis I of France to the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople, where he joined ambassador Gabriel de Luetz d'Aramon.[8]
In 1549 Jean went to Ireland to investigate reports that Con O'Neill, O'Doherty, Manus O'Donnell and his son Calvagh might join with France against English rule. France would offer military support and obtain Papal funding. He then went to Scotland and met Mary of Guise at Stirling Castle in January 1550. His colleague Raymond de Beccarie de Pavie, sieur de Fourqueveaux was not impressed by the Irish chiefs.[9]
Bishop
Jean was appointed
In August 1562 Monluc planned to stop in Valence during one of his trips, but the city was governed by Huguenots, and its captain pursued Monluc, intending to arrest and imprison him. Monluc got away, it seemed, to Annonay, but it too was in the hands of the Huguenots, who chased after and captured him; but he was able to escape again.
Mission to Scotland in 1560
In April 1560,
Jean gave Norfolk a letter from Elizabeth with instructions to give him safe conduct to Mary of Guise. Norfolk wrote that this would be difficult, because Arran was in the field, the Dowager was in Edinburgh Castle and the French were in Leith. On the same day Norfolk got news of the battle at Restalrig that commenced the siege of Leith. By 12 April, still in Berwick, Jean told Killigrew that he thought Elizabeth would drive the French from Scotland, and this was the worst of his "imbassagis" and would be his undoing.[18] Eventually, Jean boasted to Killigrew that no man could end the difference by treaty better than he could, and privately told him that he was prepared to make concessions including a French withdrawal from Scotland, excepting the garrisons of Inchkeith and Dunbar Castle.[19] Killigrew went into Scotland alone, and spoke to Mary of Guise and the Scottish Lords, securing a hearing for Jean, so "that the world shall not say but that he was heard."
The Lords of the Congregation allowed Jean to enter Scotland on 20 April. Norfolk gave him an eight-day pass to
He was in Newcastle on 10 June and with another French diplomat, de Randan, had a conference with Cecil, and
Inquisition
At the assembly of Fontainebleau in 1560,[23] Monluc was one of the leaders speaking in favor of Condé's demand for full liberty for Protestants.[24] He also participated in the Colloquy of Poissy in September 1561.[25]
On 13 April 1563, Jean de Monluc and seven other French bishops were summoned to Rome by decree of
Monluc's most prominent defender and protector, however, was the Queen Mother,
The bishop was declared a heretic and deprived of his benefices, including the Bishopric of Valence-and-Die, on 11 October 1566 by
Diplomat again
In 1572–1573, Jean de Monluc was the French envoy in Poland
Negotiations were slow. There were several candidates, and the Polish nobility expected to be wooed and bribed from every direction. There were Protestant and Catholic interests at work. A quick election would cut short their game. They all affected to be shocked and scandalized by the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. Monluc gave two notable speeches (harangues), one before a plenary session of the Polish nobility on 10 April 1573, and the other before the Estates of Poland on 25 April, which contributed materially to the success of his diplomacy. Henry of Valois was elected King of Poland on 16 May 1573.[37]
The Bishop of Valence later wrote his own narrative of his heroic efforts, Election du Roy Henry III, roy de Pologne, décrite par Jean de Monluc, Évêque de Valence (Paris 1574). The story was also told in the memoires of Monluc's secretary, Jean Choisnin (Paris 1789).[38]
In 1576–1577, Jean de Monluc took part in the Estates of Blois. He spoke in December on the proposal to revoke the edict of pacification and resume the war against the Huguenots.[39]
Death
In 1578, beginning on 12 April, a meeting of the Estates of Languedoc took place at Béziers, under the presidency of Abbot Pierre Dufaur the Vicar-General of Cardinal d'Armagnac, Archbishop of Toulouse. Bishop de Monluc participated and gave a speech.[40]
Jean de Monluc died on 13 April 1579 in Toulouse, where he had come to make a report to the Queen Mother. He had been reconciled to the Roman Catholic Church by a Jesuit.[41]
Bishop Jean de Monluc left a natural son, Jean de Montluc de Balagny (d. 1603),[42] seigneur de Balagny, who was at first a zealous member of the League, but later made his submission to Henry IV, and received from him the principality of Cambrai[43] and, in 1594, the baton of a marshal of France.
See also
References
- ^ Tamizey, Notes et documents, p. 6.
- ^ Tamizey, Notes et documents, pp. 6-7.
- ^ Reynaud, p. 18.
- ^ The various authors copy one another in the error that Monluc appeared before Pope Paul IV, who did not become pope until 1555.
- ^ Charrière, pp. 327-329.
- ^ Tamizey, Notes et documents, pp. 10-12.
- ^ Reynaud, p. 24. The authorities are all vague on the chronology. Cf. Sir Henry Wotton's 1604 remark that an 'ambassador is a good man sent to lie abroad for the sake of his country'.
- ^ Garnier, p.251. Dyer, p. 605.
- ^ Lyons, Mary Ann, Franco-Irish Relations 1500–1610, Boydell and Brewer, (2003), 88–90, citing Melville's Memoirs.
- ^ Conradus Eubel, Hierarchia catholica Tomus III editio altera (Monasterii 1923), p. 326.
- ^ Gallia christiana XVI, p. 333.
- ISBN 90-04-07598-4.
- ^ Chadwick 2003, p. 227.
- ^ Nugent 1974, p. 18.
- ^ Plèche, J. (1928). "L' Évêque Jean de Montluc et la réforme à Valence (1560)". Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire du protestantisme français. 77: 21–35.
