Jean V de Parthenay-L'Archevêque, oràLarchevêque, Sieur deàSoubise ( â 1 September 1566),àwas a Protestant French nobleman, last lord of Mouchamps, from the Parthenay-l'Archevêque family. His father, Jean IV de Parthenay, died before he was born. His mother was humanistàMichelle de Saubonne. He married Antoinette d'Aubeterre, and their daughter and was Catherine de Parthenay, who later marriedàRené II, Viscount of Rohan.
During the Italian War of 1551âÂÂ1559, he served as a fighter and ambassador underàHenry II, with whom he had been friends since childhood. He was a close friend of Henry II's wife Catherine de' Medici.
He converted toàCalvinismàin 1562 after theàmassacre of Vassy (Wassy). During the French Wars of Religion, he became one of the most ardent supporters ofàLouis I, Prince of Condé,àand theàHuguenots.àFrançois Viète, who served as his lawyer and secretary from 1564àto 1566, recorded his memoirs. They were published inà1879àby Jules Bonnotàand extensively commented on and popularized byàFrédéric Ritter and Benjamin Fillon.
Jean V of Parthenay was accused of ordering the death of Francis, Duke of Guise.àHis government ofàLyonsà(1563) nevertheless sparedàCatholicsàthe cruelties ofàFrançois de Beaumont, Baron des Adrets.àHis efforts helped to keep the peace between the warring factions untilàhe died inà1566. For a time, he even hoped to convert the queen mother to the doctrine of theàCalvinists.àAccording to theà16th-century historianàJacques Auguste de Thou, "Jean de Parthenay combined an august birth with great moderation and uncommon skill."
Born about 1512, Jean V de Parthenay was the only son ofàJean IV, lord of theàChâteau du Parc-Soubise, and Michelle de Saubonne. Jean IV was also the lord ofàVendrennes, Goyau fief, and Mouchamps.
Upon the death of Jean V's father, his mother became a lady-in-waiting toàRenée of France.àShe was a scholar and introducedàClément Marot to the court.àJean V was an enfant d'honneur, a child who played with the then Dauphin Henry II, who was seven years younger than him.àJean V was well educated in humanities and was regarded as a cultured young person of his time. Raised by hisàmother versed in the classical humanities, frequentingàpoetsàfrom an early age,àand nurtured by his sister Anne of Latin or Greek texts, Jean V hardly seems predestined for the military career in which his life was subsequently worn out.
Inà1528, Renée of France married Duke Ercole II d'Este and moved toàFerrara, Italy, along with Michelle, Jean V, and two of his sisters. Clément Marot joined them shortly after that.àJean V grew fond of Italy. Inà1536, his mother and the remainder of the French members of the court were expelled from Ferrara.
According toàLa Popelinière, Jean V of Parthenay wasà"a gentleman of fine appearance, endowed with great estates and estates, liberal and honorable in all his actions, grave in speech and manners, affable and gracious nevertheless in conversation, disdainful of his domestic affairs as much as affectionate to the public and especially to the good of the kingdom, diligent and enemy of the birds".
InÃÂ 1549, his mother died five days after the death of his sister Anne de Parthenay, wife of Antoine de Pons.
On 9 May 1553, he marriedàAntoinette d'Aubeterre, daughter of François II, Baron d'Aubeterre, and Isabelle de Saint-Seine in Paris.àAntoinette was then QueenàCatherine de' Medici's companion.
Jean V and Antoinette had a clear division of labor. He concerned himself with business and political affairs that often took him away from home. Antoinette managed the financial and other private affairs that concerned her family and relationships in their community. Born in 1532, she was twenty years younger than her husband, but she overtook the management of Château du Parc-Soubise, for example,àby calling Bernard PalissyàandàPhilibert Hamelin, whom she protected, to settle some differences between Jean V and his vassals.
On 22 March 1554, his wife Antoinette gave birth toÃÂ their daughter Catherine, who would later become a celebrated woman of letters and action, writer, mathematician, and protector of science.ÃÂ Through her, Jean V de Parthenay is one of the ancestors of the House of Rohan.
Early in his adult life, the child of honor of Henry II, Jean V of Parthenay seemed destined for the pleasures of the court until he met John Calvin in Ferrara.
