Nicolas de L'Hôpital (or Hospital),
marquis
A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman wi ...
and later duc de Vitry, ''seigneur de
Nandy et de
Coubert'', often referred to as Maréchal (or ''Marshal'') de Vitry (1581-1644 in Nandy) was a French noble, military leader, friend of
Louis XIII and
Marshal of France (1617).
Biography
Family
Nicolas de L'Hôpital de Vitry was the elder son of
Louis de L'Hospital and Franćoise de Brichanteau. His younger brother,
François de L'Hôpital, marquis du Hallier, also became a marshal of France. They were both also the grandsons of yet another marshal of France, François de L'Hospital.
His wife was Lucrèce Bouhier de Beaumarchais, widow of Louis de Trémoille and sister-in-law of
Charles de La Vieuville
Charles I. Coskaer, marquis and later duc de La Vieuville (15829 January 1653) was an important French noble and Superintendent of Finances of France from 1623 to 1624 and once again from 1651 to 1653 .
Biography
He descended from the dynasty ...
.
They had three children together.
Only one of them was a son and he became an ambassador to
Bavaria.
Career
Like his father and his other ancestors, Vitry joined the army. Due to
Henry IV's personal sympathy for Vitry's father, he let Vitry become a companion of the royal heir, the
Dauphin (and later king)
Louis. He quickly gained the child's favour. After the death of his father in 1611, he succeeded him in his position as captain of the 2nd (and 1st French) company of the
Garde du corps du roi
The Gardes du Corps du Roi (King's bodyguard) was the senior formation of the King of France's household cavalry within the '' maison militaire du roi de France''.
History Foundation
The oldest unit in the ''Garde du Corps'' was the Company of Sc ...
, the royal guard.
He played an important role in the assassination of
Concino Concini in 1617. It was he who arrested Concini and shot him (with others) afterwards.
After this coup d'etat he was put (along with his brother and
Jean-Baptiste d'Ornano) in charge of the armies in the capital, in order to prohibit riots. In the following days, Vitry received Concini's title of marshal and was one of the few persons who had unrestricted entrance to the king's chambers. Later in his life he became also
Governor of Provence
The land of Provence has a history quite separate from that of any of the larger nations of Europe. Its independent existence has its origins in the frontier nature of the dukedom in Merovingian Gaul. In this position, influenced and affected by ...
and
Meaux.
In 1635, after decisions he had made in Provence against the will of the king, he was disgraced.
In 1637, following an assault on Archbishop
Henri de Sourdis, he was imprisoned in the
Bastille and pardoned in 1643.
[ French Wikipedia page]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:LHospital, Nicolas de
Marshals of France
17th-century French military personnel
Prisoners of the Bastille