Gaspard (Coligny) de Coligny (1519 - 1572)

Born 16 Feb 1519 in Châtillon-sur-Loing, Gâtinais, Orléanais, France

Ancestors

Husband of Jacqueline (Montbel) de Montbel d'Entremont — married 25 Mar 1571 in La Rochelle, Aunis, France

Descendants

Died 24 Aug 1572 at age 53 in Paris, Île-de-France, France

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Biography

Amiral Gaspard II Coligny was a member of the aristocracy in Europe.

Gaspard de Coligny, comte de Coligny, was born on 16 February 1519 at Châtillon-sur-Loing^[1] (the town has been renamed to Châtillon-Coligny in 1896). He was the son of Gaspard de Coligny, Marshal of France, and his wife Louise de Montmorency. His mother had been previously married to Fercy de Mailly, by whom she had three children. Gaspard de Coligny and Louise de Montmorency's marriage produced four sons, Pierre (1515-1528), Odet de Coligny (1517-1571)^[2] and François d'Andelot (1521-1569)^[3].

Gaspard's father died when he was three years old. He was raised with his brothers by his mother Louise.

In 1530, Louise de Montmorency became lady of honour of Eléonore de Habsbourg, king François I's second wife. Her sons lived at court and Gaspard was close to the king's sons. While his brother Odet chose an ecclesiastical career, Gaspard distinguished himself in military action (1542-1546).

Marriage

In 1547, Gaspard de Coligny married Charlotte de Laval (daughter of Count Gui XVI de Laval). They had eight children :

1. an unnamed son (1549)^[4], died young
2. Henri (1551) ^[4]
3. Gaspard (1554)
4. Louise (1555)
5. François (1557)
6. Odet (1560)^[4]
7. Renée (1562)^[4]
8. Charles (1564)

Charlotte de Laval died in 1568.

On 25 March 1571, Gaspard married Jacqueline de Montbel, comtesse d'Entremont et de Nottage (1541-1600). Their only child, Béatrice, was born four months after her father's death.

Gaspard de Coligny converted to Protestantism around 1560, after his wife Charlotte and his brother François. He rejected violence against Protestants and condemned the events of Amboise. He joined Condé when the war between Catholics and Protestants broke out (1562).

Death

In 1571, Coligny managed to regain King Charles IX's favor. However, he was hated by the Catholics at court and could only have limited influence.

On 22 August 1572, soon after the marriage of Henri de Navarre and the king's sister Marguerite, Coligny was injured by Charles de Louviers. The king sent his physician, Ambroise Paré, to take care of him and promise justice. But at the same time, the murder of Protestant leaders had been decided, and in the night between 23 and 24 August (Saint Barthélemy), Gaspard de Coligny was murdered in his bed. His body was thrown by the window, mauled, decapitated, and exposed at Montfaucon (the place were hangings were carried out).

Alleged daughter

The mythical Annietta de Coligny is not one of Gaspard de Coligny's known children and no daughter ‘Annietta’ is mentioned in the Admiral’s own record of his family). She is only known through the book Universal International Genealogy and of the Ancient Fernald Families (1909) by Charles Augustus Fernald, a notoriously fabricated genealogy.

Sources

1. ↑ "Le mecredy XVIe jour de févryer mil Vc XVIII fut né Gaspart de Coulligny à Chastillon", autograph annotation by Louise de Montmorency in her book of hours, cited in Japikse, N. (1935), « Le livre d'heures de Louise de Montmorency: épouse de Gaspard I de Coligny (1514) », Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire du protestantisme français, vol. 84, no 1,‎ 1935, p. 39. Available on JSTOR.
2. ↑ Cardinal Odet de Coligny
3. ↑ François d'Andelot
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3} Schwennicke, Detlev (ed.). 1991. Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band XIV-Les Familles Féodales de France II. Marburg: J.A. Stargardt. Tafel 61.

• https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tree/26332013/family
• [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaspard_II_de_Coligny Wikipedia Gaspard_II_de_Coligny
• Chalmers' General Biographical Dictionary
• The fraudulent Coligny-Rapalje descent by John Blythe Dobson (article).