Protestant celebrations ofàPré-aux-Clercsàin Paris began in 1557. Antoine de Navarre and his brother, the Prince of Condé, attended the celebration from 13 to 19 May 1558, which drew many gentlemen to the Reformed faith.àThis is also the case for Jean V de Parthenay, who converted to the new religion.àAntoinette, his wife, preached on his lands.àJean V, however, was hesitant to announce his conversion and waited for some time before making it known. Converting to Protestantism was a dangerous position at the time. It meant leaving a life that had been built upon relationships with priests for confessions and those who offered her spiritual counsel. There was also the risk of persecution.
Peace made, Jean V de Parthenay was acquitted of the Renaudie affair in 1560 and he returned to the good graces of the queen and tried again to bring her back to the cause of the Calvinists.ÃÂ He paid court to her in Lyon during her visit, and stayed with her for a long time.ÃÂ He saw her again in Niort during her trip to Bayonne and accompanied her to La Rochelle.ÃÂ He no longer benefited from the complicity of Jacqueline de Longwy,ÃÂ Duchess of Montpensier, who died inÃÂ 1561, but again encountered the jealousy of her husband, theÃÂ Louis (III) de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier.
About early 1562, Jean V announced "loyally" to Catherine de' Medici his intention to abandon the mass.àInterestingly, Catherine deâ Medici, the Catholic queen mother, allowed her children to attend Protestant services in the early 1560s and asked Jean V to only have Protestant preaching at night. She tried to stop Jean V from becoming a Protestant and promised him the most significant charges in the kingdom.àAmong other things, she offered him tutoring from young King Charles.àThe queen, anxious to retain support, sent him the Order of Saint Michael as if to invite him to return.
Returning home after he visited La Rochelle, Parthenay declared toÃÂ Antoinette d'AubeterreÃÂ that there was nothing more to hope for on that side.ÃÂ Catherine de' Medici now refused to admit before him her former sympathies for the reformed religion.
Jean V de Parthenay took up the profession of arms.àA favorite of Henry II, Duke of Orléans; the Dauphin, Francis; and of the Dauphin's brother, he was from then on in all of Henry II's wars.àHe was appointed gentilhomme ordinaire of the king's chamber (gentleman of the king's chamber), and later governor andàbailiffàofàChartresàin 1539.
Jean V was captured in Lille, Flanders, where he remained a prisoner for a year. Not wanting to reveal his real name, he identified himself as 'Ambleville' to the jailers, an assumed name he came up with on the spot.
In Septemberà1552, Jean V was sent to Nancy by Henry II to sound outàNicolas, Duke of Mercà Âur, Count of Vaudémont.àThe latter, betting on Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor's respect for the neutrality ofàLorraine,àdeclined the offer.àFrom Octoberà1552àto early January 1553, Jean V de Parthenay participated in theàSiege of Metz (1552).
On 4 January 1553, Jean V received an order from KingÃÂ Henry IIÃÂ to go to the Duke of Parma and bring him toÃÂ Fontainebleau.
Immediately after his marriage in May 1553, Jean V received the order to go toàPicardyàto fight foràThérouanneàandàHesdin.àThey were commanded byàAntoine of Navarre, whose wifeàJeanne d'Albret, pregnant with the futureàHenry IV,àremained at the scene of the fight with her husband.àThe king's armies suffered a terrible defeat. Antoine of Navarre saved Hesdin from the Imperials but lost Thérouanne between May and June.àA few months later, Charles V took over and razed the two strongholds.
Around July 1552, Henry II discovered the rapprochement between the Duke of Parma,àOttavio Farnese,àand the King of Spain,àPhilip II.àThe king, his advisers, and Cardinal Oliviero Carafaàdecided to act.àThe Guises had Jean V de Parthenay sent on a mission to Parma with orders to propose an alliance between the Duke and King Henry II that included a marriage between his son Oratio, Duke of Castroàand Diane de France, Duchess of Angoulême.àHe was given letters from Henry II to give to Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara to rally him and ask him to join the Pope in combating Spanish Inquisitions.
In preparation for the War of Parma, Jean V was appointed lieutenant general for His Majesty and then moved to Siena on 25 November 1554. On 25 February 1555, he moved to Parma at the rate of 500 pounds per monthÃÂ and helped to keep the duke in benevolent neutrality concerning the French, though Farnese ended up getting closer to Philip II of Spain two years later.ÃÂ Around the same time, Jean de Parthenay witnessed the capitulation ofÃÂ Montluc in Siena on 17 April, being unable to help him due to a lack of troops.
