Elizabeth I of England holding an olive branch

François de Civille, seigneur de Saint-Mards (1537–1610), was a French soldier and diplomat. The Civille family of

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...

was of Spanish origin.

Buried alive

François de Civille was a soldier 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 ...

. He wrote a memoir describing being found dead, buried, and resuscitated at the siege of

in 1562. He was shot in the head and fell from the ramparts into the ditch, where workers buried him on 12 October 1562. Civille's groom went to collect the body to bury it properly and found he was still alive. During his recovery, soldiers looking for his younger brother discovered him in bed and threw him out of the window. He landed in a dung heap in the courtyard where he remained senseless in his night clothes for three days until he was found by his cousin. His injuries left him unable to close his mouth without pain. Subsequently, Civille would write "Dead, Buried, Resuscitated" under his signature. Civille wrote a memoir of his 1562 experience and had it printed in 1606. Pierre de L'Estoile noted its publication in July 1606. In a later addition to the story, it was said that Civille died after falling a third time, falling ill on an icy night while peeping into a neighbour's window.

Diplomat and refugee

As a diplomat he worked for Françoise de Bourbon,

Duchess of Bouillon There have been duchesses of Bouillon, Belgium, Bouillon, in present-day Belgium, since the tenth century. Lady of Bouillon Ardennes-Bouillon dynasty, ?-1100 :''Sold to the Bishopric of Liège'' House of La Marck, ?-1588 House of La Tour ...

and was an informant for

Francis Walsingham Sir Francis Walsingham ( – 6 April 1590) was principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England from 20 December 1573 until his death and is popularly remembered as her "spymaster". Born to a well-connected family of gentry, Wals ...

, reporting on English visitors at Rouen, and declared that he was as sure and constant in Walsingham's service 'as a diamond is hard'. He sent gifts of dried fruit, apples and pears, to

Ursula St Barbe Ursula St Barbe (died 18 June 1602), also known as Ursula, Lady Worsley and Ursula, Lady Walsingham, was a lady at the court of Queen Elizabeth I of England. She was the daughter of Henry St Barbe, of Ashington, Somerset, by his wife, Eleanor L ...

and

Lettice Knollys Lettice Knollys ( , sometimes latinized as Laetitia, alias Lettice Devereux or Lettice Dudley), Countess of Essex and Countess of Leicester (8 November 1543Adams 2008a – 25 December 1634), was an English noblewoman and mother to the courtier ...

, the wives of Walsingham and

Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, (24 June 1532 – 4 September 1588) was an English statesman and the favourite of Elizabeth I from her accession until his death. He was a suitor for the queen's hand for many years. Dudley's youth was ov ...

. He came to London and met

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

in 1584 and 1588. He and his wife, Jehanne du Mouchet, and family came to Rye in July 1585 and were listed as Protestant refugees in London in January 1586. In 1588, Elizabeth gave him a jewel and her portrait, according to an inscription on a painting belonging to his descendants. Leaving his wife in London, he travelled to Edinburgh in March 1589 to raise an army of 3000 soldiers for Henri of Navarre and work on the unsuccessful negotiations for the marriage of

James VI of Scotland James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until hi ...

Catherine de Bourbon Catherine de Bourbon (7 February 1559 – 13 February 1604) was a Navarrese regent princess. She was the daughter of Queen Joan III and King Anthony of Navarre. She ruled the principality of Béarn in the name of her brother, King Henry III ...

, the sister of Henri of Navarre. James was advised of Civille's mission by Henri's letter of 23 December 1588. Civille arrived in Edinburgh on 10 March 1589 and had his first audience on 15 March.

David Moysie David Moysie () was a Scottish notary public, known as the author of the ''Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland, 1577–1603''.Also Moise, Moyses, Mosey. Life He was by profession a writer and notary public. A notarial attestation of a lease by hi ...

wrote only that Civille was a "packet bearer" from Navarre who came for troops. An English observer at the Scottish court Thomas Fowler wrote that Civille and Jérôme Groslot, Sieur de l’Isle encouraged Edinburgh merchants who dealt with France to support the Navarre marriage. However, James married

Anne of Denmark Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional fo ...

instead. A cipher key in the Hawthornden manuscripts relates to their missions. Civille mentioned in a letter from Wemyss that the

Earl of Huntingdon Earl of Huntingdon is a title which has been created several times in the Peerage of England. The medieval title (1065 creation) was associated with the ruling house of Scotland (David I of Scotland, David of Scotland). The seventh and most rec ...

was his 'old and gracious master'. Civille was given 1,200

merks The merk is a long-obsolete Scottish silver coin. Originally the same word as a money mark of silver, the merk was in circulation at the end of the 16th century and in the 17th century. It was originally valued at 13 shillings 4 pence (exactly ...

on 11 September 1589 and left Scotland from Dundee accompanied by James Colville of Easter Wemyss and 1,500 Scottish troops. Adverse winds drove them back into the

Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meani ...

. According to

the 1,500 soldiers had left Scotland in June 1589 Civille wrote to James VI from Dieppe on 22 August 1592. In January 1598 Henri IV ordered Civille as "Commissaire Ordinaire des Guerres" to take command of troops at

Saumur Saumur () is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France. The town is located between the Loire and Thouet rivers, and is surrounded by the vineyards of Saumur itself, Chinon, Bourgueil, Coteaux du Layon, etc.. Saumur statio ...

.Jules Berger de Xivray, ''Recueil des lettres missives de Henri IV'' vol. 4 (Paris, 1848), pp. 895-6.

Works

* ''Discours des causes pour lesquelles le sieur de Civille, gentilhomme de Normandie, se dit avoir esté mort, enterré et ressuscité'' (1606)
Edited by Ernest Poret Blosseville, (Rouen, 1863)
* Some of Civille's letters are printed in A. Aubry,
La Normandie à l'étranger: documents inédits relatifs à l'histoire de Normandie, tirés des archives étrangères XVIe et XVIIe siècles
' (Paris, 1873), pp. 238–254.

Buried alive

Diplomat and refugee

Works

References