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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 September 2014
On returning to France, de Seure was immediately swept into the service of the queen mother at a time of the most intense political and religious crisis so far. In the course of 1562, he became a member of the conseil privé. On 14 April 1562, we find him introducing Throckmorton for an audience with Catherine and then, early in May, he was visiting Throckmorton to announce to him that Paul de Foix had sent word of the coming of Sir Henry Sidney to France. It seems clear that he was becoming an increasingly trusted agent of the queen mother in these years.
1 He is frequently referred to as such from this time on: for example, in August 1573 (see ANG, 12 (1975), p. 605).
2 Throckmorton, 17 April and 8 May 1562, in CSPF, IV, no. 1013, and V, no. 28.
3 BnF, fr. 7856, p. 1210 (Alençon's household, indicated from 1570–October 1575); AD, La Manche, 2J no. 1484, receipt for de Seure's pension paid by Nicolas Pagenin, the duke's trésorier, in 1572.
4 ‘Officiers domestiques de la maison du Roy Henry III’, BnF, fr. 7856, pp. 1347–1405 (grand prieur, p. 1355, out of the list in 1584; p. 1663, Jacques de Seure, July–September).
5 Croce, Santa, 13 March 1563, in ‘Lettres de Prosper de Sainte-Croix au cardinal Borromée’, in Cimber, L. and Danjou, F. (eds), Archives curieuses de l’histoire de France, series 1, vol. VI (Paris, 1835), p. 129Google Scholar (from the copy of Santa Croce's second registre in BnF, it. 2182); LCM, I, p. 531. On this mission, see also Cloulas, I., ‘L’aide pontificale au parti catholique et royale pendant la première guerre de religion’, Bibliothèque de l’Ecole des Chartes, 120 (1962), pp. 153–171CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
6 Babou to Catherine de Medici, 10 May 1563, BnF, fr. 16038, pp. 376–393, esp. p. 388.
7 Babou to Catherine de Medici, 31 July 1563, and accompanying mémoire, ibid., pp. 403, 404–408.
8 Babou to Catherine de Medici, 5 June 1563, ibid., p. 401. See also Catherine's letters to the pope and to Babou, LCM, X, pp. 146–147, where they are misdated to December 1564, by which time a new Grand Prior of France had already been appointed. They are more likely to date from the initiative of May 1563. In them, de Seure is ‘infiniment recommandé […] que pour la conservation de sa Religion’. She talks about the pope's request for a ‘nouvelle recharge de nous’. The drafts of these letters, BnF, fr. 15881, fos 333–334, from Catherine and Charles IX, do not bear any date. The king's letter notes that de Seure is ‘aupres d’elle [votre sainteté] pour nostre service’. This would seem conclusive for May 1563.
9 Aubert de La Chesnaye-Desbois, F.-A., Dictionnaire de la noblesse (Paris, 1784), VI, pp. 479–480Google Scholar.
10 See ‘Maison du Temple et commanderie d’Ivry-le-Temple’, Les Hospitaliers de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem, <http://www.hospitaliers-de-saint-jean-de-jerusalem.org/Commanderies-de-Malte/index.php?page=Ivry-le-Temple> (accessed 19 May 2014). This commanderie had absorbed a number of others in the late fifteenth century in order to provide a greater revenue for the commandeur. De Seure was also appointed commander of Villers-le-Temple (in control of all properties in the diocese of Liège); though in the Low Countries and represented by a délégué, it was part of the Prieuré de France. De Seure was nominated by the king to the commanderie of Saint-Jean-de-Lille in 1577, though the papal response was to refer it to the consent of the Grand Master (ANG, 13 (1975), pp. 634, 656, 19 September and 19 October 1577).
11 Musters survive from 1568 to February 1576, though de Seure is last mentioned in this role in 1583 (Vindry, F., Dictionnaire de l’état-major français au XVIe siècle (Bergerac and Paris, 1901), tables, p. 230Google Scholar, and notes pp. 451–452).
