User:Sovietblobfish/sandbox

Louis de Saint-Gelais was born in 1512 (perhaps at Cornefeu near Cognac), the son of François I. The Saint-Gelais were a Poitevin family that had historically been servants of the kings of Navarre before entering royal service in the fifteenth century. For the historian Le Roux, the success of Lanssac in royal service would reflect the integration of the noblesse seconde (secondary nobility) into the administration of the state in this period. He was the half-brother of king Henri II.

Around 1543 he married Jeanne de La Roche-Andry who brought the lands of La Roche-Andry around Angoulême with her to the marriage.

With Jeanne de La Roche-Andry, Louis had the following issue:
 * Guy de Saint-Gelais (3 December 1544–) married Antoinette Raffin in 1571 and had issue.
 * Charles de Saint-Gelais, sieur du Précy.
 * François de Saint-Gelais, sieur de Vernou.
 * Claude de Saint-Gelais, married the comte de Luxe in 1564.

Claude's marriage to the comte de Luxe was a design of the queen mother Catherine's. By this marriage she hoped to secure the loyalty of an important Protestant seigneur who served as the lieutenant-general of La Soule in Navarre in the absence of the king of Navarre and capitaine de Mauléon.

Jeanne died in 1563. On 8 October 1565, Lanssac remarried to Gabrielle de Rochechouart. At the time of this marriage, Lanssac ceded to his son Guy his seigneuries in the Angoumois, Poitou and Guyenne for a value of 135,000 livres, but maintained control of the usufruct.

Out of marriage:
 * Urbain de Saint-Gelais, bishop of Comminges and ambassador to Portugal.

In 1576, Lanssac purchased the baronnie de La Mothe-Sainte-Héraye in Poitou (valued at 140,000 livres in 1604) from Françoise de Birague, thereby acquiring possessed château de La Mothe-Sainte-Héraye. He would play host at this château to the queen mother Catherine and the king of Navarre. He also had a Parisian hôtel (grand residence) on the rue Saint-Honoré composed of several buildings and gardens. At Catherine's request he hosted foreign ambassadors here. A man of culture, he also welcomed poets, artists, painters and sculptors to this hôtel. It would be his lands around Paris that became the focus of his attentions as opposed to those he held in the south-west of the kingdom. The centre of his new territory was Précy-sur-Oise where he bought up plots of land from 1570 to 1587.

He enjoyed friendly relations with the seigneur de Saint-Sulpice, the principal baron of Quercy and ambassador to España. In 1576 the eldest son of Saint-Sulpice was assassinated by the vicomte de Tours during the meeting of the Estates General. Lanssac wrote his sympathies to the baron and proffered his support in attaining revenge against the vicomte. He wrote again to Saint-Sulpice to let him know that the vicomte de Tours had been beheaded in absentia (i.e. a model of Tours had been beheaded due to the actual Tours' flight from the court to escape punishment). Another associate of Lanssac's was maréchal de Matignon. Lanssac sent the maréchal (marshal) letters assuring him of the good favour in which the queen mother Catherine held him. In return for Matignon scouting out vacant abbeys in his governate for Lanssac and his sons, Lanssac intervened with Catherine to ensure that the governor received the proceeds of property seized from Protestants in his province.

The Saint-Gelais family served as the patrons for Isaac Habert (poète), a poet, securing for Isaac a position as a sécretaire du roi (secretary of the king). Lanssac himself was a recipient of epistles and verses written in Italian. In addition to competency with Italian, he was well versed in Castilian. Due to his linguistic skill with Castilian he often participated in the Spanish diplomatic audiences with the French king as an interpreter. His constant presence was greatly to the irritation of the Spanish ambassador Álava who complained about it to the Spanish king.

Lanssac had much concern for his honour. He opined that his honour was based on two sources, himself, and god.

In total his annual incomes from the crown for his various offices totalled around 16,000 livres. 10,000 livres of this was his pension. His personal lands brought him a further 11,000 livres a year, with another 10,000 of rentes (annuities) on the hôtel de ville (town hall) and 10,000 from the lands of the bishopric of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges. Thus his ordinary incomes equalled around 47,000 livres. Beyond these revenues he was a recipient of many royal gifts between 1565 and 1583, totalling around 171,000 livres. For example in 1568 he shared in a royal gift of 10,544 livres. As a result of this advantageous financial position he was able to make a loan of 16,000 livres to the trésorier de la récette générale (treasurer of the general revenues) of Bordeaux in 1567.

In his capacity as capitaine de la seconde compagnie des cent gentilhommes de la maison du roi (captain of the second company of a hundred gentleman of the king's household) in the year 1576–1577 Lanssac enjoyed a royal pension of 200 livres. In 1573, it would be as this officer that he would be provided 140 livres to distribute as alms during the holy week. One of the soldiers in his compagnie, the sieur de Riches, would serve as an agent of Lanssac's for the collection of money owed to him by the tenant farmers on his lands.

Royal favour was not a one way flow of money, and Lanssac was among those Henri expected to make loans to the crown. The repayment of the money to the officials from which it was loaned was not always a guarantee.

Of a moderate Catholic disposition, in 1566 he even found himself accused of having eaten meat during Lent. His daughter Claude married a Protestant seigneur. In royal council he was far more concerned with the re-establishment of royal authority than religious considerations.