In 1555, Jean V joined the assault on Denain with Admiral Gaspard II de Coligny. There, wounded in the head and thrown to the ground, he was almost choked to death by his helm.ÃÂ He nevertheless continued the assault bareheaded until the end of the battle. Jean V commissioned surveying work fromÃÂ Bernard Palissy in 1555.
He fought in the capture of Calais (3 January 1558) with his friend le maréchal Strozzi. In Augustà1558,àthe king granted John V of Parthenay a gratuity of 6,900 pounds as a reward for the wars in Italy and "others".àHowever, because of the boldness of his words and his foresight of military views during councils of war, Jean V made himself an enemy ofàGaspard de Saulx, Marshal de Tavannes.
King Henry II died in 1559 and was succeeded by his sonàFrançois II, then only 15.àThough he was old enough to rule without a regent, he delegated his power to the House of Guise.àJean du Barry, Lord ofàLa Renaudie, a friend of Jean's, then imagined removing theàqueen-motheràand the young king from the influence of the Guise.
La Renaudie took the lead in the conspiracy,àwhich originated in December 1559, in Geneva, shortly after the execution ofàAnne du Bourg.àIts goal was to impose around the young king a council of regency, where the princes of blood, particularlyàCondé, would hold the first place.àAntoine de Bourbonàwas opposed to it as well as Calvin;àit does not seem that the latter noràThéodore de Bèzeàwere really informed of the real aims of the conspirators.àLa Renaudie was personally angry withàFrançois IIàandàCharles de Guiseàwho had his brother-in-law arrested and executed.àHe gave himself as accomplices a few friends, Raunay, Baron Charles de Castelnau, François II, Baron d'Aubeterreà(Jean V de Parthenay's brother-in-law), Edme de Ferrière-Maligny (brother ofàJean II de Ferrières), Captain Mazères, but also the father ofàAgrippa d'Aubigne.àIf the Guises resisted, the conspirators promised to massacre them.àLa Renaudie, who linked up with Soubise at the siege of Metz, confided to him his intention of seizing the king from the month of September 1559, at a time when the conspiracy wasàfaràfrom having takenàshape.
A first assembly of conspirators was held in Nantes in February 1560, and their troops, nearly 500 men, split up with the intention of moving towards Blois, Tours, and Orléans.àOriginally scheduled for 10 March 1560;àthe operation was postponed until 17 March.àHowever, from 12 February, the Guises, warned byàthe Parisian lawyeràwith whom La Renaudie was staying, were made aware of the plot.àThey decided to take refuge in Amboise. Condé d'Andelot, Coligny, andàOdet de ChatillonâÂÂtaken into confidence by La RenaudieâÂÂnegotiated an amnesty for Protestants except for the conspirators with Guise.
On 15 March, Jacques de Savoie, Duke of Nemours,àseized theàcastle of Noizay, where some of the conspirators had gathered.àCondemned for the crime of lèse-majesté, Castelnau, Mazères, and Raunay died beheaded or hanged at the windows of the castle of Amboise.àFor the next few days, La Renaudie was nowhere to be found.àJean V, for his part, was retained by the service of the queen mother, who interrogated Jean Vàand tried to ascertain where his friend was hiding.
Conversation between the Queen mother and Jean V de Parthenay. Jean replied,
The Queen Mother assures him that he need fear nothing if La Renaudie has done nothing against the King.ÃÂ Jean V de Parthenay replied,
The conspiracy ended in a massacre.ÃÂ Bertrand de Chandieu's troopsÃÂ were destroyed when they marched towards Ambroise on 17 March.ÃÂ La Renaudie was killed on 19 March.
On 7 December 1561, Jean V was made a Knight of the King's Order at Saint-Germain-en-Laye.ÃÂ QueenÃÂ Catherine de' Medici wanted to do anything that she could to counterbalance the power of the Guises.ÃÂ The new king,ÃÂ Charles IX, was ten years old when he came to the throne.ÃÂ On 17 January 1562, theÃÂ Edict of Saint-Germain, also called theÃÂ Edict of January,ÃÂ gave many assurances to Protestants, but theÃÂ Parliament of Paris, very Catholic, refused to register this royal act of tolerance.
Jean V became one of the best Protestant captains acting under the orders ofàCondéàat the start of the Wars of Religion.
On 1 March 1562, Francis, Duke of Guise passed throughÃÂ WassyÃÂ in Champagne, and sent his armed men to interrupt a Protestant ceremony;ÃÂ 500 Huguenots were forced out of their place of worship.ÃÂ About fifty people were killed, and more than a hundred were wounded.
