D'Epernon, Jean Louis de Nogare de La Valette

The grandson of the Gascon officer Pierre de Nogare (d. 1553), who built the castle of Comon , one of the first and most impressive Renaissance residences in the south of France.

The eldest brother of Jean Louis, Bernard de Nogare , the governor of the Margrave of Saluzzo , in the wars with the Savoys, rose to the rank of admiral of France . The three sisters were married to Henri de Zhuayezom , Marquis de Ruyak and Count de Brienne .

From an early age he took part in hostilities during religious wars , became famous for his courage and became a favorite of King Henry III, sharing his mercy with another favorite, Anne de Zhuayez . Captured Angumua , Touraine , Anjou , Normandy and some other provinces. For the sake of the inheritance, Foix Kandaley imprisoned his wife’s younger sister in the monastery - the granddaughter of the Montablency connable .

After the death of Juayez, the insatiable greed of d'Epernon particularly revolted society, and the leaders of the Catholic League managed to arouse the king against him. In 1588 he was exiled to Angumua, but, learning about the king’s flight from Paris , he immediately rushed to his aid. After the death of Henry III, d'Epernon for a long time refused to recognize Henry IV and obeyed him only in 1595.

At the beginning of the 17th century, he led the pro-Spanish party of Catholics, achieved the strengthening of the position of the society of Jesus in France , and probably continued to intrigue against Henry IV from behind the curtains ^[3] . After the death of the latter, a certain Mademoiselle d'Eskoman, who was in the service of the royal favorite of the Marquise de Verneuil , publicly stated that the king’s killer, Ravalyak , acted on the orders of the Marquise and d'Epernon ^[4] . The Paris parliament sentenced the accuser to life imprisonment for defamation, and in 1622 the duke married the Marquise de Verneuil's daughter from a relationship with the late king.

In those years, d'Epernon forced the Parisian parliament to recognize Mary Medici as regent and for some time enjoyed exceptional influence. His youngest son, raised by the Jesuits, received the dignity of a cardinal . The arrogance and arbitrariness of the elderly temporary worker forced Louis XIII to expel d'Epernon to Metz in 1618. After that, La Valette freed Maria Medici from Blois , where she was exiled after the execution of Conchini , and arranged for her reconciliation with her son. Details of the duke's life at this time are known from the writings of his secretary, Geza de Balzac .

D'Epernon’s nephew, Marquis de Royaiac (in Russian sources “Margrave Naroulyak”), boasted to the Russian ambassadors in 1615, as if during the campaign of Delagardi “he was the boss over the French people” ^[5] . Six months after being elected king, Mikhail Fedorovich sent a message to d'Epernon (in the Russian sources Fionmarkon, Fimarkun, Froliondryan, Froluydryan, etc.) with words of gratitude for the notification of the hostile plans of the Polish king and his agent Jacques Margeret ^[5] .

Based on these data, it was hypothesized that d'Epernon tried to draw the Russian Kingdom into pan-European intrigues on the side of the Catholic powers in order to weaken the influence of the international Protestant camp ^[5] .

In 1622, La Valette, right on the street, clashed with the Archbishop of Bordeaux . Cardinal Richelieu (the king’s new favorite) took advantage of this scandal to force d'Epernon to retire under the threat of excommunication . The last years of his life, the duke d'Epernon lived in the estate of Cadillac near Bordeaux as governor of Guyenne , but already had no serious political weight ^[3] . In winter and summer, he worked on decorating this rural residence. His grave in Kadiyyak was desecrated by the revolutionaries in 1792.

The great legacy of d'Epernon was divided between the sons, of whom the elder bore the title of Duke de Foix (Chandal), and the youngest - the Duke of d'Epernon . Two more sons turned to the spiritual path, one of them was a cardinal, and the other a bishop.

Jean-Louis d'Epernon is a character in the novels of Alexandre Dumas, the father of the Countess de Monsoreau and Forty-Five , dedicated to the reign of Henry III. In the Russian television series Countess de Monsoro , the role of d'Epernon was played by actor Timothy Fedorov .