By the year 1550, Lanssac was in the service of the royal favourite the connétable de Montmorency, the historian Le Roux highlights the intense correspondence between the two men at this time. The historian Romier describes Lanssac as Montmorency's 'creature and favourite' during the early 1550s.

Thanks to the patronage of Montmorency, Lanssac was made a panetier du roi (king's baker) in 1551.

There had been war between France and the Papacy in 1551 in the form of the War of Parma. In early 1552, the cardinal de Tournon was in Roma to undertake negotiations between the French crown and the Papacy. On 29 April he entered into a treaty with the pope Julius III. Through this agreement hostilities between France and the Holy See were suspended for a two year period. The Pope hoped to see this agreement broadened to include Piemont and Milano. The duca di Parma (duke of Parma) was to be maintained in the possession of his ducato (duchy), and his brother Orazio restored to possession of the ducato di Castro. the conti di Mirandola (count of Mirandola) was similarly assured as to the possession of his territories. The measures that had been taken to prejudice the families of Strozzi, Orsini and Fregosi who had allied themselves with the French king Henri (including sentences of execution and confiscations) were similarly abolished for a two year period. The Pope assured Tournon he would work towards the liberation from Imperial captivity of the Montmorency's nephew the seigneur d'Andelot.

On 18 May, Tournon departed from Roma to make his way back to France. He hoped to see a more general peace that go beyond the one he had negotiated to create peace also between the French king and the Holy Roman Emperor. Tournon made a triumphal entry into Lyon on 28 September. Arches had been erected in the city to celebrate the lifting of the siege of Mirandola and the throwing off of Spanish occupation by the Siennese. Aware of the terms negotiated by his representative before his return to France, Henri endeavoured to send an extraordinary diplomatic mission to Roma to indicate his assent to the terms. This had initially been intended to be undertaken by the sieur de Langey, brother to cardinal du Bellay. However instead it would be Montmorency's man, Lanssac who was entrusted with taking Henri's ratification of the treaty to Roma. Lanssac departed from the court at Damvilliers to this end on 4 June 1552. In addition to this extraordinary mission, a new ordinary representative was appointed by Henri in May in the form of Claude de La Guiche the bishop of Mirepoix.

Lanssac arrived in Roma on 25 June, he found the Pope in good humour. In addition to the ratification he brought with him he also sought to achieve the elevation to the cardinalate of the bishop of Albi. Lanssac made a good impression upon the people of the city, and Julius thanked Henri for the good graces of his extraordinary ambassador. At the time of his departure from Roma on 28 July, the Pope offered Lanssac a diamond from his finger. During his stay, the ordinary French ambassador, the bishop of Mirepoix had ruptured a blood vessel and would die in 1553.

With a French thrust into Lorraine planned by the king, the French agents and allies in the Italian peninsula met at Chioggia from 15 to 18 July 1552 to (according to Cloulas) plan how to best create a suitable diversion from the main attack. Durot interprets the meeting differently, as reflecting Henri's desire to realise a grand plan of universal domination. The prospect of an invasion of the kingdom of Napoli by an expeditionary force was considered and dismissed. The representatives at Chioggia were cautious, and had failed to secure the backing of Venezia. It was thus rather resolved for there to be a French intervention in the republic of Siena. Siena boasted a strong position well flanked by hill country, had good disembarkation points for naval landings and inhabitants who chafed under their Spanish garrison.

Not long after the meeting at Chioggia, the French bore witness to the population of Siena (buoyed by French money) rise up on 26 July against their Spanish garrison and drive them from the city to cries of 'Francia! Francia!' Romier sees the cardinal de Tournon as the architect of this uprising. Lanssac arrived in the city on 30 July with money, expressions of Henri's gratitude and assurances of French support for the uprising of the inhabitants, to a warm reception. Lanssac succeeded in securing the love of the French cause from the inhabitants of Siena by offering them possession of the citadel which in Spanish hands had been the cause of their rebellion. By this means he avoided the risk that the French arrival would be seen as a transfer from being under one yoke to under another. The citadel was thus destroyed, with the French representatives the first to take their tools to it. On 4 August the people of Siena wrote to Henri expressing their gratitude to him for restoring their 'ancient liberties'. Lanssac had only intended to pass through Siena, and thus a few days after his arrival followed the seigneur de Thermes on 11 August who assumed the military leadership of Siena. Meanwhile cardinale d'Este was entrusted with acting as lieutenant-general for the French king in Siena. Thermes was to prepare the city for a Spanish counter-stroke, which was surely to follow.

On 20 August, Lanssac's letter informing of the seizure of the citadel of Siena from the Spanish, arrived at Villers-Cotterêts where the court was stay. Word of this development was greeted with great joy by all the courtiers with the exception of the connétable de Montmorency.

Both the Pope, and the duca di Firenze were unnerved by the French move to assume overlordship of Siena. When the Siennese sent an ambassador to the latter on 28 July he responded with an ambassador of his own offering insincere friendship. On 5 August Firenze received the honour of Sienese citizenship. The duca di Firenze was given to understand that the queen of France, Catherine desired to see the recent revolution in Siena expanded to Firenze. Firenze preferred to operate discreetly and attempted to negotiate a capitulation with the city of Siena independent of French agents. However Lanssac discovered this manoeuvre and alerted Tournon who thus oversaw negotiations for Siena which regulated relations with Firenze. Firenze thus took on a new policy which he would maintain for the coming year by which he professed his great friendship to Siena and France in the hopes that feeling secure the French would reduce the support they provided to Siena. On his way back to France on 18 August Lanssac passed through Firenze. The duca di Firenze put on a good face for Lanssac, assuring him he intended to support the newfound freedoms enjoyed by Siena. According to Romier this was entirely disingenuous.