12 Catherine to Montmorency, 12 February, 4 March, 9 March 1565, LCM, II, pp. 263, 273, 275. See also the letter of Aumale published in Le Duchat's edition of the Satyre Ménipée (Ratisbon, 1709), III, p. 17, from a pamphlet of 1565.
13 Hirschauer, C., La Politique de St Pie V en France (1566–72) (Paris, 1922), p. 19Google Scholar. Catherine de Medici to the cardinal de Tournon, 20 October 1566, LCM, II, pp. 392–394: she had sent de Seure to Rome ‘pour luy faire entendre tout le contraire de ce que l’on luy avoit dict, avecques charge expresse de ne communicquer ny à vous ny à personne vivante l’occasion de sa dépesche’.
14 Florimond Robertet to the duc de Nevers, 27 October 1567, BnF, fr. 3221, p. 44: ‘Combien le chevalyer de Seurre ait fort practicqué la paix, toutesfoys je n’y vois pas grande apparence.’
15 De Seure to M. de Noyelles, camp de Saint-Jean d’Angély, 9 November 1569, BnF, fr. 3187, fo. 186, autograph. The Noyelles concerned is probably Nicolas de Hércourt, sieur de Noyelles-lès-Humières, whose uncle and cousin had both been chevaliers of Malta killed at the enterprise of Zoara (Tripolitania) in 1552 (see La Chesnaye, Dictionnaire, VIII, p. 41; Bosio, G., Histoire des chevaliers de l’ordre de Saint Jean de Hiérusalem (Paris, 1643), pp. 416–420Google Scholar; de Goussancourt, M., Martyrologe des chevaliers de S. Jean de Hiérusalem, dits de Malte (Paris, 1654), p. 360)Google Scholar.
16 See p. 179, n. 1.
17 Instructions, 28 January 1571, BnF, fr. 15382, p. 171 (extract in LCM, IV, p. 26).
18 Petrucci to Francesco de Medici, 30 April 1571, in Desjardins, A., Négociations diplomatiques de la France avec la Toscane, 6 vols (Paris, 1859–1886), III, pp. 665–666Google Scholar: ‘dunque che il cavaliere Sceura, volendomi far certo che è stato fino ad ora servitore delle Vostre Altezze per sua propria elezione e senza alcuno obbligo, mi è venuto a dire che fu ricerco da questi di Ferrara. Qualche settimana fa, avevo saputo che era stato ricerco da quel duca, più tempo fa, in certa occasione più giorni, che volessi fare officio con il Re che scrivessi al Papa, che non trovasse strano il motivo dello Imperatore […] Tutto fu referto alla Regina Madre; e lo senti volentieri, dimostrando che era bene avvertire il Re, se gliene fusse detto nulla; siccome detto Sceura, il quale ha molte ragioni, disse volergli dire, perchè doveva pigliare il patrocinio di Vostra Altezza.’
19 Petrucci, 24 May 1571, in Desjardins, Négociations, III, pp. 670–671: ‘Mi si fanno attorno, per persuaderla a favore di Cosimo, il cavalier Sceura e gli altri, mentre Casa Guisa e Madama di Nemours fanno quanto possono per Ferrara. Il cavaliere Sceura parlò in tempore caldissimamente al Re, che ebbe a dire “A dispetto di tutto il mondo, io sono risoluto aiutare e dar soccorso al Gran Duca.” Cui rispose il Sceura che doveva farlo, perchè con l’avere per amici Venezia ed il Gran Duca, potrebbe abbassare sempre il Re di Spagna in Italia; e con i principi d’ Alemagna ed Inghilterra, abbassarlo in Fiandra. Ed il Re “Io conosco tutto, e per il Gran Duca faro ogni cosa; ma bisogna pigliar cura, che sono tanti addosso alla Regina, mia madre, per il tale affare, che non la faccino”’. Petrucci, 26–31 July 1571, in ibid., p. 688: ‘Il cavaliere Sceura mi disse che il Re vede che bisogna il suo fratello facci il matrimonio con Inghilterra, per grandezza dell’ uno e dell’ altro; e che egli, da qualche tempo in quà, non c’è molto inclinato, istigato da alcuni che ha appresso, di che la Regina Madre è collera, dopo che Sua Maestà ci si è disposta; e pensa che abbi qualche maneggio altrove per ordine di Spagna; e pero desidera per via di Roma o di Spagna saperne qualche cosa. E m’ ha pregato io ne scriva qualche cosa, assicurandomi che il Re lo riceverà a singularissimo piacere.’
