Seigneurs and Dukes of Retz owned the district of Retz or Rais, is in South

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...

History

Rais belonged in early times to a house which bore its name, and of which the eldest branch became extinct in the 13th century in the . From the Chabot family the lordship passed to the

Laval Laval means ''The Valley'' in old French and is the name of: People * House of Laval, a French noble family originating from the town of Laval, Mayenne * Laval (surname) Places Belgium * Laval, a village in the municipality of Sainte-Ode, Luxem ...

s. Gilles de Laval, sire de Retz ( 1405–1440), the comrade-in-arms of

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= �an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronati ...

and

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 ...

, gave himself over to the most revolting debauchery, and was strangled and burned at Nantes. The barony of Retz passed successively to the families of Tournemine, Annebaut and Gondi. In 1581 it was erected into a duchy 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 ...

(''duché-pairie'') for

Albert de Gondi Albert de Gondi, duc de Retz (4 November 1522 in Florence – 1602) seigneur du Perron, comte, then marquis de Belle-Isle (1573), duc de Retz (from 1581), was a marshal of France and a member of the Gondi family. Beginning his career during the ...

, marshal of France and .

Pierre de Gondi Pierre de Gondi, cardinal de Retz (1533–1616) was a French bishop and cardinal of the Gondi family. Life Born in Lyon, he was a brother of Albert de Gondi (two of whose sons, Henri and Jean-François, succeeded Pierre as bishop of Paris) and a ...

, brother of the first duc de Retz, became

bishop of Paris The Archdiocese of Paris (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Parisiensis''; French: ''Archidiocèse de Paris'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France. It is one of twenty-three archdioceses in France ...

in 1570 and cardinal in 1587. He was succeeded by his nephews,

Henri Henri is an Estonian, Finnish, French, German and Luxembourgish form of the masculine given name Henry (given name), Henry. People with this given name ; French noblemen :'' See the 'List_of_rulers_named_Henry#France, List of rulers named Henry ...

(died 1622) and Jean François de Gondi (died 1654), for whom the episcopal see of Paris was erected into an archbishopric in 1622, and by his great-nephew,

Jean François Paul de Gondi Jean François Paul de Gondi, cardinal de Retz (20 September 1613 – 24 August 1679) was a French churchman, writer of memoirs, and agitator in the Fronde. The Florentine banking and noble Gondi family had been introduced into France by Cather ...

, the famous cardinal de Retz. With the death of in 1676 the ''duché-pairie'' became extinct; the lordship passed to the house of Neuville-Villeroy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Retz Dukes of France