An Imperial army under the command of the marqués de Villefranca (marquis of Villefranca) started an advance on Siena, and captured villages. When he died in February 1553 he was replaced by his son in the command. The Imperial campaign was supported by the duca di Firenze. While the naturalised French condotierri, Strozzi worked to raise soldiers with money advanced by Henri, Lanssac and cardinal du Bellay attempted to convince the Pope not to back an Imperial invasion.

The Pope had reached an understanding with the duca di Firenze that would see his nephew, Fabiano del Monte carved out a principality from Siennese territory. With pressure being brought to bear by Lanssac and du Bellay the Pope declared his neutrality in the conflict. Under his auspices a conference would be held at Bagnaia in June 1553 to look for a peaceful resolution to the dispute, but none could be found.

In March 1553 he was relieved of his posting as the capitaine of Bourg. This was due to his simultaneous elevation as a gentilhomme de la chambre du roi (gentleman of the king's chamber). This role is, according to Le Roux, indicative of his desire to pursue a national political career. Being a gentilhomme de la chambre afforded the offices holder free access to the king. This posting afforded him an income of 1,200 livres.

From the Autumn of 1553, Lanssac, alongside the cardinal du Bellay worked to convince the Pope to extend the truce that had been agreed with the French in April 1552, that was due to expire in April 1554. When Strozzi passed through Roma, he indicated to the Pope, Henri's desires to this effect. After long negotiations a renewal of the truce was signed on 3 May 1554.

On 29 October 1553, Strozzi was selected by Henri as his new representative in Siena and he departed from Marseille in November flush with cash and soldiers. Landing at Porto Ercole on 16 December he hurried to meet with the Pope and discuss affairs with Lanssac. This accomplished he then made his entry into Siena in January 1554.

In August 1554 the local French force (supplemented by a force under the baron de Fourquevaux which had been force marched to save Strozzi's position in Siena} clashed with the Imperial army before Siena. The French were defeated and Lanssac and Fourquevaux entered captivity. The French captain Monluc opined that it was the the hope of the Spanish that Fourquevaux and Lanssac's captivity would be a cause of discord for the French presence in the region, and force a more general withdrawal.

With the Pope dead, a conclave was to be held to elect his successor. Henri desired the electoral victory of either the archbishop of Cantebury or the archbishop of Napoli. The regular ambassador of the French king in Roma, Avançon was provided 25,000 écus towards this end. Meanwhile the extraordinary ambassador Lanssac was tasked with preventing the selection of the bishop of Gubbio. Despite these ambitions, the bishop of Gubbio would be elected Pope, and take the name Marcellus II. However, fortunately for Henri, Marcellus died only a few weeks into his pontificate, and on 23 May 1555 the archbishop of Napoli was elected as Paul IV.

The new Pope's nephew the cardinale di Carafa proposed to Henri a plan for the French reconquest of Siena. Around Porto Ercole there were many exiles from Firenze, Siena and Napoli. At the French court, the duc de Guise felt it was important to bring the situation under control as soon as possible. Lanssac and Avançon were best placed to do this at this moment due to the difficult situation of the senior French clergy in the Italian peninsula.

Around this time, the gran priore della Lombardia (grand prior of Lombardia) defected from French service to the Imperial cause. In revenge, Henri had his galleys sequestered and placed under the protection of the Pope. The gran priore would not allow this to stand and on 6 August 1555 seized back his ships and brought them into Imperial control. The Pope was furious and ordered the gran priore to return them to him, something the admiral refused to consider. The gran priore's brother, the cardinale di Santa Fiora, alongside the Imperial ambassador spoke before the Pope in his favour. They condemned the Pope's position, and went as far as to threaten the Pontiff. This enraged Paul, who had the cardinale and some other members of the Imperial party arrested. Lanssac and Avançon arrived in the Vatican to offer their solidarity to the Pope and congratulations to his nephew the cardinale di Carafa. They offered Paul, 100,000 écus to aid him in the destruction of his Imperial grandees.

The Pope was charmed by these offers, and urged Henri to show his family the same good favour they had showed the Farnese and Siena. On 30 September, Henri tasked the cardinal de Lorraine with going to Roma to make an alliance with the Holy See. Lanssac meanwhile headed to Venezia to inform its government of Henri's intention to enter into a military alliance with the Papacy.

Henri explained to the Pope in a letter of 23 July that it was necessary before returning to a war footing to be assured of the support of the duca di Ferrara. When, soon after Henri received word that Ferrara had joined the defensive French alliance on the terms negotiated in November 1555, he gave permission on 11 August for maréchal de Strozzi, Avançon and Lanssac to enter into negotiations with Italian bankers for the receipt of loans. Strozzi and the seigneur de Monluc were further given tasks of military preparation to undertake. Meanwhile as reward for his joining of the league, Ferrara was granted 100,000 écus, a pension and an array of soldiers.

When the remains of the son of the seigneur de Monluc, named Marc-Antoine were sent to Roma by his father for burial, Lanssac ensured they were buried with great honours. Le Roux compares the burial to that of a prince.

