Jean VI d'Aumont (1522-1595) was a soldier and Marshal of France. He served as Marshal under Henri III, campaigning against the Protestants in 1585. He would not however conduct the campaign with much enthusiasm, and after clamour at court he would be replaced by

Anne de Joyeuse Anne de Batarnay de Joyeuse, Baron d'Arques, Vicomte then Duke of Joyeuse (1560 – 20 October 1587) was a royal favourite and active participant in the French Wars of Religion. An intimate friend of Henry III of France, he was keeper of the kin ...

He playing a key role in the

Day of the Barricades In the French Wars of Religion, the Day of the Barricades (in french: Journée des barricades), 12 May 1588, was an outwardly spontaneous public uprising in staunchly Catholic Paris against the moderate, hesitant, temporizing policies of Henry I ...

and

Assassination of the Duke of Guise (1588) On 23 December 1588, Henri I, Duke of Guise was assassinated by the ''Quarante Cinq'' serving King Henri III. The event was one of the most critical moments of the French Wars of Religion. The duke had achieved, since 1584, considerable power o ...

. Upon the assassination of Henri III in 1589, he would transfer his loyalties to the Protestant

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

and would campaign for him in

Burgundy Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

and

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 ...

against the Duke of Mercœur. He was also granted the office of governor of

Dauphiné The Dauphiné (, ) is a former province in Southeastern France, whose area roughly corresponded to that of the present departments of Isère, Drôme and Hautes-Alpes. The Dauphiné was originally the Dauphiné of Viennois. In the 12th centu ...

, upon it being vacated in 1592. It would be whilst fighting in Brittany in 1595, that he would be killed.

Early life and family

Aumont was from an old noble family, which is recorded as far back as the thirteenth century.

Reign of Henri III

Campaigning

In 1585 Aumont was granted command of an army by Henri and sent to campaign in

Auvergne Auvergne (; ; oc, label=Occitan, Auvèrnhe or ) is a former administrative region in central France, comprising the four departments of Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal and Haute-Loire. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region Auverg ...

and

Languedoc The Province of Languedoc (; , ; oc, Lengadòc ) is a former province of France. Most of its territory is now contained in the modern-day region of Occitanie in Southern France. Its capital city was Toulouse. It had an area of approximately ...

against the forces of

. He was among those accused of lethargy in the conduct of the campaign against the Protestants by those at court, as such

was sent to take over leadership in Auvergne.

Day of the Barricades

Aumont was among those nobles who in 1588, was less concerned with matters of the

Ligue The Catholic League of France (french: Ligue catholique), sometimes referred to by contemporary (and modern) Catholics as the Holy League (), was a major participant in the French Wars of Religion. The League, founded and led by Henry I, Duke of ...

than the duels of

Les Mignons Les Mignons (from ''mignon'', French for "the darlings" or "the dainty ones") was a term used by polemicists in the contentious atmosphere of the French Wars of Religion and taken up by the people of Paris, to designate the favourites of Henry III ...

and affairs of the court. During the

the angry population demanded the removal of the French and Swiss troops in the capital. The king relented, and instructed O, Alphonse, Biron and Aumont to remove the soldiers from the city. Unable to tolerate the domination of the Guise over him that the day of the Barricades had brought about, the king decided to have them assassinated.

Assassination of the duke of Guise

While staying at

Blois Blois ( ; ) is a commune and the capital city of Loir-et-Cher department, in Centre-Val de Loire, France, on the banks of the lower Loire river between Orléans and Tours. With 45,898 inhabitants by 2019, Blois is the most populated city of the ...

in December the king met with Aumont, Rambouillet and d'Ornano in a secret council, at which they agreed that Guise would have to be killed. Having worked out the specifics of the plan, the king informed Guise of his intention to retreat to his château at La Noue for Christmas and his desire that the whole council meet prior to departing. Guise duly attended, but was puzzled by the presence of many nobles who did not usually attend council, among them Aumont. He sought an explanation but none was provided for the Marshals presence. After the meeting was concluded Guise was invited into a side chamber with the king, where many nobles stabbed him to death. The Cardinal of Guise, and the Archbishop of Lyons who had remained in the chamber heard the commotion, and attempted to rush in to support their kinsmen and ally. Aumont put his hand on his sword, and as an officer of the crown forbade them , and any others in the room from moving on pain of death.

Fighting the ''ligue''

The king was now unable to avoid open war with the ''ligue''. To this end Aumont was tasked to lead in March 1589 with leading the main body of the loyalist army. His forces headed out from

Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 ...

to make an attempt to besiege

Le Mans Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...

. In April his forces found themselves in

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the prov ...

and were able to hold off a ''ligue'' attempt on the town. Shortly thereafter in light of the dire situation in the country Henri made a rapprochement with Navarre and the two allied against the ''ligue''. With the kings death a short while later, Aumont was among the nobility that recognised

as king, even prior to his conversion to Catholicism. Aumont was among the nobles who attended the heavily guarded funeral for the king in

Compiègne Compiègne (; pcd, Compiène) is a commune in the Oise department in northern France. It is located on the river Oise. Its inhabitants are called ''Compiégnois''. Administration Compiègne is the seat of two cantons: * Compiègne-1 (with 19 c ...

as the civil war continued to rage.

Reign of Henri IV

Aumont campaigned in Burgundy for Navarre in 1591, sweeping all before him in the countryside. He was however unable to make inroads into the ''ligue'' bastions of

Auxerre Auxerre ( , ) is the capital of the Yonne department and the fourth-largest city in Burgundy. Auxerre's population today is about 35,000; the urban area (''aire d'attraction'') comprises roughly 113,000 inhabitants. Residents of Auxerre are r ...

and

Mâcon Mâcon (), historically anglicised as Mascon, is a city in east-central France. It is the prefecture of the department of Saône-et-Loire in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. Mâcon is home to near 34,000 residents, who are referred to in French as M� ...

. In 1592 Navarre appointed him as governor of

, replacing

Montpensier The French lordship of Montpensier (named after the village of Montpensier, département of Puy-de-Dôme), located in historical Auvergne, became a countship in the 14th century. It changed hands from the House of Thiern, to the House of Beau ...

, he would hold this office until his death. The same year he campaigned in

seeking to reverse the royal loss at the

Battle of Craon A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

, he captured

Mayenne Mayenne () is a landlocked department in northwest France named after the river Mayenne. Mayenne is part of the administrative region of Pays de la Loire and is surrounded by the departments of Manche, Orne, Sarthe, Maine-et-Loire, and Ille-et ...

and would take

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 ...

in 1594. http://angot.lamayenne.fr/notice/T1C01_BIO0105 In 1593 his campaigning moved to Brittany, where, with the support of

Conti Conti is an Italian surname. Geographical distribution As of 2014, 63.5% of all known bearers of the surname ''Conti'' were residents of Italy (frequency 1:756), 11.8% of the United States (1:24,071), 9.2% of Brazil (1:17,439), 6.3% of Argentina ...

he advanced on the Duke of Mercœur. To this end he was in command of 7000 soldiers, which were entirely mercenary in composition. It was during fighting in Brittany that he died in 1595.

Sources

* * * * *

References

{{reflist 1522 births 1595 deaths Marshals of France French people of the French Wars of Religion