[75] De Blot obtained the appointment (see Foppens, Bibliotheca Belgica, i. 491).
[76] The Emperor Frederic III., the great-grandfather of Charles V. and Ferdinand, married Eleonora, daughter of Edward, King of Portugal, in 1452.
[78] Montbrun cut to pieces the Swiss troops of de Gordes, who commanded for the King in Dauphiny. After a less decisive engagement the day before, he overtook them on June 13 at the passage of the Drome near Die. Eight hundred Swiss were killed together with their Colonel, and eighteen standards were taken, while the victors only lost six men. See Thuanus, iii. 93.
[79] These Palatines were great Polish magnates.
[80] Charles du Puy Montbrun, a member of one of the oldest families in Dauphiny, was born about 1530. One of his sisters became a Protestant, and took refuge in Geneva. He pursued her thither, declaring that he would either bring her back a Catholic or kill her; but instead of reclaiming her, he fell under the influence of Beza and became himself a convert. In 1560 he raised a small partisan force, with which he carried on a guerilla war in Dauphiny and the Vivarais. His young wife accompanied him on these expeditions, as the camp was her safest abode. He took an active part in the civil wars, and fought bravely at Jarnac and Moncontour.
The affair mentioned in the text was a mere skirmish. Montbrun was engaged in hot pursuit of the King’s troops, whom he had defeated a few days before (see page [78]), when a daring attempt was made by a party of the royal cavalry to seize the bridge of Gervane, and cut off his retreat. Though he had only a small force in hand, he charged the enemy, but finding himself outnumbered was compelled to retreat. His horse fell in trying to leap a ditch, and he was taken prisoner. Busbecq’s account shows that the affair was represented in Paris as a decisive victory. Compare Thuanus, iii. 94, who also states that Montbrun was the first to raise the Huguenot standard after Saint Bartholomew. D’Aubigné (Histoire, vol. ii. bk. ii. ch. ix.) says he will give him no eulogy except the title La Noue conferred upon him—to wit, the Valiant Montbrun.
[81] The King, however, was at the entertainment. ‘A ces nopces se trouvèrent le duc de Lorraine et MM. de Guise, avec la pluspart des princes et seingneurs, qui lors estoient à la Cour, et y dansa le Roy tout du long du jour, en grande allégresse.’—De l’Estoile, i. 82.
[82] Louis Gonzaga, Duc de Nevers, third son of Frederick II., Duke of Mantua, was born in 1539, and was brought up in France with Henry II.’s children. He had a horse killed under him at St. Quentin, was taken prisoner, and was ransomed for 60,000 crowns. In 1565 he married Henriette de Clèves, the sister of the two last Ducs de Nevers, and of Catherine de Clèves, wife of the Duke of Guise, and was created Duc de Nevers. In 1567 he became Governor of the French possessions in Piedmont, and protested strongly against their cession by Henry III. (Mémoires, i. 1). He was deeply implicated in the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew. A partisan of the Guises at the beginning of the League, he afterwards went over to Henry III. At the death of the latter, he at first assumed an attitude of neutrality between the League and Henry IV., but soon espoused the royal cause. He died in 1595.