This massacre, which had nothing fortuitous, went down in history as theÃÂ massacre of WassyÃÂ and set in motion half a century of religious wars, followed by those of Cahors, Carcassonne, Tours, Auxerre, Avignon, and more.
Jean V, citing the sympathies the queen once declared for Calvin, made great efforts to win Catherine de' Medici over to the reform party. He spent hours with her and Chancellor de L'Hospital. The Guises, who sought power, went to Fontainebleau. At their approach, the queen feared for the kingdom. Jean V could not convince her to flee. She begged him to stay and then asked him not to take up arms. It was too late: Jean V revealed to her that he would join forces with those of his friends, to deliver her and to deliver the king from the captivity to which the Lorraine party reduced him.
Having left Fontainebleau, Jean V de Parthenay came to meet Admiral de Coligny and Condé in Meaux.àTheir army passed through Paris to Orléans.àCondé, Coligny, d'Andelot, La Rochefoucauld, and Soubise went to find the queen near Beaugency.àTheir conference produced no results.àShortly after, Jean V became critically ill.àBarely recovered, he was sent to Lyon by Condé.
He left on horseback with forty gentlemen, including his chaplain, Claude Courtois, Sieur de Lessart.àHe crossed the Vivarais, Burgundy, where the bailly ofàAutunàfollowed him for three days with 120 men without daring to attack him.àHe took command of Lyon on 15 or 19 July 1562, with the full powers of the Prince of Condé (letters dated 25 May) to counterbalance the abuses and cruelties of François de Beaumont,àBaron des Adrets.àHe joined forces withàCharles Dupuy de Montbrun.
Catherine de' Medici wrote several times, asking him to return to the city.ÃÂ Jean V replied, "as long as he was governor of Lyon, he would keep it faithfully in the name of the king and queen."
He then faced the Catholic armies of Jacques de Savoie, Duke of Nemours.àOne of the most courageous leaders of the Protestant party on the eve of Saint Barthélemy, Jean V de Parthenay managed to hold the city until the pacification edict of 19 March 1563.àThis siege is illustrated two years later by the "speech that occurred in the city of Lion [Lyon] while Monsieur Soubise commanded there," a pleading attributed toàFrançois Vièteàand published (for the first time in theà19thàcentury) byàHector de the Ferriere.àAlthough suspected of sympathy with Soubise, the document revealed how Soubise managed to feed Lyon during his siegeàand in what resolution he finds himself facing Duke of Nemours.àIt also allowed Jean V to maintain his freedom of worship. He became one of the heroes of the Huguenot cause by thoughtful protection of the city. Haag states that he would be known "by his virtues, even more that by his services".
During this siege, Jean V organized the supply of the city by theÃÂ Dombes, which attracted to him the unfailing hatred of Louis III de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier.
Francis, Duke of Guise was assassinated on 24 February 1563 by the Huguenot Jean de Poltrot during the Siege of Orléans. Poltrot was captured and tortured while in prison to find out who participated in planning the assassination of the Duke. Nothing that Poltrot stated led to a viable theory about who was complicit. Poltrot was executed on 18 March.
The presumptions against Jean V are thatÃÂ during the siege of Lyon, he spoke of killing de Guise. Moreover, during the siege, Jean V sent Poltrot to Admiral de ColignyÃÂ in June or July 1562, and their accusers saw in this evidence of a plot.
Antoinette d'Aubeterre hired François Viète, a jurist, as a legal adviser for her husband. Viète successfully addressed the suspicions against Jean V by providing documents during his administration of the city of Lyon and Viète's summarization of Jean V's behavior the previous year in the form of a memoir.
To write his memoirs, an account of his life and the genealogy of the Parthenays were commissioned fromàFrançois Viète, the great mathematician.àAfter Viète went with him to Lyon to illustrate his defense inà1564, the lawyer was assigned the role of tutor to Soubise's daughter, the learnedàCatherine de Parthenay.
In OctoberÃÂ 1565, he saw Catherine de' Medici again in Meaux in AprilÃÂ 1566,ÃÂ one last time in Moulins,ÃÂ where he was almost assassinated with all the Huguenot leaders present in thisÃÂ city.
Returning from Moulins at the beginning of the summer of 1566, Jean V de ParthenayÃÂ fellÃÂ seriouslyÃÂ ill. On 8 August 1566, Jean V wrote his will, declaring that he wanted to be buried according to the form and manner observed by the Reformed churches of the kingdom.
