Claude de La Châtre

Claude de La Chârtre, baron de Maisonfort (c. 1536–c. 1614) was a French aristocrat, governor and Marshal, who was active during the latter Italian Wars and the entirety of the French Wars of Religion. Originally a client of the Montmorency, he migrated into the service of the Guise in 1557, serving with the duke of Guise in Italy in 1557 and France in 1558. A Catholic, he remained loyal to the crown when the French Wars of Religion broke out in 1562, and was rewarded for his loyalty with elevation into the highest chivalric order and the governorship of Berry in 1568. On the death of Charles IX he avoided involvement in the Malcontent conspiracy of 1574, and strongly resisted concessions to the King's brother Alençon to restore his loyalty, which would have meant yielding his town of Bourges. Despite this hostility to Alençon, the two would gravitate towards each other with the coming of peace, and La Chârtre served under Alençon in the subsequent civil war during the brutal capture of La Charité-sur-Loire and Issoire from rebel Protestants.

Now firmly aligned with Alençon, he remained in his camp while negotiations were under way for the prince's return to the capital. After Alençon returned, La Chârtre involved himself in representing his patron's interests in the city. It became increasingly apparent that tensions between Alençon and Henri in the city were explosive, and La Châtre proposed to the prince that he flee to Angers. After a false start he escaped from Paris with Alençon and several other favourites of the prince. In 1579 he was among the negotiators who secured the terms of Alençon's ascent as king of the Netherlands. He travelled with his patron as chief of his light horse to the country in 1582 and assisted in the relief of Tournai from a Spanish siege. During the king's months in his new country, La Châtre witnessed the army dissolve from poor funds and supplies. In response to the situation Alençon attempted a coup against the city of Antwerp that failed spectacularly. La Châtre was responsible for justifying the king's behaviour to the Dutch States General.

In 1584 Alençon died, leaving the succession to fall to the king's Protestant cousin Henri III of Navarre. This was unacceptable to La Châtre, who aligned himself with the Ligue to oppose Navarre's succession. Defecting with his governorship from the crown, Henri was soon forced to capitulate to the ligue and La Châtre campaigned alongside the king's favourite Anne de Joyeuse against the Protestant Prince of Condé. As time went on however the king increasingly resented his capitulation to the ligue, culminating in his assassination of the duke of Guise in December 1588. In the wake of this declaration of war against the ligue, much of France defected from loyalty to the crown. La Châtre soon followed, bringing his governorship with him. During the next several years he campaigned against Navarre, but was increasingly concerned with infighting against the ligueur governor Boisdauphin. In 1594, La Chârtre brought over his territories to the crown upon receiving a large cash bribe of 900,000 livres as well as a promise from the now Catholic Navarre, styled as Henri IV of France, that he could maintain his ligueur granted governorships of Berry, the Orléannais and Marshal title, and pass down Berry to his son. Now a Marshal, he died in 1614, and his son sold his governorship of Berry several years later, receiving a marshal title of his own.