Louis de Gonzague, Duke of Nevers

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Louis de Gonzague
Duke of Nevers
Anonymous portrait of the duke
Born18 September 1539
Mantua
Died23 October 1595(1595-10-23) (aged 56)
Nesle
Noble familyHouse of Gonzaga
Spouse(s)Henriette de Clèves
Issue
  • Catherine, Duchess of Longueville
  • Marie Henriette, Duchess of Mayenne
  • Frederic Gonzague
  • François Gonzague
  • Charles I, Duke of Mantua
Father
Margaret Palaeologina

Louis de Gonzague, Duke of Nevers (

Henri III ceded the territory in 1574. In 1565 his patron, Catherine de' Medici secured for him a marriage with the key heiress Henriette de Clèves
, elevating him to duke of Nevers and count of Rethel. He fought for the crown through the early wars of religion, receiving a bad injury in the third war. At this time he formed a close bond with the young Anjou, future king Henri III, a bond that would last until the king's death.

He opposed any drive to war with Spain in 1572, and after the

ligue movement that spread in the wake of it among radical Catholics, and campaigning for the resumption of war which was soon achieved. He now acted in the sixth civil war as the de facto leader of Alençon's now loyal army, campaigning brutally along the Loire, sacking La Charité-sur-Loire and Issoire, the war concluding in the harsher Treaty of Bergerac
.

Nevers was again tempted to join the ligue during the second wave of the movement after the death of Alençon. Briefly serving as a commander for their forces in 1584, before he was pealed off from the movement in 1585 and returned to loyally supporting Henri. In 1588 he was chosen to replace

Henri IV
serving him in Champagne, and then in failed diplomatic negotiations with the Pope after his abjuration from Protestantism. After briefly serving on his financial council, he died in 1595.

Early life and family

Born in

Marriage

On 4 March 1565 Nevers was married to the heiress

Henri, Prince of Condé, who would be one of the leader Protestant rebels in the later wars of religion.[8]

Children

His first son held the title of

Charles II, Duke of Mantua and Montferrat, sold the titles of Nevers and Rethel to Cardinal Mazarin in 1659.[10][11]

Louis, Duke of Nevers, and his wife had five children:[12]

Reign of Henri II

In 1549, Nevers emigrated from Italy, setting himself up in the court of the recently crowned

The

Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis that brought the Italian Wars to a close featured a joust as part of the celebrations. Henri decided to compete as was his habit, however his joust against Gabriel de Lorges, Count of Montgomery went awry, and he received a large shard of wood into his eye. Nevers who was present reported on what had happened to his Italian compatriots.[13]

Reign of François II

As an important

Conspiracy of Amboise in which malcontents tried to overthrow their government and kidnap the king. This assembly concluded that an Estates General was necessary to meet France's financial problems, one would meet later that year and that a general religious council was needed to resolve the problem of Protestantism.[14]

Reign of Charles IX

By the mid-1560s, Nevers had received the position of lieutenant-general of the Piedmont, responsible for the military security of the remaining French possessions in Italy.[15] He would maintain his hold on this strategic post into the 1570s.[16]

In the peace that followed the first war of religion, there was not much opportunity for promotion within the companies under Nevers command, however that changed with the return of war, with 12 promotions within his units in October 1567 alone.[17]

Second war of religion

At the start of the second war of religion, negotiations flew back and forth between