20 Petrucci, 24 December 1571, in ibid., p. 741. Letter of Charles IX to Jeanne d’Albret, ‘1572’, in Archives historiques de la Gironde, 2 (1860), pp. 151–152.
21 Lambin, D., Oratio habita … qua primum Regis erga de beneficium commemoret, deinde, qua ratione hoc munus ab ejus majestate impetrarit exponit (Paris, 1570)Google Scholar, fo. 6v. He is there referred to as Michael Severus (see Renouard, P., Imprimeurs et libraires parisiens du XVIe siècle, III (Paris, 1979), no. 639Google Scholar).
22 Cavriana, P., Histoire du siège de la Rochelle sous Charles IX, translated by L. Delayant (La Rochelle, 1856), pp. 39, 53Google Scholar.
23 Valentine Dale to Lord Burghley, 8 November 1574, CSPF, X, no. 1592, p. 570.
24 BnF fr. 7856, pp. 1210, 1354.
25 Valois, Marguerite de, Mémoires et autres écrits, ed. Viennot, E. (Paris, 1999), p. 187Google Scholar. He added the comment that ‘Je ne crois pas que ce soit ici le dernier acte de ce jeu; notre homme (voulant parler de mon frère) me tromperait bien s’il en demeurait là.’
26 For example, the pasquil at the expense of Pierre Versoris, in de L’Estoile, Pierre, Mémoires-Journaux, ed. Brunet, G.et al., 12 vols (Paris, 1875–1896), I, p. 169Google Scholar.
27 TNA, SP 78/3, fo. 58, anonymous letter to Amyas Poulet, 18 December 1579. This is a particularly valuable report as L’Estoile's journal is missing for the period September–December 1579.
28 Brantôme, Pierre de Bourdeille de, Oeuvres completes, ed. Lalanne, L., 12 vols (Paris, 1864–1896), IV. pp. 159, 280Google Scholar, which indicate that he had been ill-treated by Elbeuf, a member of the Guise family. Jeanton, G., ‘Les commanderies du Temple Sainte Catherine de Montbellet et de Rougepont’, Société des amis des arts et des sciences de Tournus, 19 (1919), pp. 90–91Google Scholar, indicates references until 1579 but nothing thereafter. Another member of his family, Yves de Saulcières, became a chevalier in 1564 (Vertot, Abbé de, Histoire des chevaliers hospitaliers de Saint Jean, 7 vols (Paris, 1772), VII, pp. 383, 384)Google Scholar.
29 See list drawn up of conseillers, 1575, BnF, fr. 3321, fo. 17.
30 Chambellan et gentilhomme ordinaire, 1575–1584, BnF, fr. 7856, p. 1347.
31 BnF, fr. 5286, fo. 13r: ‘Ensuivent les reglemens faictz ou moys d’Aoust vc soixante dixhuict’, and in particular fo. 41v: ‘Le deppartement des provinces que le Roy a faict à Messieurs de son conseil privé’, 8 January 1579.
32 Instructions of Henri III for the commandeur de Chattes, Paris, 28 August 1581, BnF, fr. 17870, fos 11–13; Paul de Foix to Henri III, Rome, 1582, BnF, fr. 16044, fos 4v–5r, published in Lettres de Messire Paul de Foix (Paris, 1628), pp. 255–257; de Foix to Henri III, 5 March and 16 April 1582, in ibid., pp. 316–317, 403. Jean de Bartha had been nominated by Charles IX. The abbot successfully nominated was Jacques Le Fendeur: see Charançey, Comte de, Histoire de la Grande-Trappe (Mortagne, 1876), pp. 152–153Google Scholar.
