Jacques De Lévis

Jacques de Lévis, comte de Caylus (–29 May 1578) was a French noble and favourite of King Henri III during the French Wars of Religion. Coming from a prominent Rouergue family, Caylus entered court life when dispatched by his father, the seneschal of Rouergue to court in 1572 to inform King Charles IX of the failure of the sieges of Montauban and Millau. The following year he began his association with the king's brother Anjou, future Henri III, fighting under his command during the siege of La Rochelle. With Anjou's election as king of the Commonwealth, Caylus travelled with his new patron to the country, being elevated to the position of 'gentleman of the chamber' in Anjou's capacity as king of the Commonwealth.

With Anjou's return to France as king Henri III in 1574, Caylus, increasingly close to the king, travelled with him. During the king's stay in Lyon he was elevated to the title of count. During the following civil war, he and his company fought under the authority of the Duke of Guise in a campaign that culminated at Dormans where he was captured by Protestant forces. An enemy of the seigneur de Bussy favourite to the king's brother Alençon he led the king's favourites in a showdown with the noble and his retinue in February 1578. Neither side delivered a fatal blow and Henri frustratedly insisted the two men make a show of reconciliation. In April of that year Caylus instigated the infamous 'duel of the Mignons', in which he with his seconds Maugiron and Livarot fought Entraguet and his seconds with rapiers. During the fight that followed, Maugiron, Ribérac and Schomberg were killed and Caylus was stabbed 19 times. Caylus lingered for another month while the king devoted daily attentions to him, but eventually he died on 29 May. The king mourned his loss to an extent that was viewed improper by contemporaries and commissioned an elaborate tomb for his dead favourites. This tomb was destroyed in 1589.

Early life and family

Family

Caylus was from the prominent Languedoc family of Lévis, a branch of which (Lévis-Ventadours) would control the lieutenant-generalcy of Languedoc for much of the 17th century, alongside the governorship of Limousin. In Knecht's estimation the family was one of the most prominent families of the Massif Central.

Father

Antoine de Lévis, Caylus' father married Balthazarde de Prez in 1536, the daughter of the Marshal Antoine de Lettes-Desprez. After her death he remarried to Suzanne d'Estissac. Elevated to a knight of the order of Saint-Michel in 1561. In 1568 he was elevated to seneschal of Rouergue, then governor of the province in 1574. In 1581 Henri inducted him into the Ordre du Saint-Esprit. This role made him the most important man in the Rouergue and thus gave him an important role to play in enforcing the edicts of pacification, in 1573 he tried to persuade Damville to contain the Protestants of his governorship.

Caylus entered political life in 1572, when he was dispatched to court by his father, to inform the king of Antoine's failure to reduce the Protestant towns of Montauban and Millau.

A cousin of another royal favourite Henri de Saint-Sulpice, Caylus hoped to marry a woman of the Saint-Sulpice family, and corresponded on the matter, but no arrangements were reached before his death.

Reputation

The king nicknamed Caylus 'Petit Jacques' or alternatively 'Petit' and 'Jacquet'. He had a reputation for beauty, being compared to Adonis and 'a spring flower that will not see summer'. Brantôme emphasised the bravery and honesty of the 'young duellists' at court, such as Caylus. Other commentators were not as kind to Caylus and the other favourites of Henri, denouncing them as 'sodomites'.

Reign of Charles IX

La Rochelle

At the age of 18, Caylus was among the ambitious young nobles who flocked to join the siege of La Rochelle, the city having gone into rebellion after the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew. Of a similar generation to the duke of Anjou, brother to the king, the siege afforded him and other notables a proximity to the king's brother they could not have acquired at court.

Commonwealth

The siege having been brought to a close by Anjou's election as king of the Commonwealth, Caylus travelled with the prince for his brief rule as king of the country. During his stay in the Commonwealth, Anjou elevated Caylus to the office of 'gentleman of the chamber' in his Polish court. Upon hearing of his brother's death, and the vacancy of the French throne, Anjou, now styling himself Henri III determined to race back, abandoning his kingship in the Commonwealth. Sneaking out of Kraków he rendezvoused with René de Villequier, Caylus and Pibrac near Oświęcim who were leading a separate body of French gentleman, guides and translators, from where they continued their flight back to France.

Reign of Henri III

Favourite

Upon re-entering France, Henri stalked the streets of Lyon with his close friends, among them François d'O, Du Guast and Caylus. While tarrying in Lyon Henri approved the elevation of Caylus' fief to a county, confirming a promise he had made to his friend the previous year. Henri's favourites, Caylus among them detested Bussy, favourite of the king's brother. To this end they filled the king's mind with stories of Bussy's boastfulness. The king would authorise an attempt to kill Bussy by du Guast, but it would be a failure. The civil war that had started in the final year of Charles IX's reign had not yet concluded, and Caylus joined the duke of Guise, for his campaign which concluded in the victory at Dormans

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