Antoine de Roquelaure
Encyclopedia
Antoine de Roquelaure lord
of Roquelaure
, Gaudoux
, Sainte-Christie
, Mirepoix
, Montbert
, Baron of Lavardens
and Biran
(1544 – Lectoure
, 1625) was an important sixteenth-century French statesman and close collaborator of Henry IV
. He was made marshal of France
in 1614 by Louis XIII
.
in the early fourteenth century when Brunissent de Savaillan, lady of Saint-Aubin and widow of Bertrand II of Roquelaure, granted the fief to her son Pierre de Roquelaure after her second marriage.
Antoine de Roquelaure was the third son of Géraud, lord of Roquelaure, Gaudoux, Montbert and Le Longard
, (died 1557) and Catherine de Bezolles
. As such he was originally destined by his father for an ecclesiastical career, but at his father's death, he inherited the seigneurie of Le Longard and placed himself in the service of Antoine of Navarre
.
held him in such high regard that after the death of her husband Antoine in 1563, she granted him the part of the fief of Roquelaure that the crown of Navarre possessed and placed him in the service of her son, Henry
who was then only nine-years-old. At eighteen years, Antoine de Roquelare was still young and Henry soon appreciated the loyalty and devotion of his brilliant companion. Roquelaure eventually came into the full possession of the fief after the death of his two elder brothers, Jean-Bernard and Bernard in the Wars of Religion
.
Roquelaure formed part of the retinue that accompanied the young Huguenot
king to Paris on the occasion of his marriage to Marguerite of Valois in 1572 and participated in his escape four years later from confinement during a hunt. He formed part of the group of confidants who counseled the king at his court at Nérac
and participated in the siege of Eauze
in 1579.
, Arques
and Ivry
. As a Catholic, Roquelaure played an important role in convincing Henry to adopt that faith to strengthen his hold on the French crown. His service gained him many charges and benefices which turned him into one of the most important persons of the kingdom. He was made master of the wardrobe in 1589, a knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit
and lieutenant-general of Upper Auvergne
, captain of the Palace of Fontainebleau, and later governor of the County of Foix
, lieutenant-general of Guyenne
in 1597 and mayor of Bordeaux
.
On 16 May 1610, Roquelaure was with the king in the carriage in which he was murdered by François Ravaillac
.
During the regency, Marie de Medicis
entrusted to him the suppression of cities which had risen against it, and for these services he was honored in 1614 with the title of marshall of France by Louis XIII.
He resigned the post of governor of Guyenne in 1613 and only kept the office of governor of Lectoure
, which allowed him to return to his domains. He died in Lectoure in 1625 at the age of 81 years.
in 1652 (although the peerage remained unregistered) and was appointed governor of Guyenne in 1679.
Gaston's son, Antoine-Gaston-Jean-Baptiste de Roquelaure (1656–1738), carried on the family reputation for wit. At a young age served in the Franco-Dutch War
and later in the Nine Years' War. He was made governor of Languedoc
in 1706 and received the marshal's bâton in 1724. The second duke of Roquelaure also gave his name to the "roquelaure" or "roquelaire", a knee-length cloak.
His daughter, Françoise, married Louis Bretagne de Rohan-Chabot (son of Louis de Rohan-Chabot) in 1708 and as a result the duchy of Roquelaure passed to this family, who sold it, eventually coming into the possession of the king. The king sold it to Guillaume Dubarry in 1772.
A marquisate of Roquelaure was created in 1766 in favor of Charles de Roquelaure, lord of Saint-Aubin, but it should not be confused with the original peer-duchy.
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
of Roquelaure
Roquelaure
Roquelaure is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France.-History:The village is situated on a rocky height near the site of an Iron-Age oppidum and Gallo Roman villa on the neighboring hill of La Ciotat...
, Gaudoux
Preignan
Preignan is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France.The commune is situated on the N21 and bordered on the west by the Gers River.-History:...
, Sainte-Christie
Sainte-Christie
Sainte-Christie is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France.-Population:-References:*...
, Mirepoix
Mirepoix, Gers
Mirepoix is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France.-Population:...
, Montbert
Montbert
Montbert is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France....
, Baron of Lavardens
Lavardens
Lavardens is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France.-Population:-References:*...
and Biran
Biran, Gers
Biran is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France.Population=...
