Albert de Gondi

Albert de Gondi, duc de Retz (4 November 1522 in Florence – 1602) seigneur du Perron, comte, then marquis de Belle-Isle (1573), duc de Retz (from 1581), was a marshal of France and a member of the Gondi family. Beginning his career during the Italian Wars he fought at the Battle of Renty in 1554, and in many of the campaigns into Italy in the following years, before returning to France for the disastrous battle of Saint-Quentin and battle of Gravelines both of which saw the French army savaged. With the conclusion of the Italian Wars in 1559, Retz found himself caught up in the French Wars of Religion which broke out in 1562. As an Italian outsider to much of the French aristocracy, Catherine de Medici brought him into her circle, hoping he would act as a counterweight at court to the great families of Guise and Montmorency. As part of the royal party he fought at the victories of Saint-Denis, Jarnac and Moncontour. Alongside his military potential the court saw his diplomatic potential and he played a role in the marriages of the king, and of his sister. In 1572 he was deeply implicated in the decision to massacre the Protestant leadership in Paris that spiralled out into the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew. Again entrusted as a diplomat he was sent to England to negotiate the marriage of the king's brother. On his return he fought at the siege of La Rochelle where he was shot in the stomach. Soon thereafter he was elevated to the Marshalate with the death of Tavannes. Tavannes had also agreed that Retz would inherit his governorship of Provence in return for Retz ceding his governorship of Metz to Tavannes' son. In the fifth civil war Retz led an army into Provence against Damville. Returning to the role of diplomat he negotiated with Parma to smooth over the French seizure of Cambrai. In 1594 he took a role in the conseil des finances after the death of François d'O. Early life and family Albert de Gondi was the son of Guidobaldo, seigneur de Perron, who became a banker at Lyon, and his mother was Marie Catherine Gondi. His siblings included cardinal Pierre de Gondi. The Gondi family were fairly recent elevations to nobility, having been ennobled in the fifteenth-century.