A quarter of an hour before dying on 1 September 1566, Jean V blessed his daughter.ÃÂ His last words were to place his soul in the hands of God.
The Huguenot party expressed its sadness to his wife and daughter.àThe Queen of Navarre, Jeanne d'Albret, their military leader, Admiral de Coligny, and their spiritual leader, Théodore de Bèze sent their condolences toàthem. Antoinetteàdied inà1580.
The party of Lorraine princes and, during the following century, some Catholic historians, Brantôme, Antoine Varillas, thenàBossuet, the eagle of Meaux,àhardly credit him with good deeds.àThey suspected him of having been involved in the conspiracy of La Renaudie, and of being one of the instigators of the assassination of Francis, Duke of Guise.àWhatever efforts his secretary may have expended to acquit him, Jean V remained one of the culprits of these plots.àBossuet even saw encouragement in the words that Jean V launched to Poltrot du Méré, who had come to confess to him "that he had resolved in his mind to deliver France from so much misery, by killing the Duc de Guisse";àfamiliar words with him, to which Jean V replied that he did his usual duty; God would know how to provide for it by other means.
He could not find peace and, although he harbored few illusions as to his chances of converting the Queen Mother to the "true religion", his repeated, ongoing efforts caused the party of Lorraine to abandon their last forces fairly quickly.
Upon the death of Jean V, his daughter and heiress Catherine became Dame de Soubise.àShe first marriedàCharles de Quellenec,àBaron du Pont. In her second marriage,àthe land that she inherited, the land of Soubise, passed toàBenjamin, Duke of Soubise, her youngest son with René II, Viscount of Rohan.àOn his death in 1642, the seigneury of Soubise passed to his niece theàDuchess of Rohan, who bequeathed it to her daughter Anne de Rohan-Chabot, wife of his cousin François, Prince of Soubise.àThe seigneury of Soubise was erected byàletters patent (unregistered)àofàLouis XIV dated Marchà1667, in theàPrincipality of Soubiseàin favor ofàFrançois, Prince of Soubiseà(1630âÂÂ1712).àThe latter's grandsonàCharles de Rohan-Soubise, Marshal of France protected by theàMarquise de Pompadour, left the memory of an incapable favourite, leaving his men to be massacred at the Battle of Rossbachàin 1757. Aàsong, "les reproaches de The Tulip to Madame de Pompadour," recounts this episode.àIts lyrics have been attributed to Voltaire.
BrantômeàandàBossuetàwere extremely severe against Jean V de Parthenay.àFor one as for the other, he was the accomplice of the assassin ofàFrancis, Duke of Guise. àJean-Antoine Roucheràsays of the first,
The second recognizes himself,
The memory of Jean V de Parthenay, however, was never completely erased.àAntoine Varillasàread his memoirs and took it for granted that Catherine de' Medici had some Protestantàleanings, or at least that she was Catholic only out ofàpolitics.àIn theà18thàcentury,àDreux du Radier remembers that Jean de Parthenay failed to convert QueenàCatherine de' Mediciàto Protestantism andàLouis Morériàmentions his figure in his large dictionary, and recognizes him as "a man of great merit and great service". Inàtheà19thàcentury, with the revival of Protestant studies, however, the figure of Jean de Parthenay regained prominence.àEugèneàandàÃÂmile Haag,àAuguste-François Lièvre,àJules Bonnet,àHector de la Ferrière,àAuguste Laugel bring to light all that is chivalrous in his attitude.àFinally, the rediscovery of François Viète byàFrédéric Ritter and Benjamin Fillonànaturally leads many historians of science to focus on this minor nobility of Poitou, open to new ideas, keen on Greek, Latin and Hebrew, a small protective circle of an astonishing master of requests, who, starting from theàbottom, was awakened to mathematics by a 12-year-old girl, served as secretary to her father, and was about to found theànew algebra.àProtector of Palissy, father of a young scholar, it is also in this capacity that Jean de Parthenay also deserves to be known, as the first protector of a founding mathematician.
For some authors, who confuse him with his son-in-law, Jean Parthenay would have died during theàMassacre of Saint Bartholomew.àFor others, he would have survived these massacres, and on 13 May 1573, his wife, Antoinette, taken prisoner under the city of Lyons, wrote to him toà"rather let her perish than betray her cause".àThe error is due to Agrippa d'Aubigné, who in his history of the wars of religion confuses the son-in-law with his father-in-law.àIt is noted in its time by Pierre Bayle.