Louise de Montmorency

Louise de Montmorency (1496–1547) was a French aristocrat and courtier. She served as Première dame d'honneur from 1530 to 1535 to the Queen of France, Eleanor of Austria, spouse to Francis I of France. She also played an important role within patronage and as a supporter of Calvinism.

Louise de Montmorency
Louise de Montmorency depicted on a stained glass window in the Saint-Martin de Montmorency collegiate church, around 1525.
Born1496
Died1547(1547-00-00) (aged 50–51)
Spouse(s)Ferri de Mailly
Gaspard I de Coligny
Children
Parents
  • Guillaume de Montmorency (father)
  • Anne Pot (mother)

Life

She was the daughter of Guillaume de Montmorency and Anne Pot and younger sister of Anne de Montmorency, Constable of France.[1]

In 1530, she was appointed Première dame d'honneur to the new queen, Eleanor of Austria, a new court office installed just a few years earlier, which made her responsible for all of the other ladies-in-waiting of the queen.[2] She retired in 1535 and was replaced by Mme de Givry.[3]

She had considerable patronage power independently of her husband,[4][5] and had an important role in spreading the influence of Calvinism in France in the 16th Century.[6]

Marriages

Louise married her first husband, Ferri de Mailly, in 1511.[1] This marriage produced a daughter;

  • Madeleine de Mailly.[1]

Ferry died in 1513, and Louise remarried in 1514 to Gaspard I de Coligny.[7] From her second marriage she had three sons, all of whom played important roles in the first period of the French Wars of Religion:

Family tree

Notes
  1. Moreton-Macdonald 1915, p. 39.
  2. Shimizu 1970, p. 22.
  3. Roche 2010.
  4. Kettering 1989, p. 817-841.
  5. Davies 2002, p. 665-685.
  6. Noble 2002.
  7. Holt 1999, p. 219.

Sources
  • Davies, Joan (2002). "The Montmorencys and the Abbey of Sainte Trinité, Caen: Politics, Profit and Reform" (PDF). The Journal of Ecclesiastical History. 53 (4): 665–685. doi:10.1017/S002204690200427X.
  • Holt, Mack P. (1999). The French Wars of Religion, 1562-1629. Cambridge University Press.
  • Kettering, Sharon (1989). "The patronage power of early modern French noblewomen". The Historical Journal. 32, No. 4 (Dec.) (4): 817–841. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00015727. JSTOR 2639686.
  • Moreton-Macdonald, John Ronald (1915). A History of France. Vol. 2. The Macmillan Company.
  • Noble, Graham (2002). "The Development of Protestantism in 16th Century France". History Review.
  • Roche, Aline (2010). "Une perle de pris : la maison de la reine Eléonore d'Autriche". Cour de France.fr (in French). Archived from the original on 2013-12-03.
  • Shimizu, J. (1970). Conflict of Loyalties, Politics and Religion in the Career of Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of France, 1519-1572. Librairie Droz.


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