- ^ Gallia christiana XVI, p. 333.
- ^ Alexandre Labanoff, Lettres de Marie Stuart, 1 (London: Dolman, 1844), p. 72
- ^ Bain 1898, pp. 350–352.
- ^ Bain 1898, p. 360.
- ^ Bain 1898, p. 378.
- ^ Bain 1898, pp. 382–383.
- ^ Bain 1898, pp. 328–463, 801.
- ^ Edward Smedley (1834). History of the Reformed Religion in France. Vol. I. New York: Harper & brothers. pp. 121–127.
- ^ Degert (1904a), p. 416.
- ^ Antoine Duranthon, ed. (1767). Collection des procès-verbaux des Assemblées-générales de clergé de France, depuis l'année 1560, jusqu'à present... (in French). Vol. Tome I. Paris: G. Desprez. p. 18.
- ^ Degert (1904b), p. 411.
- ^ Théodore de Bèze; Th Marzial (1841). Histoire ecclésiastique des Églises réformées au royaume de France (in French). Vol. Tome I. Lille: Leleux. pp. 215–216. Degert (1904a), p. 416.
- ^ P. Feret (1900). La Faculté de Théologie de Paris. Époque Moderne. Tome premier. Paris: A. Picard. pp. 215–216.
- ISBN 978-0-674-23725-4.
- ^ Degert (1904b), pp. 429-430.
- ^ Eubel, III, p. 326, note 11.
- ^ Tamizey, Notes et documents, pp. 24, 56-59 (2 July 1567).
- ISBN 978-1-317-12214-2.
- ^ Scott M. Manetsch (2000), Theodore Beza and the quest for peace in France, 1572–1598 Leiden: Brill, p. 80.
- ^ Tamizey, Notes et documents, p. 33.
- ISBN 978-1-64413-461-0.
- ^ Poujoulat, pp. 443–465.
- ^ Poujoulat, pp. 377–442.
- ^ Duranthon, collection, p. 77.
- ^ Reynaud, p. 66.
- ^ Foisset, ainé, "Montluc, Jean de", in: Michaud (ed.), Biographie Universelle Tome 29 (Paris 1829), p. 596. Reynaud, p. 68. Montluc, Blaise de Lasseran de Massencome (1863). Tamisey de Larroque, Philippe (ed.). Quelques pages inédites de Blaise de Monluc (in French). Paris: Durand. pp. 20–22.
- ^ He was legitimized in 1567.
- ^ Maximilien de Béthune duc de Sully (1817). The Memoirs of the Duke of Sully: Prime-minister to Henry the Great. Vol. I. Philadelphia: Edward Earle. J. Maxwell. pp. 441–442.
Books and articles
- Bain, Joseph, ed. (1898). Calendar of the State Papers relating to Scotland and Mary Queen of Scots 1547–1603. Vol. 1. H.M. General Register House Edinburgh. p. 328–463, 801. (Page 801 is the index page. Montluc is indexed under Valence, Bishop of which is how he is referred to within the Calendar).
- Chadwick, Owen (2003). The Early Reformation on the Continent. Oxford University Press. p. 227. ISBN 978-0-19-926578-7.
- Charrière, Ernest, ed. (1848). Négociations de la France dans le Levant ou Correspondances, mémoires et actes diplomatiques des ambassadeurs de France à Constantinople et des ambassadeurs, envoyés ou résidents à divers titres à Venise, Raguse, Rome, Malte et Jérusalem ... (in French). Vol. Tome I. Paris: Impr. nationale. pp. 323–331. [The Levant assignment, 1537]
- Choisnin, Jean (1789). Mémoires de Jean Choisnin, secrétaire de Montluc, eveque de Valence (in French). Paris. [apologetic]
- Degert, Antoine (1904a). "Procès de huit évêques français suspects de Calvinisme". Revue des questions historiques. New series (in French). 32 (86): 61–108.
- Degert, Antoine (1904b). "Évêques gascons devant l' Inquistion Romaine". Revue de Gascogne. New series (in French). 4 (45): 410–437, especially 415-419.
- Dyer, Thomas Henry (1861). The history of modern Europe from the fall of Constantinople. Vol. 1. J. Murray. p. 605. [obsolete]
- Garnier, Edith (2008). L'Alliance Impie. Editions du Felin. ISBN 978-2-86645-678-8.
- Hauréau, Barthélemy, ed. (1865). Gallia Christiana: In Provincias Ecclesiasticas Distributa, De provincia Viennensi (in Latin). Vol. Tomus XVI. Paris: Typographia Regia. pp. 332–335.
- Heller, Henry (1986). The Conquest of Poverty: The Calvinist Revolt in Sixteenth Century France. Brill. ISBN 90-04-07598-4.
- Nugent, Donald (1974). Ecumenism in the age of the Reformation: the Colloquy of Poissy. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-23725-4.
- Poujoulat, Jean-Joseph-François, ed. (1838). Nouvelle collection des mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de France depuis le XIIIe siècle jusqu'à la fin du XVIIIe... (in French). Vol. Tome onzième. Paris: L'editeur du Commentaire analytique du Code Civil. pp. 443–465. [Choisnin's memoirs; the two harangues before the Polish Diet in 1573]
- Reynaud, Hector (1893). Jean de Monluc, évêque de Valence et de Die: Essai d'histoire littéraire (in French). Paris: Thorin.
- Tamizey de Larroque, Philippe (1868). Notes et documents inédits pour servir a la biographie de Jean de Monluc: évêque de Valence (in French). Paris: Auguste Aubry.