The duc de Guise was to be sent to Italia for the coming campaign. Meanwhile, the son of the connétable de Montmorency (constable of Montmorency), the comte de Dammartin was in Roma petitioning the Pope to agree to an annulment of his secretly arranged marriage. Lanssac and de Selve warned the king that the young noble wished to go to Civitavecchia to face off against the Pope's enemies. Indeed, the comte would participate in the Papal recapture of Ostia in January 1557. This would not win him the annulment of his marriage, the college of cardinals ruling unfavourably, and leading to Henri to declare the marriage void by other means so that his illegitimate daughter Diane might marry the comte.

Guise hurried to Reggio in Italia for the meeting with the duca di Ferrara, his father-in-law which transpired from 13 to 16 February. For the conduct of this meeting with the French ally, Guise received the assistance of Lanssac who had come up from Roma with the cardinale di Carafa, and the archbishop of Vienne who had been sent by Henri. The duca di Ferrara hoped to secure from Guise a committment for the conquest of Cremona, by which he could aggrandise his Italian territories. Neither Carafa nor Henri were favourable to this attack which would create hostilities with the duca di Milano. Ferrara made an alternate proposal for an attack against Parma, which was under the dominion of the duca di Parma, and Guise consented to this proposal, promising he would conquer it within 40 days. This proposal ran into strong oppositon from cardinale di Carafa and was abandoned in turn.

In the field, the duc de Guise found himself frustrated by Antonio Carafa (marchese di Montebello) who had been sent to pay his Italian soldiers. Back in Roma, relations deteriorated between the French representatives and with the Pope's nephew cardinale di Carafa in the spring of 1557. De Selve entered dispute with the archbishop of Vienne. Meanwhile Carafa fell out with the exiled Spanish noble, the duque de Soma (duke of Soma) who favoured a quick attack into Napoli, and Lanssac to whose intrigues he attributed the disappearance of his French secretary. Guise waited impatiently for the Pope to provide the legitimation for an invasion of Napoli, by investing the kingdom in the hands of a son of Henri II however Paul prevaricated on taking this step. In late May, Guise received orders from Henri to abandon a campaign against Napoli and turn his attentions to Lombardia and Toscana.

In 1559 Lanssac still maintained the courtly position of gentilhomme de la chambre du roi that he had been granted in 1553. During this year the number of holders of this post were downscaled from 111 to 37 as a cost saving measure. Lanssac survived the curtailing due to being a client of Catherine's. By the 1560s the gentilhomme de la chambre were divided into quarters of the year, and would only fulfil their function for 3 months a year, so they could be rotated.

Upon the death of Henri II, François II ascended to the throne, with his government led by the Lorraine-Guise brothers the cardinal de Lorraine and duc de Guise. This new administration were ill-inclined to share their control of the government with the princes du sang (princes of the blood). To ward off the danger of these descendants of the royal line, the conseil privé was expanded to around thirty figures so that they could be drowned out. Among the conseillers would be the clients of the Lorraine-Guise family and the queen mother Catherine: the premier président of the chambre des comptes L'Hôpital (first president of the chamber of accounts), the bishop of Orléans, the archbishop of Vienne, the bishop of Amiens, the bishop of Valence, du Mortier, the diplomat Avançon and the seigneur de Lanssac. Lanssac received his induction into the conseil on 16 July.

Cloulas argues this conseil was a polite fiction, only meeting once properly during the reign of François II (for the Assembly of Notables in August 1560), while real business was conducted by the Lorraine-Guise administration elsewhere.

Lanssac participated in the journey out of the French kingdom undertaken by the king's sister Élisabeth so that she might be united with her new Spanish husband king Felipe. Up to the Spanish border Élisabeth was also accompanied by the king of Navarre and his cousin the prince de La Roche-sur-Yon. In the kingdom of Navarre, on the way to Pamplona, a dispute arose among Élisabeth's entourage that Lanssac reported back to the French court. Having arrived with her in a foreign kingdom in January 1560, Lanssac then played a leading role in helping her adjust to the customs of the Spanish court alongside the French ambassador in the country the bishop of Limoges. The extraordinary ambassador (as Lanssac technically was) informed the cardinal de Lorraine of the great joy the Spaniards expressed at the presence of Élisabeth. Lanssac reported to the young queen's mother in March about the discontent of Élisabeth's French servants who had been dismissed in favour of Spanish servants.

During April both Lanssac and the bishop of Limoges worked hard towards the securing of the towns as dower that had been granted to the late empress Isabel (who had died in 1539). They received assurances the revenues of the towns in question would be secured for her for the next two years. They further argued that given the cost of living was now much greater than it had been in the time of Isabel, that Élisabeth's income be increased up to a value of 100,000 écus. They also pressed Felipe on several other financial points on Élisabeth's behalf. The two men had extraordinary success, with Felipe conceding to all their demands. The bishop of Limoges praised Lanssac highly in his reports to Catherine. He argued Lanssac had shown himself to be a man of great virtues and honour, who had devoted not only his body but his personal finances to the service of Élisabeth.

In the inductions into the Ordre de Saint-Michel (Order of Saint-Michel) (the highest order of French chivalry) undertaken by the Lorraine-Guise administration on 29 September 1560, eighteen new chevaliers (knights) were created. Many nobles who were close to the Lorraine family received the prestigious honour. In addition to their own men, some elevations were made through consultation with the queen mother Catherine. By this means the seigneur de Sipierre, governor of the king's brothers; Nicolas d'Anjou-Mézières; and the seigneur de Lanssac who by this point was an intimate advisor to Catherine, were made chevaliers.

