Duke of Brissac (french: duc de Brissac) is a title of

French nobility The French nobility (french: la noblesse française) was a privileged social class in France from the Middle Ages until its abolition on June 23, 1790 during the French Revolution. From 1808 to 1815 during the First Empire the Emperor Napoléo ...

in the

Peerage of France The Peerage of France (french: Pairie de France) was a hereditary distinction within the French nobility which appeared in 1180 in the Middle Ages. The prestigious title and position of Peer of France (french: Pair de France, links=no) was ...

, which was originally created in 1611 for Charles II de Cossé, Count of Brissac. This title has been held since April 2021 by Charles-André de Cossé-Brissac (b. 1962), who is the 14th Duke of Brissac. The ancestral home of the Cossé-Brissac family is the

Château de Brissac The Château de Brissac is a French château in the Brissac-Quincé area of the commune of Brissac Loire Aubance, located in the department of Maine-et-Loire, France. The property is owned by the Cossé-Brissac family, whose head bears the F ...

, which the family still owns.

Early history

The fief of Brissac in

Anjou Anjou may refer to: Geography and titles France *County of Anjou, a historical county in France and predecessor of the Duchy of Anjou **Count of Anjou, title of nobility *Duchy of Anjou, a historical duchy and later a province of France **Duke ...

had been acquired at the end of the 15th century by a French family named Cossé from the same province. René de Cossé (1460-1540) married into the

Gouffier Gouffier, the name of a great France, French family, which owned the estate of Bonnivet in Poitou from the 14th century. *Guillaume Gouffier, chamberlain to Charles VII of France, Charles VII, was an inveterate enemy of Jacques Coeur, obtaining his ...

family, which was at that time very powerful at court. He was awarded the title of ''premier panetier'' to King

Louis XII of France Louis XII (27 June 14621 January 1515), was King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Maria of Cleves, he succeeded his 2nd cousin once removed and brother in law at the tim ...

. Two sons of René de Cossé were prominent French military commanders and became

Marshals of France Marshal of France (french: Maréchal de France, plural ') is a French military distinction, rather than a military rank, that is awarded to generals for exceptional achievements. The title has been awarded since 1185, though briefly abolished (1 ...

. The fief of Brissac was assigned the status of a

County A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

in 1560 and allotted to René's elder son,

Charles de Cossé, Count of Brissac Charles de Cossé, comte de Brissac (1505 ( O.S.)/06 – 1563), was a French courtier and soldier, named ''beau Brissac'' at court and remembered as the ''Maréchal Brissac''. A member of the nobility of Anjou, he was appointed in 1540 to his fath ...

, who was grand master of artillery and governor of

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

and

Picardy Picardy (; Picard and french: Picardie, , ) is a historical territory and a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region of Hauts-de-France. It is located in the northern part of France. Hi ...

. It was he who introduced the Italian violin to the French court. The second son of René was Artus de Cossé (1512-1582), who held the offices of

Grand Panetier of France The Grand Panetier of France (roughly "Great Breadmaster", sometimes rendered as Panter) was one of the Great Officers of the Crown of France, a member of the Maison du Roi ("King's Household"), one of the Great Offices of the Maison du Roi, and f ...

and superintendent of finance, and he distinguished himself in the

French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion is the term which is used in reference to a period of civil war between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants, commonly called Huguenots, which lasted from 1562 to 1598. According to estim ...

. The younger son of

, was

Charles II de Cossé Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

. He fought for the Catholic League and, as

military governor of Paris The Military governor of Paris is a post within the French Army. He commands the garrison of Paris and represents all the military based in Paris at high state occasions. He is also responsible (subordinate to the President of France) for organiz ...

, opened the gates of that city to

Henry IV of France Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarc ...

, who appointed him

Marshal of France Marshal of France (french: Maréchal de France, plural ') is a French military distinction, rather than a military rank, that is awarded to generals for exceptional achievements. The title has been awarded since 1185, though briefly abolished (1 ...

in 1594. The County of Brissac was raised in status to a

Duchy A duchy, also called a dukedom, is a Middle Ages, medieval country, territory, fiefdom, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess, a ruler hierarchically second to the king or Queen regnant, queen in Western European tradition. There once exis ...

in the

in 1611. At that point, Charles II de Cossé became the first Duke of Brissac.

Subsequent history

Notable Dukes of Brissac include

Jean Paul Timoléon de Cossé-Brissac Jean Paul Timoléon de Cossé-Brissac, 7th Duke of Brissac (12 October 1698, in Paris – 1784, in Sarrelouis), was a French general during the reign of King Louis XV. He is most notable for leading the French vanguard at the Battle of Minden, ...

, who was the seventh Duke of Brissac and a

. He was a French general during the reign of King

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reache ...

and was noteworthy for leading the French vanguard at the

Battle of Minden The Battle of Minden was a major engagement during the Seven Years' War, fought on 1 August 1759. An Anglo-German army under the overall command of Prussian Field Marshal Ferdinand of Brunswick defeated a French army commanded by Marshal of F ...

, after which he became a

. The seventh Duke of Brissac was eventually succeeded by his second son,

Louis Hercule Timoléon de Cossé-Brissac Louis Hercule Timoléon de Cossé-Brissac, Duke of Brissac (14 February 1734, Paris – 9 September 1792, Versailles), was a French military commander and peer of France. He was the second son and eventual heir of Jean Paul Timoléon de Cossé-B ...

. Noted for his devotion to

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

, Brissac served as the commander of the briefly established

Constitutional Guard The Constitutional Guard (French: ''Garde Constitutionnelle'') was a French royal guard formation which lasted a few months in 1792 as part of the Maison du Roi, being superseded by the National Guard. It existed in the period of the constitution ...

of the King. On 9 September 1792, he was killed during the

September Massacres The September Massacres were a series of killings of prisoners in Paris that occurred in 1792, from Sunday, 2 September until Thursday, 6 September, during the French Revolution. Between 1,176 and 1,614 people were killed by ''fédérés'', gua ...

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

. His body was butchered and his head severed. The head was wrapped in a cloth and carried by a peasant mob to the

Château de Louveciennes The Château de Louveciennes in Louveciennes, in the Yvelines département of France, is composed of the château itself, constructed at the end of the 17th century. It was then expanded and redecorated by Ange-Jacques Gabriel for Madame du Barry ...

where it was thrown through an open window, landing in the ''salon'' of his lover,

Madame du Barry Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse du Barry (19 August 1743 – 8 December 1793) was the last ''maîtresse-en-titre'' of King Louis XV of France. She was executed, by guillotine, during the French Revolution due to accounts of treason—particularly being ...

. After the death of Louis-Hercule in 1792 without a living male-line descendant, the ducal title passed to Timoléon de Cossé-Brissac (1775–1848). He was the eldest son of Hyacinthe-Hugues de Cossé-Brissac, Duke of Cossé (1746–1813), whose father was René-Hugues de Cossé-Brissac, Count of Cossé (1702–1754). René-Hugues was the third son of Artus de Cossé-Brissac, 5th Duke of Brissac (1668–1709), the father of the 6th and 7th Dukes of Brissac. After Timoléon de Cossé-Brissac died in 1848, the ducal title was held by his successive descendants in the male line, including François, 11th Duke of Brissac, Pierre, 12th Duke of Brissac, and François, 13th Duke of Brissac. The current holder of the ducal title is Charles-André de Cossé-Brissac, 14th Duke of Brissac. The

heir apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...

to this title is his eldest son, Laszlo de Cossé-Brissac, Marquis of Brissac.

References

External links

Château de Brissac
– official website

– ''Héraldique européenne'' website {{in lang, fr