(1544 – Lectoure
Lectoure
Lectoure is a commune in the Gers department in the Midi-Pyrénées in southwestern France.It is located north of Auch, the capital of the department, south of Agen and approximately northwest of Toulouse.-History:...
, 1625) was an important sixteenth-century French statesman and close collaborator of Henry IV
Henry IV of France
Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....
. He was made marshal of France
Marshal of France
The Marshal of France is a military distinction in contemporary France, not a military rank. It is granted to generals for exceptional achievements...
in 1614 by Louis XIII
Louis XIII of France
Louis XIII was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1610 to 1643.Louis was only eight years old when he succeeded his father. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during Louis' minority...
.
Background and early life
The existence of lords of Roquelaure is documented to at least the twelfth century. The Roquelaure family held the fief in conjunction with the lords from whom they received it. The family acquired the seigneurie of Saint-AubinRoquelaure-Saint-Aubin
Roquelaure-Saint-Aubin is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France.-Population:-References:*...
in the early fourteenth century when Brunissent de Savaillan, lady of Saint-Aubin and widow of Bertrand II of Roquelaure, granted the fief to her son Pierre de Roquelaure after her second marriage.
Antoine de Roquelaure was the third son of Géraud, lord of Roquelaure, Gaudoux, Montbert and Le Longard
Roquelaure
Roquelaure is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France.-History:The village is situated on a rocky height near the site of an Iron-Age oppidum and Gallo Roman villa on the neighboring hill of La Ciotat...
, (died 1557) and Catherine de Bezolles
Bezolles
Bezolles is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France.-Population:...
. As such he was originally destined by his father for an ecclesiastical career, but at his father's death, he inherited the seigneurie of Le Longard and placed himself in the service of Antoine of Navarre
Antoine of Navarre
Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme was head of the House of Bourbon from 1537 to 1562, and jure uxoris King of Navarre from 1555 to 1562.-Family:...
.
Association with Navarre
Jeanne III of NavarreJeanne III of Navarre
Jeanne d'Albret , also known as Jeanne III or Joan III, was the queen regnant of Navarre from 1555 to 1572. She married Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, and was the mother of Henry of Bourbon, who became King of Navarre and of France as Henry IV, the first Bourbon king...
held him in such high regard that after the death of her husband Antoine in 1563, she granted him the part of the fief of Roquelaure that the crown of Navarre possessed and placed him in the service of her son, Henry
Henry IV of France
Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....
who was then only nine-years-old. At eighteen years, Antoine de Roquelare was still young and Henry soon appreciated the loyalty and devotion of his brilliant companion. Roquelaure eventually came into the full possession of the fief after the death of his two elder brothers, Jean-Bernard and Bernard in the Wars of Religion
French Wars of Religion
The French Wars of Religion is the name given to a period of civil infighting and military operations, primarily fought between French Catholics and Protestants . The conflict involved the factional disputes between the aristocratic houses of France, such as the House of Bourbon and House of Guise...
.
Roquelaure formed part of the retinue that accompanied the young Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
king to Paris on the occasion of his marriage to Marguerite of Valois in 1572 and participated in his escape four years later from confinement during a hunt. He formed part of the group of confidants who counseled the king at his court at Nérac
Nérac
Nérac is a commune in the Lot-et-Garonne department in south-western France.-External links:*...
and participated in the siege of Eauze
Eauze
Éauze is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France.-History:Éauze takes its names from the Gaulish Aquitani tribe of the Elusates....
in 1579.
In the service of France
After Henry became the legitimate heir to the throne of France in 1589, Roquelaure followed him in all his battles to secure the crown: CoutrasBattle of Coutras
The Battle of Coutras, fought on 20 October 1587, was a major engagement in the eighth and final war of the French Religious Wars between an army under Henry of Navarre and a royal army led by Anne, Duke of Joyeuse...
, Arques
Battle of Arques
This article is about the 1589 battle. For the Battle of 1303 see Battle of Arques .The Battle of Arques occurred on 15–18 September 1589 between the French royal forces of King Henry IV of France and troops of the Catholic League commanded by Charles of Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne during the eighth...
and Ivry
Battle of Ivry
The Battle of Ivry was fought on 14 March 1590, during the French Wars of Religion. The battle was a decisive victory for Henry of Navarre, the future Henry IV of France, leading Huguenot forces against the Catholic League forces led by the Duc de Mayenne...