In his correspondence, it would be to Catherine that he signed off his letters with the greatest deference, even more so than those to the king. He would function in her household as the intermediary through which those who wished to secure favour from the queen mother would have to pass.

As an advisor to Catherine, he played the role of an intermediary between her, the duchesse de Montpensier and the court of the king of Navarre in the hopes that the king of Navarre would accept the title of lieutenant-généraux du royaume (lieutenant-general of the kingdom) and cede the position of regent for the young king Charles to Catherine.

Catherine dispatched Lanssac to Guyenne in 1561 to see to the defence of the province. Over the winter of 1561–1562 Lanssac was sent to undertake an extraordinary diplomatic mission in Roma, a city in which he had diplomatic experience from the 1550s.

With the outbreak of hostilities between the crown and their Protestant rebels in April 1562, the Pope indicated to Lanssac, who was serving as an envoy, that he would be willing to devote a million écus d'or (gold crowns) to support the royalist-Catholic cause in France. Catherine would instead request of the Papacy that they act as a guarantor for a loan of 200,000 écus. In May the Pope would agree to donate 100,000 écus to the French crown, while a further 100,000 écus would be loaned.

Lanssac would serve as the leader of the French ambassadorial mission at the Council of Trento at the instigation of the queen mother Catherine. Supporting him would be the seigneur de Pibrac and du Ferrier. The cardinal de Lorraine would later be established as one of the French ambassadors in November. They presented their credentials on 26 May 1562. With their arrival they announced their priorities for the council. They were to end the improper use of wealth in the church and see to the clergy engaging in their proper duties. While serving as ambassador to the council, Lanssac received 15 letters from Catherine. The despatches Lanssac received during his service at Trento were among the longest Catherine produced for the diplomats of the period, averaging almost 750 words each. Gellard connects the length of the correspondence sent by Catherine to the importance she placed on the mission. Lanssac attempted to use the familial connection between the member of the French court Louis de Gonzague and his uncle cardinale di Gonzaga who held the presidency of the council of Trento, to gain more accommodations for France. The French delegation would find themselves in disagreement with the Spanish delegation at Trento over their relative precedence with the Pope. The French king's representative enjoyed precedence over the Spanish king's representative, much to the outrage of the latter. Lanssac hotly defended the status quo of French precedence, citing the various aids the French had rendered to the Pope over the years. To question this 'ancient honour' was an outrage for all the French ambassadors. This was challenged by the Spanish representative on the ground of their particular devotion to the Catholic faith. The dispute would ruminate for many more years, still actively causing disagreement in 1588 during the baron de Saint-Gouard's embassy in Roma. The contemporary author Brantôme praises Lanssac's firmness on the matter of precedence, and attributes it to his military background, arguing that a diplomat of the church or judiciary would not have been as effective as Lanssac.

In the final sessions of the council of Trento, the three diplomats made the queen's policy of religious moderation, and obedience to the peace edict of Amboise clear. Lanssac ceased to play the role of diplomat to the council in July 1563, several months before the other members of the mission ceased their roles.

At this time, Lanssac enjoyed a position of influence with the queen mother Catherine in matters of foreign policy. Alongside him in this circle of advisors were the ambassador to España, the baron de Saint-Sulpice and former ambassador the bishop of Limoges; the bishops of Orléans and Valence; and most centrally the sécretaire d'État the baron de Châteauneuf. Lanssac, and the bishops of Limoges and Orléans formed a triumvirate in control of the kingdoms financial affairs after the death of Châteauneuf in 1567.

In February 1564, Lanssac took on the role of extraordinary ambassador to España. The purpose of his mission was to testify to Charles' commitment to reinforcing the peace. Returning back to France he frequented the parlement of Toulouse, observing it to be in a state of discord, before moving on to the parlement of Bordeaux. In April he wrote to the French ambassador in España, the baron de Saint-Sulpice to warn him that the king and queen mother did not to hear requests from him to be relieved of his charge. The crown would however grant Saint-Sulpice 1,000 écus in return for this. Lanssac reported to the queen in the spring and summer of 1564 as to the tense religious situation in the south-west of France. In a letter of 28 July he informed Catherine that the country was not in the state of tranquillity it needed to be in, with men of different religions inflamed at each other, and inventing false stories of outrages. He further reported that in Carcassonne and particularly Montpellier he had born witness to destroyed churches and houses. While he noted that the garrisons in the area were a great imposition, he counselled they could not be removed until such time as greater harmony was in effect. He made it clear that the continuation of the grand tour was the only tonic to the troubles he witnessed and urged the crown not to be diverted from its progress. Lanssac reported disfavourably on the actions of the parlement of Toulouse as further inflaming affairs. He noted the poor enforcement of the peace edicts prohibition on the bearing of arms, not all men of the church had received the return of their benefices and that in Saintonge and Périgord gentleman take the revenues of the benefices by force.