Jacques de Savoie, duke of Nemours. This would become a common demand of rebels during the French Wars of Religion, with the king's brother Alençon demanding similarly when he joined the Malcontents in 1575.[18] Condé, who had been besieging Paris, was dislodged after the battle of Saint Denis and began moving east, hoping to link up with an army of German reiters. The royal army after some delay pursued him from Paris, while Nevers brought a separate army up from the south, exiting his governorship in Piedmont, and marching through Burgundy, gathering more forces in Lyon including a contingent of Swiss to join in the hunt for the battered prince's army before it could escape. En route he captured the town of Mâcon which had gone over to the rebels at the start of the war.[19] They would be unsuccessful in this hunt and Condé slipped over the frontier into the Empire.[20] In January the secondary armies of Nevers and Claude, Duke of Aumale would link up with the main royal body at Vitry-le-François, exhausted after the pursuit of the Protestant force.[21] With the return of the rebel army, it was agreed that the army would split up to pursue it, with Anjou taking the main body again to shadow them from the north, while Nevers harassed them from the south. The Protestant army marched on Chartres and put the city to siege, while the royal forces found themselves racked with illness, and lack of pay, forcing them to return to Paris and allow the Protestant siege. Before the siege could conclude, a peace settlement would be reached [22] Nevers had spent March urging Anjou not to depart from Paris to confront the Protestants until such time as their German reiters arrived, which Nevers felt was critical to victory, however they would not do so until peace had been declared.[23]

During the third war that followed in 1568, Nevers would receive a serious leg wound, which compromised his ability to lead a military life, pushing him more into the role of statesman going forward, though he would continue to hold commands.[5]

Friendship

He took the young

Louis II, Cardinal of Guise, came despite the fact that Henri I, Duke of Guise was, by 1570, his brother in law, with both men married to daughters of François I, Duke of Nevers.[24]

Peace

In 1571, with the Admiral de Coligny pushing hard for a war with Spain to 're-unite Catholic and Protestant behind the crown' Nevers found himself in virulent opposition on council to such a scheme. He was not alone in opposition, all other members of the council bar Coligny were uninterested in such a venture and informed the king they opposed it. Nevers however had his intellectual protégé Anjou to make his case for him. His opposition came not only on grounds of principal, disliking the thought of declaring war on a Catholic monarch in favour of a Protestant adviser to the king, but also strategic, feeling that France would be fatally compromised when Spanish forces attacked from their Italian holdings.[25] He did not leave himself at this however, and alongside having Anjou argue his position, he was among those leading councillors who prepared memoranda highlighting the dangers of a war with Spain.[26]

In 1572 Nevers purchased from Charles IX, the Grand Nesle, an old townhouse located just east of the Tour de Nesle on the Left Bank of Paris. Nevers had it reconstructed, after which it became known as the Hôtel de Nevers.[27] Although it was never completed, it was greatly admired by contemporaries. Nevers' secretary, Blaise de Vigenère, a distinguished antiquarian and art historian, wrote that the house had a vault, built by Italian workmen, which was more grand than the one at the Baths of Caracalla. Although De Vigenère likely overstated the size, it must have been very impressive and was an architectural feature that was new to Paris.[28]

Radical

In August 1572, shortly before the upcoming royal marriage, a smaller marriage was held between the Prince of Condé and

Louis, Duke of Montpensier spoke dark words to the king himself before joining the cardinal in storming out. He was followed by the two brothers in law of the bride, Henri I, Duke of Guise and Nevers, neither of whom had any stomach for this arrangement on religious grounds.[29]

Wedding

During the celebrations for the wedding of

Massacre, Nevers reacted to this turn of events with glee, interpreting it as gods will that the situation would develop this way, he described the days of the massacre, in which thousands died, as a spiritual experience in which he came closer to god. The king was not pleased with this development however, and Nevers and Henri d'Angoulême both of whom had been heavily involved in the killings were called to the Louvre and sent out with orders to get the killings to stop on the morning of 24 August.[33] He would be a poor ambassador for this message, the units under his command and those of Anjou, which had originally been tasked with conducting various hits on the leadership, joined in as the bloodshed spread, while those under Nevers' enemy Guise held back once they had achieved the satisfaction of executing their enemy Coligny.[34] Though he was keen to 'cleanse' Paris of the Protestants he was not entirely insensitive to diplomatic needs. When he encountered the terrified English ambassador besieged in his house, Nevers drove away the besiegers and placed the ambassador under guard.[35]

