The Gondi

Family Strategy and Survival in Early Modern France

Joanna Milstein

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781409454731
• eBook ISBN: 9781317030003
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

One of the most striking features of French government in the second half of the sixteenth century was the influence of Italians. Notwithstanding widespread French admiration for Italian culture, Italian influence at the heart of French government aroused xenophobic antagonism amongst many in French society. This study throws light on this complex relationship by offering the first detailed examination of the Gondi, one of the most influential of the Italian families active during this period. The Gondi family played a leading part in the finance, government, church and military affairs of the nation, and were indispensable counsellors to the Queen Mother, Catherine De' Medici. They were also the targets of anti-Italian hostility, much of it deliberately stirred by rivals in the French aristocracy who felt threatened by these powerful foreigners occupying positions they believed were rightfully theirs. The book examines perceptions of the Gondi through examination of contemporary pamphlets, diaries, and ambassadors' dispatches. It investigates, among other issues, their notorious role in the plotting of the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572. Making use of many previously overlooked archival sources from France and Italy, this book charts the Gondi's rise to power and demonstrates how their deft use of patronage and financial expertise allowed them to weave the intricate web of power and obligation that protected them against native hostility. In so doing the book reveals much about government and society in late sixteenth-century France.

Chapter 1
The Gondi in France: Perceptions and Realities

Contemporary perceptions of the Gondi tell us much about what French society thought of the family and more generally of the influence of Italians in France during the sixteenth century. Historians hold many views regarding the Gondi family’s participation in the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. There were widespread negative reactions to the influence of Italians in the years following 1572. The elites saw Italians as foreigners, and thus convenient scapegoats, much easier to attack than their own rulers.

Of all the sixteenth-century sources that discuss the Gondi, the most sharply critical tend to be the contemporary memoirs composed by figures who knew the world of the French court. All of the leading figures of the family, Albert and his brother Pierre, as well as their cousin Jérôme, were targets of this sort of vituperation. Pierre de Bourdeille, Seigneur de Brantôme, the Marshal of Tavannes and Marguerite de Valois were among the most critical.¹ Tracts, diatribes, pamphlets and poetry written by Protestant authors, notably the Protestant monarchomachs François Hotman and Innocent Gentillet, were especially vituperative. Other writings by Catholic and anonymous authors, for example the Réveille-Matin des François and the Discours Merveilleux de La Vie de Catherine de Médicis, as well as many works recorded in Pierre de L’Estoile’s Registre-Journal, need to be considered. Ambassadors’ dispatches and correspondence are also worthy of scrutiny.

Views about the Gondi can be situated in the general context of anti-Italianism. Other influential Italian families in France, among them the Gonzague-Nevers and the Birague, were also attacked. But in most cases, criticisms tended to be far less specific. Commentators seldom singled out individual family members but placed these families in the umbrella categories of ‘Machiavellistes’, or ‘people of the court’. The Gondi, in contrast, were singled out for special opprobrium.² They were accused of profiting from as well as participating in the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, and denounced as the favourites of the queen mother and King Charles IX. The Gondi rise to fame and fortune was observed in some detail by the astute observer of Parisian politics Pierre de L’Estoile. In his Registre-Journal entry from June 1574, ‘Généalogie du Comte de Rets et de l’ancienne et bonne fortune de lui et ses frères’, he devotes considerable space to an account of the seemingly inexorable rise of the family to a position of towering political influence. This diary entry discusses the family’s roots in Florence, their move to Lyon and their entry into court through Marie-Catherine de Pierrevive, Albert’s mother.³

According to L’Estoile, after the death of Henry II in 1559, when Catherine de’ Medici took control of government affairs, she advanced the children of Marie-Catherine and Antoine de Gondi, who at that time apparently only had 2,000 livres worth of revenue. By the time Charles IX died, however, Antoine’s son Albert de Gondi, Count of Retz, was already First Gentleman of the King’s Chamber (premier gentilhomme de la chambre) and Marshal of France. He had 100,000 livres of rentes, money and property estimated to be worth between 1,500,000 and 1,800,000 livres. Moreover, his brother Pierre controlled the bishopric of Paris and held another 30,000 to 40,000 livres in other benefices and 200,000 écus in goods. Albert and Pierre’s younger brother, Charles, Seigneur de la Tour, was a military captain, chevalier de l’ordre and maître de la garderobe du roi. All brothers were members of the conseil privé du roi. L’Estoile wrote that their great rise to fortune from such humble backgrounds was one of the miracles of his time.⁴ They had achieved all of this while Brantôme claimed that Antoine had been twice bankrupt.⁵