Catherine was at this time undertaking a grand tour of the kingdom with her son the king, to assure herself of the autonomy of the crown from the influence of the rival factions. This was a 27 month voyage around France. To aid the accomplishment of this, at this time Catherine concentrated more state power in the hands of men whose loyalty to the crown was assured. Among those elevated in this process were Louis de Gonzague, who was established as the duc de Nevers by marriage to the heiress Henriette, the comte de Retz and Lanssac. During the trip, the court arrived at Jarnac, where the Protestant baron de Jarnac was governor. He indicated his support for the edict of Amboise, to the pleasure of Catherine and the king. Lanssac, a friend of Jarnac's was entrusted with seeing to the maintenance of order in the region while the court was staying there. In August 1564 he convened the notables of La Rochelle urging them to uphold the edict of Amboise and suppress disorders in the city. The magistrates of the city were reminded of their obligations to the pacification edict, and he implored both the Protestant and Catholic clergy to avoid incendiary sermons and live in good peace with their neighbours even if they were another religion. Having left Jarnac the court made its way to Saintes, Marennes, Brouage and finally La Rochelle. These visits to places, many of which were dominated by Protestants, were accomplished without incident.

In 1565, while still in the progress of the grand tour, a meeting was negotiated between Catherine and her daughter Élisabeth at Bayonne. The baron de Saint-Sulpice travelled to Bayonne to prepare Catherine to best be able to defend the French crown's conciliatory policy as regarded the Protestants. On the road to Bayonne he crossed paths with Lanssac, who was travelling to España to offer the thanks of Charles to Felipe for agreeing to allow the interview to go ahead.

After the conclusion of the interview at Bayonne in July 1565, Lanssac received a new extraordinary diplomatic mission. This mission saw him head to the Holy Roman Empire. The purpose of this new mission was to reassure the German Protestant princes as to the nature of the discussions that had taken place at Bayonne. He was to assure them that no infringements upon the liberties granted to Protestants in the edict of Amboise had been discussed.

After the battle of Saint-Denis saw the triumph of the royal army over the Protestants, the war continued, but without further major engagements due to the lack of means of both sides. Therefore as early as December, the Protestants reached out to begin negotiations with the crown, sending Téligny to the court with Condé's proposal for peace. Soon thereafter, Coligny's brother cardinal de Châtillon met with the bishop of Orléans and Lanssac at Vincennes to conduct further negotiations. After meeting with them, Châtillon met with several parlementaires, then with the cardinal de Bourbon and Catherine. By mid March a peace deal had been reached. By which the edict of Amboise was restored, affording Protestants limited rights of worship.

The brother of the king, the duc d'Anjou departed from the capital to lead the royal army against the rebels on 4 October 1568.

Though the army was technically under the charge of the prince, Catherine selected the maréchal de Tavannes and Lanssac to jointly command the 'battle' of the army (the main body of soldiers between the vanguard and rearguard). Their shared command proved to be an issue, inducing paralysis in the army.

During these months therefore, the Protestant rebels were able to take the initiative.

As the duc d'Anjou reached adulthood and began to constitute his own household, Lanssac and the cardinal de Lorraine would often find themselves following him, despite not holding a position in the young prince's household. By 1570 his son Guy de Saint-Gelais would be entering the circle of the duc d'Anjou, alongside the son of another of Catherine's principle advisors, the baron de Saint-Sulpice.

Upon the death of the bishop of Aire and Dax, Lanssac made efforts to ensure that the benefice remained in the hands of the Foix-Candalle family, who were allied with the Montmorency. He wrote to the duc de Montmorency as soon as he learned of the death to assure him of this.

The peace of Saint-Germain which brought to a close the third French War of Religion through the provision of toleration to the Protestants opened up a new period of Spanish hostility. The Spanish ambassador in France, Álava denounced the French ambassador in España, Fourquevaux, by saying that he was like Lanssac (a man he particularly hated) in being of 'Turkish stock'. Lanssac was among the conseillers whose Catholic faith was doubted by Álava at this time (alongside the duc de Montmorency, the bishops of Orléans, Limoges and Rennes and the maréchal de Vielleville.

The queen mother saw to the elevation of Lanssac as a chambellan in the royal household in 1572. He would still be in possession of this post in 1575 at the start of the reign of Henri III. The post of chambellan was senior to that of the gentilhomme de la chambre, and traditionally there were four such officers at the head of the gentilhomme. Henri III would seek to dilute the dynasties that Catherine had put in place in the royal household, and expanded the post such that there were thirteen chambellan by 1580.

During the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre, in which many Protestants across France were murdered, Lanssac played the role of protector to the young La Rochefoucauld, the son of the prominent Protestant noble the prince de Marcillac who was killed during the massacre. Lanssac shielded La Rochefoucauld in his Parisian residence on the rue Saint-Honoré along with the young prince's governor and the memoirist Jean de Mergey. The La Rochefoucauld and Saint-Gelais families both claimed descent from the Lusignan family and thus were arguably of the same house.

On 17 July 1573, the comte de Retz resigned from the charge of capitaine de la compagnie des cent gentilhommes de la maison du roi, so that he might assume the post of maréchal, and the sieur de Chavigny was elevated to the prestigious charge. Lanssac had held the other of the two captaincies since at least 1564. This posting brought with it an income of 1,600 livres.

In August 1573 Lanssac received the prestigious post of chevalier d'honneur (knight of honour) to the queen mother Catherine upon the death of the previous holder of the office the duc d'Uzès. Le Roux argues that in the absences from the court of Lanssac, maréchal de Matignon served as a de facto chevalier d'honneur in his place. The posting of chevalier d'honneur brought with it an income of 1,200 livres and was held until the death of the incumbent.

