Gabriel (Montgomery) de Montgomery (abt. 1530 - 1574)

Born about 5 May 1530 in Ducey, Normandie, France

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 26 Jun 1574 at about age 44 in Paris, France [uncertain]

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Biography

Gabriel was the son of Jacque de Montgomerie.^[1]

Politics , he was a leader of the Huguenots. Gabriel, Comte de Montgomery, Seigneur de Lorges (5 May 1530 – 26 June 1574), a French nobleman, was a captain of the Scots Guards of King Henry II of France. He is remembered for mortally injuring King Henry II in a jousting accident and subsequently converting to Protestantism, the faith that the Scots Guard sought to suppress. He became a leader of the Huguenots.

MONTGOMERY, Gabriel, Count de (1530-74). French knight of Scottish extraction. He was an officer in the Scottish Life Guard of the King of France, and in a tournament held June 29, 1559, accidentally inflicted a mortal wound on Henry II. Montgomery, although blameless, left France, and soon after embraced Protestantism in England.^[2] On the commencement of the religious wars in 1562, he returned to his native country to support the Protestant cause, and defended Rouen with great bravery. In the third civil war he was one of the leaders of the Protestants, and gained many advantages over the Royalists in Languedoc and Béarn. During the massacre of Saint Bartholomew's he happened to be at Paris, but fled to England, owing his escape to the fleetness of his horse. In April, 1573, be appeared off Rochelle with a small fleet, but failed in accomplishing anything. Next year, at the head of a band of Huguenots, he landed in Normandy and commenced war there; but being compelled at last to surrender the Castle of Domfront, he was carried to Paris, and was beheaded.

Gabriel, comte de Montgomery, seigneur de Lorges (5 May 1530 – 26 June 1574), a French nobleman, was a captain in Henry II's Scots Guards. He is remembered for mortally injuring Henry in a jousting accident and subsequently converting to Protestantism, the faith that the Scottish Guard sought to suppress.

On either 30 June or 1 July 1559, during a jousting match to celebrate the Peace of Cateau Cambrésis between Henry II and his longtime Habsburg enemies, a splinter of wood from Montgomery's shattered lance pierced Henry's eye and entered his brain, mortally injuring him. From his deathbed Henry absolved Montgomery of any blame, but, finding himself disgraced, Montgomery retreated to his estates in Normandy. There he studied theology and converted to Protestantism, making him an enemy of the state.

In 1562, Montgomery allied himself with another Protestant convert, Louis I de Bourbon, prince de Condé. He was one of the few refugees to survive the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre after a wounded Huguenot swam across the Seine to warn him that rioting had begun. He took control of Bourges and during September and October defended Rouen from the Royal Army. A price was put on his head, but he managed to escape to England. The queen mother, Catherine de' Medici, asked Queen Elizabeth I for his extradition, but Elizabeth refused.

Montgomery returned to France with a fleet in an attempt to relieve the Siege of La Rochelle in 1573 and the following year he attempted an insurrection in Normandy, but was captured and sentenced to death. On 26 June 1574, as he was about to be beheaded, Montgomery was informed that a royal edict had proclaimed that his property would be confiscated and his children deprived of their titles.

He married Isabeau de La Touche (1550–1593), by whom he had four sons and four daughters:

Sons

1. Jacques I de Montgomery (1551–1560)
2. Gédéon de Montgomery (died 1596)
3. Gilles de Montgomery (1558–1596)
4. Gabriel II de Montgomery (1565–1635), who built the Château de Ducey, and was father to six children

Daughters

1. Suzanne de Montgomery
2. Elisabeth de Montgomery
3. Claude de Montgomery
4. Roberte de Montgomery, wife of Gawen Champernowne (died 1591) of Dartington in Devon, by whom she had issue. In 1582 she divorced him for adultery and in 1595 married Thomas Horner of Cloford.

Sources

1. ↑ Beauvais de Préau, Charles Théodore, Dictionnaire historique: ou, Biographie universelle classique, Volume 2, p. 2062
2. ↑ Cokayne, George Edward, "The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom", London: William Pollard & Co, 1949, Ed. 2 Vol XI, FamilySearch, p. 146

See also:

• Wikipedia: Gabriel de Lorges, Count of Montgomery

• Wikidata: Item Q177046, en:Wikipedia

• WIkipedia: Gabriel Ier de Montgommery

• 16th century German print, anonymous - "Catherine de Medicis et Henri III" Historia