Massacre of Saint Bartholomew

Keen to spread the

the baron de Biron who resented being subordinated to Nevers despite his authority over the city.[42][39] He was critical of the common soldiers, who he accused of being unenthusiastic about conducting assaults, failing to follow their officers.[43] With the siege concluded Anjou went first to Paris before departing, to explain the conduct of the operation, Retz and Nevers travelled with him, both of them having conduct to explain. All three of them would submit proposals to the crown for administrative and military reforms to avoid another debacle like the siege.[44]

Poland

Anjou selected Nevers as one of the men to accompany him to the Commonwealth, still treating him as the chief adviser he had done since the 1560s. He was the princely exception among a retinue largely composed of secondary provincial nobility, mainly new men who Anjou had met on the siege lines of La Rochelle. Anjou was keen to disassociate himself from his mothers favourites for the most part.

Bellegarde, leaving him increasingly out in the cold. Excusing himself as unable to tolerate the weather he departed from the king.[46] After Anjou returned from the country to become king of France as Henri III the two linked up again in Italy on the road home at Venzone.[47] Upon reaching Turin, Anjou was cajoled by his aunt to yield the French Piedmont possessions on the far side of the Alps (Pinerolo, Savigliano and Perugia). He readily agreed, without consultation with his council or any of his Italian advisers. Nevers was furious that he had not been consulted about this destruction of his governate, with only the marquisate of Saluzzo left as a French possession beyond the Alps. He insisted on formerly registering his disapproval.[48]

Reign of Henri III

Intellectual interests

The new king was intellectually more curious than his young predecessors, and liked to hear philosophical discussions and debates, these lectures became known as the Académie du Palais, and Nevers was an infrequent attendee of these intellectual discourses. His wife Henriette also frequented them on occasion

Albisola, and Giulio Gambin, who had worked in Lyon.[51]
Though a close friend of the new king, he remained strongly connected to his former patron Catherine, and as her personal influence declined with the king, he and Retz could often be relied to champion her views during council discussions.[52]

The La Marcks had held the governorship of Normandie for some time, however in 1574

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth he had promised Nevers the office, and when Henri refused to grant it to him he flew into a rage and departed court. Henri would settle on splitting the key governorship into three instead, to dilute the power of the office.[53]

Alençon

After Alençon fled from court to join with the Malcontents, Henri struggled to find a commander to bring the young prince back to court. Eventually he turned to Nevers as his man for the job, a decision which was met with much laughter at court, due to the duke's war injuries that left him with a limp. Alençon travelled north to

Loire. Nevers who had been following the prince, was instructed to go no further than Chartres and hold back while the queen mother negotiated. He would have no further military engagements with Alençon.[55]

Ligueur

The fifth war of religion was brought to a close with the generous

Peace of Monsieur which was highly favourable to the Protestants, in the hopes of re-securing Alençon's loyalty to the crown. Militant Catholics reacted with disgust to the terms, and Nevers was among those who pushed for Henri to overturn the peace and ensure that there was only one religion in France. Nevers did not however exert much of his energies against the specifics of the piece as they related to a town of his, Mézières being given as surety to Condé, alienating much of the area from him and sending it into the arms of the local Guise clients.[56] Catherine listened to Nevers' demands for a resumption of war frustratedly, trying to impart to him that while she and her son supported a sole religion, the financial situation of the kingdom simply couldn't support a war to achieve that. The Estates General of 1576, called as a term of the peace, and the vote of the council, forced Henri to follow Nevers' advice and re-open war. Indeed, Nevers spoke passionately at the estates, conjuring up the language of a crusade in his urgings for France to expunge heresy.[57] At this time, Nevers was heavily in debt, with creditors through the Parlements such as the Séguiers, but he was soon to be bailed out of his financial situation by his patron Catherine, ensuring in future his greater loyalty to the crown.[58]

Sixth war of religion

In conflict once more, Henri decided the now loyal Alençon would lead the royal army against the Protestants. As a symbol of the reunited Valois dynasty. Alençon lacked much in the way of military skill however, so real authority in the army would rest with Nevers, supported by Guise and Mayenne. Indeed, the king instructed Nevers to keep Alençon safely away from any place on the field that might be in danger. Throughout this period Catherine was desperately seeking a way to achieve peace, Nevers remained in opposition to such a policy.