This tale of a meteoric rise bears a remarkable similarity to what would later be said of the early history of the Richelieu family. One such tale recounted the initial poverty of the cardinal. Allegedly, his father had died in such dire circumstances that the cardinal’s mother had to sell her late husband’s Collar of the Order of the Holy Spirit to finance his burial. As Joseph Bergin correctly emphasizes, historians used this story for their own purposes, among them to demonstrate the cardinal’s extraordinary rise set against a backdrop of difficult circumstances. In reality, little is known about the Richelieu family’s situation in 1590. Recent historiography has demonstrated that the family was not so poor, making the cardinal’s rise seem somewhat less extraordinary.⁶ Similarly, though the extraordinary political eminence of the Gondi could not have been predicted, this was hardly a rags-to-riches story. The family was certainly wealthy before they moved into the inner circles of the court.

Catherine de’ Medici consolidated the power of the Gondi family by promoting its members to prominent positions in the royal households. It is certainly true that the Gondi’s rise was quick and substantial. Antoine de Gondi, Seigneur du Perron (who got his title with the purchase of his Seigneurie in Lyon), established himself as a merchant and banker in Lyon. Albert de Gondi, Antoine’s eldest son, began his career in the military, serving in Renty against the Spanish in 1554, and in 1555 in Volpiano and Coni and helped to take Vercelli and other parts of Piedmont and Corsica. He also took part in the disastrous battles of Saint-Quentin (1557) and Gravelines (1558). In 1554 he was promoted to the position of gentilhomme de la chambre et maître de la garderobe of Charles Maximilien Duke of Orléans, the future Charles IX.⁷ Additionally, he was captain of a ship and two galleys in 1562. He was made chevalier de l’ordre du roi in 1563. In 1565, Albert married the widow Claude-Catherine de Clermont-Dampierre, Baroness of Retz, and took on her title in the barony of Retz in Brittany. This marriage to a French noblewoman catapulted Albert to the upper echelons of French nobility. In 1568 he became governor of Nantes and governor of Metz in 1571.⁸ On 10 July 1573 Charles IX made Albert Marshal of France, following the death of the Marshal of Tavannes. At this time he was also conseiller du roi en son conseil privé, premier gentilhomme de sa maison, as well as gouverneur et lieutenant général de Metz et du Pays Messin.⁹ He also became count and then Marquis of Belle-Isle in Brittany (1573) and of the Îles d’Or (Îles d’Hyères) in the South of France. By the mid 1570s, Albert de Gondi was wealthier than many of his Italian peers in France. Historians have recently estimated that his net worth at that time was approximately 5,000,000 livres.¹⁰

Figure 1.1 Albert de Gondi. Recueil: Portraits dessinés de la Cour de France (ID/COTE: Reserve NA-22 (21) BTE). Cliché Bibliothèque Nationale de France

Many sources confirm that Albert was King Charles IX’s favourite. Arnaud Sorbin, Bishop of Nevers, noted Charles IX’s fondness for all three Gondi brothers, Albert, Pierre and Charles. Sorbin further observed that the king rarely liked people unless he found them to possess unique virtues. ¹¹

St Bartholomew

The reputation of the Gondi will be forever associated with their alleged role in the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. The Massacre was immediately preceded by the attempted assassination of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, a Protestant nobleman and powerful relative of the Montmorency family, on 22 August 1572. After the failure of this attempt, on 23 August, the royal council decided that Coligny and other Protestant leaders should be executed. Many Huguenots were in Paris after having attended the 18 August wedding of Margaret de Valois and Henry of Navarre. The king’s order to assassinate Coligny and around 70 Protestant leaders and the decision to call upon the recently formed city militia, composed of many fanatic Catholics, led to a general attack on French Protestants in Paris. Attacks on the Protestant leadership occurred before dawn on 24 August.¹² By 3pm, the king ordered the carnage to stop but it continued due to delayed communications and the late publication of the king’s declaration. The violence quickly spread to the provinces and continued for weeks in several towns across the country, including Rouen, Lyon and Troyes, resulting in thousands of deaths.¹³ Estimates vary, but approximately between 2,000 and 6,000 people perished in Paris;¹⁴ 10,000 people are believed to have died across the kingdom.¹⁵

It is important to bear in mind that most historians now distinguish between the decision to assassinate Coligny and the Pr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• Foreword and Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 The Gondi in France: Perceptions and Realities
• 2 Money for Royal Endeavours
• 3 Power, Prowess and Prestige: The Gondi in Politics
• 4 Pierre de Gondi: Churchman and King’s Man
• 5 Gondi Women
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index