Anne de Joyeuse
Anne de Joyeuse, baron d'Arques then duc de Joyeuse was a French noble, governor, admiral, military commander, and royal favourite during the reign of Henri III in the French Wars of Religion. The eldest son of Guillaume de Joyeuse and Marie de Batarnay, Joyeuse was part of one of the most prominent noble families in Languedoc. His father served as the lieutenant-general of the province. Joyeuse began his career in the mid 1570s, serving in Languedoc in the fifth civil war before joining the main royal army during the sixth civil war and seeing combat at the Siege of Issoire in late 1577. Around this time he caught the attention of the king and entered into the circle of his favourites, he was made a Gentilhomme de la chambre then a Chambellan. By 1579 he would be one of the king's four chief favourites, alongside Épernon, Saint-Luc and D'O. That same year he became governor of the Mont-Saint-Michel. In 1580 civil war resumed and the king dispatched Épernon and Joyeuse to play important roles in the siege of La Fère. Joyeuse would be seriously wounded in the reduction of the city.
Over the next year, D'O and Saint-Luc would each be disgraced in turn, leaving Épernon and Joyeuse as the two poles of the king's favour. Henri elevated them to premier gentilhomme de la chambre, then brought them into the French peerage when he elevated Joyeuse from baron d'Arques to duc de Joyeuse. Around this time he also arranged for a marriage between Joyeuse and the queen's sister Marguerite de Lorraine, a very advantageous match which was celebrated lavishly. Henri desired for his favourites to have control over the military, and therefore bought out the duke of Mayenne from his possession of the Admiralty in mid 1582, with the title going to Joyeuse. Finally in 1583 Joyeuse was made governor of the reconsolidated province of Normandy, the richest province of the kingdom. By this time opposition was growing to the king's two favourites among the upper nobility, among whom some saw Joyeuse as a man taken above his proper station. His appointment in Normandy also caused friction with the Norman nobility. The opposition to Henri and his two favourites was granted new clarity by the death of the king's brother Alençon in July 1584. In the absence of a child, Alençon had been the king's heir, and with a Protestant now heir the duke of Guise reformed the Catholic Ligue in opposition to the succession and Henri's favourites.
In March 1585, the ligue entered war with the crown, and Joyeuse was tasked with ensuring that Normandy did not fall to the ligueurs. He fought a skirmish with the duke of Guise's cousin the duke of Elbeuf at Beaugency in June of that year in which he came out the better. However the king capitulated to the ligueur demands shortly thereafter, agreeing to exclude Navarre from the succession and make war on Protestantism. In the campaign that followed Joyeuse successfully drove the Protestant prince of Condé from the country in late 1585. By this means Joyeuse began to build his credentials as a leader of the Catholic party, in opposition to Guise who sought to lead the Catholic party through the ligue. Épernon meanwhile aligned himself with the Protestant party. At this time, Joyeuse's favour began to deteriorate, as the king increasingly found himself in agreement with Épernon's attempts to seek reconciliation with Navarre. Joyeuse led a royal army into Auvergne in 1586 against the Protestants and succeeded in capturing a number of small settlements before his campaign bogged down and he returned to court in failure. He increasingly conducted his campaigns in a brutal fashion and this would climax with the campaign he led in 1587 into Poitou against Navarre in which he massacred several Protestant garrisons. By this means he greatly increased his credit with the preachers of Paris, at the expense of Protestant enmity. Conscious of his declining position at court, he pursued Navarre aggressively, and brought him to battle at Coutras. During the battle that followed, he was killed.