Auvergne. By now the royal army was only 5000 strong, and tried at first to negotiate with the city leaders, they were uninterested however, describing the siege as a violation of the peace edict. Keen to make an example of the town, the king instructed Nevers to proceed with a siege, and after 2 weeks of bombardment, the town was captured. Scenes of great brutality accompanied its fall, as every Protestant house in the town was burned to the ground, while the soldiers went about raping and murdering the inhabitants.[60] The army, now numbering 2000 men continued on into the Limousin, Nevers complaining to the king in letters about his lack of ammunition and his troops unwillingness to fight. The city of Limoges, keen to avoid the presence of these troops within its walls, offered the army 30,000 not to billet in the city. The king urged him to accept, and admitted he could not pay the army any more. Nevers and the remaining troops were recalled from the field.[61] While the army had achieved several successes on the Loire, it was unable to make much headway against the main Protestant centres, and the king came to terms with them in the harsher Treaty of Bergerac in September 1577.[62]

Nevers was among the grandees who gathered in 1583 at the personal invitation of the king for an Assembly of Notables. 68 Notables in total attended to discuss reform programs for the kingdom. The intended course of the sessions was derailed however, by the Cardinal de Bourbon who fell on his knees and begged the king to restore singular Catholic worship in the kingdom.[63] Some progress was derived from the discussions however, and it was agreed that Henri would curb the extravagant expenditure that he had bestowed upon his favourites in the prior decade. In general the king was reinforced in his desire to reduce the spending required to upkeep the court.[64]

Second ligue

At the foundation of the second ligue in 1584, it was hoped by Guise and

Henri I d'Orléans, Duke of Longueville, the son of Léonor d'Orléans who had governed Picardie from 1569 to 1573, and who was descended from the Valois through the bastard of Orléans.[73] In return for yielding the office, Nevers was offered the governorship of Champagne. He accepted, though he demanded that it be in the name of his son, as such while he governed Champagne, it would be his son who formerly held the office until his death, when his son unified the theoretical and practical control of the region.[74] To support him and his son as lieutenant-general of the region, Joachim de Dinteville was maintained, largely able to act as governor in his own right, due to the absence of the Gonzague from the province.[75]

In August 1587, the king outlined how he planned to personally lead the army against the Protestant reiters who were crossing the border into France in support of Navarre. All of his council virulently opposed the suggestion, arguing it was far too dangerous. Nevers however stood alone in support of the proposal, arguing that if the king secured a victory against the Protestant mercenaries that it would disarm the ability of Guise to claim pre-eminence as a defender of Catholicism. The king liked this idea and sent Guise with inadequate forces to block the German approach while he commanded the main body. His plan did not proceed as expected however, the German army began to disintegrate after crossing into France and was picked off by Guise in two battles.[76]

Guise

The Estates General of 1588 required the presence of Guise, as such he abdicated his command of the army in Poitou to Nevers while he went to attend to the sessions, hoping they would support his ligueur proposals against the king.[77] The king faced a ligueur assembly and was compelled into humiliating concessions. In return the Estates granted him a small sum of 120,000 livres while offering 100,000 livres directly to the armies under Mayenne and Nevers.[78]

With the various humiliations forced upon him by the Guise and Ligue the king resolved to have them killed. In December 1588 his assassination plot fired, and the duke of Guise was murdered while attending a council session. The cardinal de Guise meanwhile was aggressively interrogated by the king's men, and confessed under duress that there was a plan for Nevers and other Catholic notables to capture the king.[79]

