Montmorency, Henri, duc de, the elder, 1534–1614, constable of France, French History, Biographies

Related Category: French History, Biographies

Montmorency, Henri, duc de[ANrE´ dUk du mONmOrANsE´] Pronunciation Key, the elder, 1534–1614, constable of France; younger son of Anne de Montmorency. He was known as Henri, comte de Damville, before 1579. He took Louis I de CondE prisoner at Dreux (1562). In 1563 he succeeded his father as governor of Languedoc and in 1567 was made a marshal. A zealous Roman Catholic and adherent of the Guise family until his father's death, he was led by the subsequent decline of his family's fortunes and by the murder of his relative Gaspard de Coligny to associate himself with the moderates who favored a rapprochement with the Huguenots. He resisted royal efforts to remove him from Languedoc, where he was practically an independent sovereign; he was in alliance with the Huguenots from 1575 to 1577, but thereafter remained aloof from both parties, while attempting to bring about their conciliation. He adhered to King Henry IV in 1593 and became constable. After Henry's death (1610) he retired to his province.

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