Early life and family
Anne de Joyeuse was born in 1560, the eldest son Guillaume II de Joyeuse and Marie de Batarnay. He was named for his godfather Anne de Montmorency, chief favourite of Henri II. His father had initially been intended for a church career, however with his father dying without other male issue, the royal favourite Montmorency facilitated his extraction from his church career and secured Guillaume an advantageous marriage to his niece. In 1561 he would be established as lieutenant-general of Languedoc, and would serve in this role until his death in 1592. He represented a chief cog in the administration of Henri III's mother Catherine de' Medici during the nominal reign of Charles IX. His mother took an active role in the finances of the family and from November 1588 had power of attorney for the Joyeuse family. Through the Batarnay side of his family, Joyeuse had relatives that had served the kings of France since the reign of Louis XI. Through his mother he was descended from René de Savoie-Tende, bastard son of the duke of Savoy.Family
The Joyeuse were a noble family from the south of the massif-central. They traced their nobility back to the 12th and 11th Centuries as an offshoot of the house of Châteauneuf-Randon. During the thirteenth century they became barons of Joyeuse from which they would draw their name. In 1431 the barony was erected into a viscounty in favour of Louis de Joyeuse. Several generations later members of the family served as Chambellans for the duke of Bourbon and king of France. The Joyeuse family possessed and would continue to develop during the political ascendency of Anne de Joyeuse, a strong clientele system in eastern Languedoc which was of great value to the king in his project to reintegrate the provinces into the royal orbit. Henri III saw their influence in Languedoc as a useful counterbalance to the other main noble family of Languedoc, their former patrons, the Montmorency.Anne had 6 younger brothers, among whom:
- François de Joyeuse, would become a Cardinal.
- Henri de Joyeuse, would become Duke of Joyeuse after Antoine-Scipion.
- Antoine-Scipion de Joyese, would succeed Anne as Duke of Joyeuse.
- Georges de Joyeuse sieur de Saint-Didier.
- Claude de Joyeuse, baron de Saint-Sauveur would die alongside Anne at the Battle of Coutras.
Marriage
After the wedding, festivities known as 'Magnificences' were held for two weeks to celebrate the occasion, with over 50,000 spectators at the various parades. Henri had been planning the details of the events since June. Among the celebrations were tournaments, firework displays, ballets and mock battles in which the king fought the duke of Guise, duke of Montmorency and duke of Mercœur in a variety of allegorical settings. An observer reported that Henri employed a variety of weapons for these combats. To celebrate his marriage, his maternal grandmother, the comtesse du Bouchage gifted Joyeuse a clock. Henri for his part granted Joyeuse a gift of 1,200,000 livres. This sum was in fact a diversion of the receipts for the year of the city of Caen, half paid immediately to Joyeuse and the other half staggered over the following two years. The marriage contract specified that the sums must be devoted to land purchases. The king also granted him the Château de Limours shortly thereafter, for which the duchess of Bouillon would be compensated 160,000 livres. This Château had in prior years been granted by François I and Henri II to their respective mistresses. In the following years, Henri would refer to Joyeuse in letters as mon beau frère a term he had previously only used for Mercœur. Joyeuse's marriage linked him more closely to the monarchy and to the Lorraine family in opposition to the other chief royal favourite Épernon. The match brought great benefits to Mercœur, as Marguerite surrendered her rights of succession to any Lorraine inheritance to him upon the marriage. Marguerite was a cousin of the duke of Guise the leader of the Catholic ligue
The amount spent on the wedding astonished and flabbergasted contemporaries. The diarist Pierre de l'Estoile wrote of the 'enormity and waste' at a time when there was much need in France. During the period in which the wedding took place, there were disorders in Guyenne, Languedoc and Dauphiné, many of which stemmed from a lack of funds. At the time of the wedding, the king's brother Alençon was campaigning in the Netherlands. His troops were woefully underfunded due to the inability of the Dutch States to provide him the money they promised, and he bitterly protested to Henri for spending so lavishly on a wedding instead of providing more money to support him. The wedding was not without its supporters however, the acclaimed poet Pierre de Ronsard opined approvingly of the match. He would composed an Epithalamium for the occasion, celebrating the virtues of Joyeuse.
As a married man, Joyeuse would participate in many brief infidelities, for which he sought ritual purification from time to time. Despite this he expressed great longing when separated from his wife in his letters, calling for Marguerite to come join him at Niort as he prepared to conduct the siege of Fontenay which he feared might take a significant time to reduce. He also excitedly wrote when he suspected she might be pregnant. His grandmother, the comtesse du Bouchage would develop a strong rapport of correspondence with Marguerite, and Marguerite would regularly write to her when Joyeuse was unable to.