Collapse of royal authority

In the wake of these assassinations, Paris rose up and declared for the ligue. The new ligue administration of the city, the 'sixteen', urged Nevers to join them. After several weeks he responded, informing the ligue that he was of course sympathetic to their desires for a country free of heresy, but chastising them for trying to achieve it in defiance of the king. He highlighted recent reversals for the Catholic cause in Europe, at the Battle of Coutras, the Spanish Armada and other defeats, informing the city that these were gods punishment for internal Catholic divisions. He warned the city that if they continued in this manner, France might face a ruin akin to that of the Byzantine Empire. The sixteen shot back that if he continued to be loyal to the king his honour would be tarnished, but he refused to entertain their advances.[80] The late dukes wife Catherine de Clèves was equally optimistic Nevers might be a tool against the 'monster' who had murdered her husband, however he rebuffed her advances also.[81] His vassal town in Rethel, that of Mézières informed him that he had to declare his intentions, or else the town would declare for the ligue, he allowed the deadline to expire and the town joined the 'holy union'.[82]

The king licked his wounds in Tours as his situation spiralled out of control. Many of his advisors urged him to come to terms with Navarre, forming an alliance against the ligue. Nevers bitterly opposed such suggestions, outlining a picture of a ruined lawless France where Catholicism was illegal if such an alliance came to pass. Henri ignored these warnings, deciding to come to terms with his heir. Nevers in disgust departed the court, however he merely retired to his estates, not entering the ligue camp. From his home in the Nivernois he promised Henri he was still loyal and that he would suffer the afflictions god would send to him for his sins of remaining loyal to the crown. The two maintained contact over the following months[83] By June Nevers had become aware of plots to kill the king, writing in disgust to a friend of the wicked and sinful schemes to harm the lawful king. The following month Henri would be assassinated by the radical Catholic Jacques Clément.[84]

Reign of Henri IV

War against the ligue

With the assassination of Henri III, the matter of his service to a Protestant king was immediately put to the test. Nevers wavered, departing from the royal army to his estates and offering vague overtures to the ligue for a couple of months, however he was secured for the royal fold.[85][86] Fighting for his new king, in 1590 the combat reached Champagne as the duke of Lorraine invaded France in support of the ligue. He quickly captured Villefranche, the commander of whom was promptly hanged by Nevers for having yielded too easily to the attackers.[87] Two years later Henri would campaign against the ligue in the region. Nevers urged him on to reduce the town of Épernay. Biron was killed in the initial attempt, and when reinforced by troops under Nevers, the town was captured, a heavy blow to the nearby ligueurs in Reims.[88] In 1593 he held Beauce for the crown against any attempts to seize it by the ligue.[89] Chaumont held out until 1594, when upon hearing of the fall of Paris to Henri, the town councillors opened up lines of communication to Dinteville and Nevers, surrendering the town.[90] Guise continued holding out until October 1594, hoping to receive the governorship of Champagne, the king however was not willing to deprive the Gonzague-Nevers of this privilege and he was offered the governorship of Provence in return for surrendering Reims and the other towns under his control.[91]

Diplomat

Nevers was given the sensitive task by Henri IV in 1593 of communicating his conversion to Catholicism to the Pope, such that he could be granted absolution. Achieving absolution was seen as a necessary pre-requisite to the acceptance of many of the Catholic magnates who backed the ligue. In response the ligue sent the Jesuit Antonio Possevino to argue against Nevers. Nevers faced an uphill battle in his task, being accepted into Rome only due to his Mantuan nobility, and not as a representative of the 'Béarnais' the ligueur pejorative for Henri IV. As he and his allies worked to bring the Pope round, the ligueurs fell into disagreement over whether the Pope granting absolution was enough to make Henri acceptable as king.[92] While Nevers had been told he would not be accepted as an ambassador, this was not confirmed until January 1594, and came as a heavy blow to the royalist camp.[93] Henri tried again in 1595, and after meeting several conditions for the Pope, was granted absolution in September of that year.[94]

Finance and death

Upon the death of

Damville, Schomberg and Nevers, and other figures from the administrative nobility. The group set about engaging in every fiscal expedient they could imagine to raise finances for the kingdom, selling off offices, leasing out royal territory, floating loans and creating new offices to sell.[95] In 1595, he died.[2]

Ancestry

Sources

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