Jacques II of Goyon of Matignon

The marshal Jacques II of Goyon of Matignon (born the September 26th 1525 with Lonrai, in Normandy, in current the department of the Flowering ash and dead the July 27th 1598 with the Castle of Lesparre, in the Medoc) was a soldier and a French politician of the 16th century. He was Marshal of France, lieutenant-general of Normandy, mayor of Bordeaux, station which he succeeded his friend Michel de Montaigne, and governor of Guyenne.

Biography

Jacques II of Goyon of Matignon, count of Thorigny, prince of the Mortagne-on-Gironde, was the son of Jacques Ier de Goyon of Matignon (1497 - 1537), pannetier of the king, and Anne de Silly, lady of Lonray, girl of Jacques-François de Silly, knight of Silly.

The May 2nd 1558, it marries Francoise de Daillon of Lude, oldest daughter of Jean II of Daillon, count of Lude, governor of Poitou and Sénéchal of Rouergue and Anne de Batarnoy. It had five children:

Odet, count de Thorigny, (° 1559 - † August 7th 1595).
Lancelot, lord of Lonray.
Charles lord of Matignon, count de Thorigny, (° 1564 - † June 9th 1648).
Gillonne, († December 20th 1641).
Anne.

Entered strong young person the military career, it was of all the engagements under the king Henri II. He made his first weapons with the conquest of the Three bishoprices (Metz, Toul and Verdun) in 1552, and with the battle of Saint-Quentin, where he was made prisoner.

In 1559, Catherine de Médicis made him give the general lieutenancy of the Basse-Normandie. Governor of Alençon in 1561, it interposed between the catholics and the Protestants of the city. During the wars of religion, it could always maintain the authority royal against the factious ones, and was made estimate catholics who it ordered, and of the Protestants that it fought successfully, but without cruelty.

During this disturbed time, he fought effectively against the Protestant armies . Charles IX had requested it to restore peace in Normandy, which it did. It beat the English in front of Falaise in 1563 and was distinguished with the engagements from Jarnac and Moncontour in 1569.

At the time of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, it is one of the rare governors to have carried out with fidelity the orders of Charles IX by protecting the Protestants with Saint-Lo and Alençon.

Henri III the fact Marshal of France in 1579 to have captured Gabriel de Montgomery which had killed Henri II by accident at the time of a tournament, then knight of the Ordre of the Holy Spirit, which it had just created the previous year, in 1578.

When it was named governor of Guyenne in 1584, Jacques II of Goyon of Matignon had to face the Ligue. The influence of the Parlement of Bordeaux had involved part of the country in the Ligue. The Marshal of Matignon could maintain with Bordeaux the royal authority, but the members of a league, cut off in the citadel from Blaye, afflicted banks of the the Gironde during five years after the advent of Henri IV with the throne of France, and it is only by composition that the place was returned to the king.

In 1586 and 1587, it demolished the Huguenot S in several meetings, ends up lining up at the side of Henri IV, with the sacring of which it fulfills the functions of Connétable.

Jacques II of Goyon of Matignon was useful accurately, during one of the most painful periods of that, French history of the wars of religion, five king and queen: Henri II, Catherine de Médicis, François II, Charles IX, Henri III and finally Henri IV, giving an good example of loyalty.

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