Gaspard de Coligny

Gaspard de Coligny (February 16, 1519 – August 24, 1572), Seigneur (Lord) de Châtillon held the office of Admiral of France and is best remembered as an austerely disciplined Huguenot leader in the French Wars of Religion.

Ancestry

Coligny came of a noble family of Burgundy. His family traced their descent from the 11th century, and in the reign of Louis XI, were in the service of the King of France. His father, Gaspard I de Coligny, known as the Marshal of Châtillon, served in the Italian Wars from 1494 to 1516, married in 1514, and was created Marshal of France in 1516. By his wife, Louise de Montmorency, sister of the future constable, he had three sons, all of whom played an important part in the first period of the Wars of Religion: Odet, Cardinal de Châtillon; Gaspard; and François, Seigneur d'Andelot.
Odet, Cardinal de Châtillon
Gaspard's brother
François de Coligny d'Andelot
Gaspard's brother

Early life

Born at Châtillon-sur-Loing, at twenty-two young Gaspard de Coligny came to court. There began a friendship with François of Guise.
In the campaign of 1543 Coligny distinguished himself, and was wounded at the sieges of Montmédy and Bains. In 1544 he served in the Italian campaign under the Count of Enghien, and was knighted on the Field of Ceresole. Returning to France, he took part in different military operations; and having been made colonel-general of the infantry (April 1547), exhibited great capacity and intelligence as a military reformer. That year he married Charlotte de Laval (d. 1568). He was made admiral on the death of Claude d'Annebaut (1552). In 1557 he was entrusted with the defence of Saint-Quentin. In the siege he displayed great courage, resolution, and strength of character; but the place was taken, and he was imprisoned in the stronghold of L'Ecluse. On payment of a ransom of 50,000 crowns he recovered his liberty.

Protestant leader

By this time he had become a Huguenot, through the influence of his brother, d'Andelot. The first letter which John Calvin addressed to him is dated September 4, 1558. He busied himself secretly with protecting his co-religionists, a colony of whom he sent to Brazil, under the leadership of his friend and navy colleague, Vice-Admiral Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon, who successfully established the France Antarctique colony in Rio de Janeiro, in 1555. They were afterwards expelled by the Portuguese, in 1567. Coligny also was the leading patron for the failed French colony of Fort Caroline in Spanish Florida led by Jean Ribault in 1562. In 1566 and 1570, Francisque and Andre d'Albaigne submitted to Coligny projects for establishing relations with the Austral lands. Although he gave favorable consideration to these initiatives, they came to nought when Coligny was killed in 1572 during the St. Bartholomew's Day massacres.
John Calvin
On the death of Henry II he placed himself, with Louis, Prince of Condé, in the front of his sect, and demanded religious toleration and certain other reforms. In 1560, at the Assembly of Notables at Fontainebleau, the hostility between Coligny and François of Guise broke forth violently. When the civil wars began in 1562, Coligny decided to take arms only after long hesitation, and he was always ready to negotiate. In none of these wars did he show superior genius, but he acted throughout with great prudence and extraordinary tenacity; he was "le héros de la mauvaise fortune."
Louis I de Bourbon, Prince of Condé
Francis, Duke of Guise
In 1569 the defeat and death of the Prince of Condé at the Battle of Jarnac left him sole leader of the Protestant armies. Victorious at the Arnay-le-Duc, he obtained peace with the Peace of Saint-Germain (1570). Marrying Jacqueline de Montbel, Countess d'Entremont, and returning to the court in 1571, he grew rapidly in favour with Charles IX. As a means of emancipating the king from the tutelage of his mother and the faction of the Guises, the admiral proposed to him a descent on Spanish Flanders, with an army drawn from both sects and commanded by Charles in person. The king's regard for the admiral, anger over the assassination of the Duke of Guise and the increasingly bold demands of the Huguenots, alarmed Catherine, Queen Mother; and the massacre of St Bartholomew was the consequence.
Charles IX of France

