[107] Anne de Levis, Duc de Ventadour, was the representative of one of the most ancient and illustrious families of France, which derived its name from the estate of Levis, near Chevreuse, where his ancestor, Guy de Levis, a famous general, founded in the year 1190 the abbey of La Roche.
[108] Valadier, year 1600.
[109] Guillaume du Vair, ultimately Bishop of Lisieux, and Keeper of the Seals, was the son of Jean du Vair, knight, and attorney-general of Catherine de Medicis and Henri de France, Duc d'Anjou. He was born at Paris on the 8th of March 1556, and was successively councillor of parliament, master of requests, first president of the Parliament of Provence, and finally (in 1616) keeper of the seals. He subsequently embraced the ecclesiastical profession, and was elevated to the see of Lisieux in 1618. He was a man of consummate talent; and his works, which were published in folio in Paris, in 1641, are still highly esteemed. Guillaume du Vair died at Tonnoins, in Agénois, in 1621, at the age of sixty-six years.
[110] Chronologie Septennaire, p. 184.
[111] François Suarés, a celebrated scholar and theologian, was born at Granada in 1548, and in 1564 became a Jesuit. He taught theology, with great success, at Alcala, Salamanca, Rome, and Coimbra; and died at Lisbon in 1617. His collected works were published in twenty-three folio volumes, and are principally treatises on theology and morals. His treatise on the laws was reprinted in England.
[112] L'Etoile, Journal de Henri IV, vol. ii. p. 589.
[113] Cayet, p. 187. L'Etoile, vol. i. pp. 539, 540.
[114] Rambure, MS. Mém. vol. i. pp. 276, 277.
[115] Albert de Bellièvre was the second son of the celebrated Chancellor Pomponne de Bellièvre and of Marie Prunier, demoiselle de Grignon. He was a distinguished classic and an elegant scholar. Having become Archbishop of Lyons, he subsequently transferred that dignity to his younger brother Claude, and retired to his abbey of Jouy, where he died in 1621.
[116] Antoine de Roquelaure, Seigneur de Roquelaure in Armagnac, de Guadoux, etc., marshal of France, grand-master of the King's wardrobe, knight of the Orders of St. Michael and the Holy Ghost, perpetual mayor of Bordeaux, etc., was the younger son of Geraud Roquelaure, and the representative of an illustrious house. He was highly esteemed both by Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre, and by Henry IV, who loaded him with honours and distinctions in requital of his faithful and zealous services. He subsequently became governor of several provinces, and was created a marshal of France by Louis XIII, in 1615. He restored to their allegiance Clérac, Nérac, and several other revolted fortesses; and died at Lectoure in 1625, at the age of eighty-two years.