In 1573, the duc d'Anjou was elected as king of the Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). Having travelled to his new kingdom he would be coronated in February 1574. Lanssac, aware of local customs, advised the young king to make sure that during dinner he did not isolate himself away from the diplomats and local Polish nobility by ensuring they were seated at his table. The duc d'Anjou did not embody this advice during his time in the country, and gradually withdrew to a more close circle of his entourage.

Having returned to France on the death of his brother, Anjou now styled himself Henri III. He met with his conseil d'État at Lyon upon his re-entry into the kingdom in September 1574. This conseil contained a small set of grandees: the queen mother Catherine, the new king's younger brother Alençon, the king of Navarre, the cardinal de Lorraine and cardinal de Guise, the bishops of Orléans and Limoges, the parlementaire the comte de Cheverny and Lanssac. They ratified the decision Henri had made on his journey back to France to hand over the remaining French Piemontese lands to the duca di Savoia (duke of Savoia). He would still be a member of this conseil d'État when it met two years later in 1576. By this time, as a need to accommodate his brothers power and satisfy the grandees of the kingdom the conseil had expanded to containing 134 members. Le Roux argues that political power did not lie with the conseil d'État but rather with the conseil des affaires. The conseil des affaires by contrast to the conseil d'État afforded a prominent position to the members of the king's entourage.

On 18 July 1574 the captaine des gardes du corps the vicomte d'Auchy died. Catherine hoped to see her man, Lanssac succeed to the charge, however the new king Henri was determined to stamp his authority on such affairs and not simply accept his mothers clients. Thus he placed the sieur de Rambouillet (who had already begun exercising the responsibilities with the king in Torino on his way back to France) in the post instead of Lanssac. Neverhtheless, Lanssac and the sieur de Chavigny were confirmed in their positions as capitaines de cent gentilhommes.

With the pressing financial situation brought about by the civil war in 1575, Henri called together his financial advisers in June. This small group included the chancelier Birague, the intendant des finances Claude Marcel, the bishop of Orléans, the comte de Cheverny and Martin de Beaune. These figures conducted negotiations with various officials to see to the collection of the taille (direct land tax), gabelles (salt taxes) and various other taxes.

The king found himself in Poitiers at the time of the sixth war of religion in 1577. The regions of Poitou and Saintonge were feared to be home to armed bands of Protestants. Therefore, for the security of the court in Poitiers, a small city that was vulnerable to infiltration due to its overcrowding, the city was divided into military districts. These districts were placed under the responsibility of those close to Henri: Orsini, the sieur de Rambouillet, the seigneur de Villequier, de Fiesque and Lanssac. When the king returned to Paris he brought soldiers with him into the city.

With the return of peace prohibitions were put in place on the boarding of vessels. Lanssac's son Guy ignored these prohibitions and boarded both Rochelais and English vessels. This was an embarrasing situation for the French crown, and Henri disowned his rebellious governor. Meanwhile Lanssac had to apologise on his sons behalf to the English ambassador.

The king's brother, Alençon, who had been coaxed back to court undertook a dramatic escape from the court with his favourites in February 1578. Catherine quickly endeavoured to see her son returned to the court, and travelled to meet with the prince alongside Lanssac and the duc de Montpensier. However, Alençon feigned illness and refused to receive her. Free of the court, Alençon turned his attentions to his designs in Spanish Nederland.

In 1578 Lanssac was bought out of his position as capitaine de la seconde compagnie des cent gentilhommes de la maison du roi by the seigneur of Loué who purchased it for 60,000 livres. Le Roux argues it is likely Henri encouraged Lanssac to cede the charge in the hopes of replacing the old man of his mothers clientele with his own man. Loué would never assume the charge and rather it would be the comte de Marennes who took on the responsibility in 1578.

In 1578 Henri created a new most senior order of French chivalry, known as the Ordre du Saint-Esprit (Order of Saint-Esprit). He hoped it would replace the ordre de Saint-Michel which had 'fallen into disuse'. Lanssac would receive the honour of being made a chevalier of this ordre in the induction of 31 December 1579 alongside several princes du sang including the prince de Conti; the bishop of Langres; the maréchal de Matignon; the ambassador to England La Mothe-Fénelon and the former ambassador to España the seigneur de Saint-Sulpice.

In the crisis created by the rebellion of the disgraced royal favourite the baron de Bellegarde in 1579, Catherine was entrusted with negotiating with the errant noble who was held up in Saluzzo. Catherine travelled south to Lyon with the baron de Ruffec, the duc de Mayenne, the cardinal de Bourbon, the parlementaire Paul de Foix and Lanssac. Bellegarde was successfully convinced to negotiate with her, and a meeting was arranged for Montluel on 17 October, Bellegarde arriving two days prior. Bellegarde assures her of his loyalty. In return for this assurance, Catherine offered him the government of Saluzzo. No sooner had Bellegarde returned to Saluzzo than he died on 20 December, making the reconciliation that had been negotiated meaningless.

When the new English ambassador Cobham was granted his reception in January 1580, he was escorted by Jérôme de Gondi to Catherine's chambers. Outside of the queen mothers chambers he was received by Lanssac, the duc de Guise, duc de Nevers and the sécretaires d'État (secretaries of state). The king for his part was accompanied by only a few men.

Starting in March 1580 a quarrel emerged between the duc de Nevers and the duc de Montpensier. Montpensier reported to the king's brother Alençon that Nevers had intended, when he was tasked with subdueing the rebel prince in 1575 to see him killed. Nevers took great offence at this 'slanderous' implication which he indicated he considered to be accussing him of lèse majesté. Montpensier produced a declaration on the matter to which Nevers responded by publishing a denial.