. As a Catholic, Roquelaure played an important role in convincing Henry to adopt that faith to strengthen his hold on the French crown. His service gained him many charges and benefices which turned him into one of the most important persons of the kingdom. He was made master of the wardrobe in 1589, a knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit
Order of the Holy Spirit
The Order of the Holy Spirit, also known as the Order of the Knights of the Holy Spirit, was an Order of Chivalry under the French Monarchy. It should not be confused with the Congregation of the Holy Ghost or with the Order of the Holy Ghost...
and lieutenant-general of Upper Auvergne
Auvergne (province)
Auvergne was a historic province in south central France. It was originally the feudal domain of the Counts of Auvergne. It is now the geographical and cultural area that corresponds to the former province....
, captain of the Palace of Fontainebleau, and later governor of the County of Foix
County of Foix
The County of Foix was an independent medieval fief in southern France, and later a province of France, whose territory corresponded roughly the eastern part of the modern département of Ariège ....
, lieutenant-general of Guyenne
Guyenne
Guyenne or Guienne , , ; Occitan Guiana ) is a vaguely defined historic region of south-western France. The Province of Guyenne, sometimes called the Province of Guyenne and Gascony, was a large province of pre-revolutionary France....
in 1597 and mayor of Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
.
On 16 May 1610, Roquelaure was with the king in the carriage in which he was murdered by François Ravaillac
François Ravaillac
François Ravaillac was a French factotum in the courts of Angoulême and a regicide. A sometime tutor and Catholic zealot, he murdered King Henry IV of France in 1610.-Early life and education:...
.
During the regency, Marie de Medicis
Marie de' Medici
Marie de Médicis , Italian Maria de' Medici, was queen consort of France, as the second wife of King Henry IV of France, of the House of Bourbon. She herself was a member of the wealthy and powerful House of Medici...
entrusted to him the suppression of cities which had risen against it, and for these services he was honored in 1614 with the title of marshall of France by Louis XIII.
He resigned the post of governor of Guyenne in 1613 and only kept the office of governor of Lectoure
Lectoure
Lectoure is a commune in the Gers department in the Midi-Pyrénées in southwestern France.It is located north of Auch, the capital of the department, south of Agen and approximately northwest of Toulouse.-History:...
, which allowed him to return to his domains. He died in Lectoure in 1625 at the age of 81 years.
Descendants
In 1581 he married Catherine d'Ornesan, who died in 1601. They had six children, but he had no male descendants at the time of the death of his son Jean-Louis in 1610. He remarried in 1611 with Susanne de Bassabat, with whom he had twelve children, among them Gaston-Jean-Baptiste de Roquelaure (1617–1683), his main heir. A celebrated wit, Gaston was created the first duke of Roquelaure and peer of FrancePeerage of France
The Peerage of France was a distinction within the French nobility which appeared in the Middle Ages. It was abolished in 1789 during the French Revolution, but it reappeared in 1814 at the time of the Bourbon Restoration which followed the fall of the First French Empire...
in 1652 (although the peerage remained unregistered) and was appointed governor of Guyenne in 1679.
Gaston's son, Antoine-Gaston-Jean-Baptiste de Roquelaure (1656–1738), carried on the family reputation for wit. At a young age served in the Franco-Dutch War
Franco-Dutch War
The Franco-Dutch War, often called simply the Dutch War was a war fought by France, Sweden, the Bishopric of Münster, the Archbishopric of Cologne and England against the United Netherlands, which were later joined by the Austrian Habsburg lands, Brandenburg and Spain to form a quadruple alliance...
and later in the Nine Years' War. He was made governor of Languedoc
Languedoc
Languedoc is a former province of France, now continued in the modern-day régions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées in the south of France, and whose capital city was Toulouse, now in Midi-Pyrénées. It had an area of approximately 42,700 km² .-Geographical Extent:The traditional...
in 1706 and received the marshal's bâton in 1724. The second duke of Roquelaure also gave his name to the "roquelaure" or "roquelaire", a knee-length cloak.
His daughter, Françoise, married Louis Bretagne de Rohan-Chabot (son of Louis de Rohan-Chabot) in 1708 and as a result the duchy of Roquelaure passed to this family, who sold it, eventually coming into the possession of the king. The king sold it to Guillaume Dubarry in 1772.
A marquisate of Roquelaure was created in 1766 in favor of Charles de Roquelaure, lord of Saint-Aubin, but it should not be confused with the original peer-duchy.