An unacceptable peace

The Peace of Saint-Germain put an end to three years of terrible civil war between Catholics and Protestants. This peace was precarious, however, since the more intransigent Catholics refused to accept it. With the Guise family, who led this faction, out of favour at the French court, Coligny was readmitted into the king's council in September 1571. Staunch Catholics were shocked by the return of the Protestants to the court, but the Queen Dowager, Catherine de' Medici, and her son, King Charles IX, were determined not to let war break out again. They were also conscious of the kingdom's financial difficulties, which led them to uphold the peace and remain on friendly terms with Coligny. The Huguenots were in a strong defensive position as they controlled the fortified towns of La Rochelle, La Charité-sur-Loire, Cognac, and Montauban. To cement the peace between the two religious parties, Catherine de' Medici planned to marry her daughter Marguerite de Valois, to the Protestant prince, Henry of Navarre (the future King Henry IV). The royal marriage was arranged for the 18 August 1572. It was not accepted by diehard Catholics, or by the Pope. Both the Pope and King Philip II of Spain strongly condemned the Queen Dowager's policy.
Henry of Navarre

Assassination & St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre

The impending marriage led to the gathering of a large number of well-born Protestants in Paris, who had come to escort their prince. But Paris was a violently anti-Huguenot city, and Parisians, who tended to be extreme Catholics, found their presence unacceptable. Encouraged by Catholic preachers, particularly the Capuchins, they were horrified at the marriage of a princess of France with a Protestant. The Parlement of Paris itself decided to snub the marriage ceremony.
After the wedding, Coligny and the leading Huguenots remained in Paris in order to discuss some outstanding grievances about the Peace of St. Germain with the King. On August 22, 1572 Coligny was shot in the street by Maurevel from a house belonging to the Guise; the bullets, however, only tore a finger from his right hand and shattered his left elbow. The would-be assassin, Maurevert, escaped in the ensuing confusion.
Historians differ on who was the author of this assassination attempt but generally center on three possibilities: the Guise family, Catherine de Medici, or the duke of Albe for Phillip II of Spain.
Admiral de Coligny was the most respected Huguenot leader. Aware of the danger from the Protestants, the king and his court visited Coligny on his sickbed and promised him the culprits would be punished. While the Queen Mother was eating dinner, Protestants burst in to demand justice. Fears of Huguenot reprisals grew. Coligny's brother-in-law led a 4,000-strong army camped just outside Paris and, though there is no evidence it was planning to attack, Catholics in the city feared it might take revenge on the Guises or the city populace itself. That very evening, Catherine held a meeting at the Tuileries Palace with her Italian advisers and Baron de Retz.
Catherine de Medici
On the evening of August 23, Catherine went to see the king to discuss the crisis. Though no details of the meeting survive, it is obvious that Charles IX and his mother took the decision to eliminate the Protestant leaders. According to an unsubstantiated tradition, he angrily exclaimed: "Well then, so be it! Kill them! But kill them all! Don't leave a single one alive to reproach me!"
Shortly after this decision, the municipal authorities of Paris were summoned. They were ordered to shut the city gates and to arm the citizenry in order to prevent any attempt at an uprising. The king's Swiss Guard was given the task of killing a list of leading Protestants. It is difficult today to determine the exact chronology of events and to know the moment the killing began. It seems a signal was given by ringing bells for matins (between midnight and dawn) at the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, near the Louvre, which was the parish church of the kings of France. Before this, the Swiss guards had expelled the Protestant nobles from the Louvre palace and then slaughtered them in the streets. Coligny was dragged from his bed by the Duke of Guise himself, killed, and the Duke’s servant, Charles Danowitz, threw his body out of the window. The tension that had been building since the Peace of St. Germain now exploded in a wave of popular violence. The common people began to hunt Protestants throughout the city. The ferocity of the slaughter was incredible. Chains were used to block streets so that Protestants could not escape from their houses. Women and children were butchered in cold blood. The massacre lasted several days. The number of victims is unknown, but some recent historians estimate the number of dead at 2,000 in Paris, and 5,000 to 10,000 in the rest of France.
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