Moving from a war of words, both Montpensier and Nevers looked to mobilise their patronage networks in the dispute. Henri meanwhile hoped to end the dispute which threatened to upset the balance in court and the reconciliation the king was attempting to effect with his brother Alençon. Alençon further inflamed matters by taking Montpensier's side in the dispute.

In May 1580, Henri dispatched his first envoy to entreat with Montpensier. This was followed in September by a temporary restraint on the duc de Nevers who was limited in his movement to his own lands. In December, Lanssac was sent to parlay with the duc de Montpensier by the king, and this was followed in January with the dispatch of the sieur de Rambouillet to Nevers. Nevers was informed of the outcome of Lanssac's dealings with Montpensier by his friend the seigneur de Ruffey. The latter succeeded in drawing from the duc a letter that his earlier writing had not been directed at the duc de Montpensier.

In the settlement reached on 18 April 1581, the king declared that Montpensier had no cause to be offended by the manifesto published by the duc de Nevers as it was not about him, and that likewise Nevers had no cause to be offended by Montpensier's declaration as it did not concern him. The dispute was thus condemned to oblivion.

With the extension of the male line of the House of Aviz, Lanssac played a role in the French negotiations over the fate of Portugal in October 1580.

A large extraordinary diplomatic mission was dispatched to England in the spring of 1581. Lanssac was one of the men charged with involvement. Alongside him in the mission were the princes du sang the duc de Montpensier, prince-dauphin and comte de Soissons; the maréchal de Cossé, the governor of haute-Normandie the baron de Carrouges, the former ambassador to England La Mothe-Fénelon, the parlementaire Brisson and the sécretaire d'État Pinart.

Lanssac continued to enjoy the ear of Catherine to whom he was the chevalier d'honneur, and when she took council in 1581, he would be there to advise her alongside La Mothe-Fénelon, Pinart, the seigneur de Genlis, the chancelier (chancellor) Birague and the garde des sceaux (possessor of the chanceliers seals) Cheverny. Le Roux notes that these men had more connection to Catherine than they did their king, Henri.

On 17 January 1585 an agreement was reached between the duc de Guise, Mayenne and other members of the Lorraine-Guise family on the one hand, and the Spanish crown on the other. By this agreement it was declared that the cardinal de Bourbon was the proper successor to Henri for the throne upon his death, and that king Felipe would provide 600,000 écus to the ligueur party in France. In return, Guise promised the eradication of Protestantism, the recognition of the Trentine decrees, the return to the Spanish of French held Cambrai, the termination of the French alliance with the Osmanlı İmparatorluğu (Ottoman Empire), the ending of French naval activity hostile to España and French support against the rebels in Spanish Nederland. Both Lanssac's legitimate and illegitimate son who were well placed in southern France and as well seasoned diplomatically as their father aided in the establishing of the treaty between the ligue and España.

After the duc de Guise and the ligue entered rebellion against the crown in 1585, Catherine undertook negotiations with the errant prince. Struggling to get Guise to declare himself, she engaged other intermediaries in the hopes they would have better luck, among them the sécretaire d'État Pinart and Lanssac. However they reported no more success, claiming that Guise professed to be 'perplexed' himself. Lanssac and Catherine had hopes upon the arrival of the duc de Guise's daughter Renée de Lorraine the abbess of Saint-Pierre that she might be able to impress upon her father the importance of obeying the king.

Meanwhile, Catherine offered a spectacle of illness to Guise. Lanssac reported to a 'principal lady' of the court that her troubles were more mental than physical, as she was frustrated at the failures of her efforts of negotiation.

At the end of 1587, Lanssac was responsible for the conduct of negotiations with the parlement of Paris.

In May the crown was gravely shaken by the day of the Barricades, a ligueur uprising of Parisians with the duc de Guise at their head, that saw the king and his court forced from the capital. One parlementaire had advised Henri to ride the streets of the capital with Villequier and Lanssac to reason with the people so that they might disassemble their barricades, however this would not transpire. After Henri's departure, Catherine, Villequier, Pinart and Lanssac remained in the capital so that they might conduct negotiations with the ligueur duc de Guise. The product of these negotiations would be the treaty established between the crown and the ligue on 21 July.

Peace between the ligue and the crown was solemnised with a thanksgiving mass at the cathedral of Notre-Dame on 19 July 1588. Cannons were fired in celebration and bonfires lit. Lanssac was among the many great noble attendees, which included the duc de Guise, duchesse de Montpensier, the cardinal de Bourbon and the royal favourite Villequier. The edict of peace was registered two days later on 21 July.

Pushed towards a resumption of the war against the Protestants in 1588, Henri looked to raise funds to support the campaign from the servants of the crown. By this means 45,000 écus was gained by the crown for the effort between 30 August and 24 December 1588. Lanssac, as a client of Catherine's, leant 3,333 écus to this cause on 26 October.

Lanssac attended the Estates General of 1588 in his capacity as a conseiller d'État (councillor of state). His illegitimate son, the bishop of Comminges served in the Estates as a representative of the First Estate.

After the assassination of the duc de Guise in December, Lanssac retired from the court to his estates at Précy-sur-Oise.

Lanssac died in 1593 at Précy-sur-Oise. It would be at Précy that his remains would be interred, as opposed to the abbey of Saint-Vincent in the old Saint-Gelais haunt of Bourg.