33 Cardinal di Como to nuncio Castelli, 5 March 1582, in ANG, 7 (1967), p. 278. Castelli to Como, 27 March 1582, in ibid., p. 290: ‘lo esshortai a saldar prima questa piaga, che havea l’anima sua, e poi trattar de la dispensa’.
34 Karcher, A., ‘L’assemblée des notables de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 1583’, Bibliothèque de l’Ecole des Chartes, 114 (1956), p. 131Google Scholar.
35 Henri III and Catherine de Medici to the bishop of Paris, de Seure, and others, 3 January 1583, BnF, fr. 3306, fo. 61.
36 Henri III and Catherine de Medici to de Seure, October 1583, BnF, fr. 33–36, fos 126v–127r.
37 Le Roux, N., La Faveur du roi (Seyssel and Paris, 2001), pp. 516–517Google Scholar, suggests that they had become close in the mid-1570s when both serving in Anjou's household.
38 L’Estoile, Pierre de, Registre-journal du règne de Henri III, ed. Lazard, M. and Schrenck, G., vol. IV (Geneva, 2000), pp. 133–134Google Scholar, 6 March 1584. A marginal note suggests that de Seure was ‘un espèce de fou qui parlait librement aux Reines et leur faisait des contes pour rire et cela fort au naturel’. This first appears in the edition of L’Estoile, , Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de France (Cologne, 1719), p. 174Google Scholar.
39 Busbecq, Ogier Ghiselin de, Life and Letters, ed. Foster, T.H. and Daniell, F.H. Blackburne, 2 vols (Cambridge, 1881; repr. 2012), II, pp. 215–216Google Scholar.
40 Edward Stafford to Francis Walsingham, 18 March 1584, TNA, SP 78/11, no. 56, fo. 127.
41 The headquarters of the grand prieuré of Champagne was at Voulaines in Burgundy, where there were six commanderies. The payments to Malta of the four commanderies held by the grand prieur amounted to 5,400 écus p.a. (out of a total of 40,000) in 1588 (BnF, fr. 20152, fo. 176v). For enfranchisement of Bures, see AD, Côte-d’Or 4E 31–37, no. 415 (de Seure is still entitled conseiller du roi and capitaine d’une compagnie des ordonnances). The archives of the grand prieuré are in ibid., 111 H. See also similar enfranchisements for Courban, 14 September 1578 (ibid., 111 H, no. 1184, and copy, ibid., B 11474; Garnier, J., Chartes de communes et affranchissements en Bourgogne, 3 vols (Dijon, 1867–1877), III, p. 151–159, no. 496)Google Scholar; Louesmes, 2 November 1580 (AD, Côte-d’Or 111 H, no. 1186); Minot, 17 June 1581 (ibid., 116 H, no. 1245); Pierre Viard, an individual living at Minot, 18 June 1581 (ibid., 11 H, no. 1245). Like other landowners, de Seure probably found mainmorte difficult to defend in law and its sale was profitable (Drouot, H., Mayenne et la Bourgogne, 2 vols (Paris, 1937), I, pp. 38–39)Google Scholar.
42 ‘Le trésor du grand prieur de Champagne’ is mentioned in the Satyre Ménipée (Goulart, S. (ed.), Mémoires de la Ligue, 6 vols (Amsterdam, 1758), V, p. 570Google Scholar) and seems to refer to the story that 50,000 écus of his money were seized by Mayenne (Favyn, A., Histoire de Navarre (Paris, 1612), p. 959Google Scholar) and that Ligue troops were lodged in one of his houses in 1591 (Hérelle, G., La Réforme et la Ligue en Champagne, 2 vols (Paris, 1887–1892), II, p. 399Google Scholar).
43 The date of his death is sometimes given as 1593/1594. Desplaces, L.B., Essai critique sur l’histoire des ordres royaux, hospitaliers et militaires (Liège and Brussels, 1754), p. 144Google Scholar, notes that he was still living on 7 June 1594 but died early in 1595. He is named as ‘Messire Michel de Seve, grand prieur de Champagne, capitaine de cinquante hommes d’armes’, in an act of the conseil du roi, 22 January 1597 (d’Hozier, L.-P., Armorial general, III, i (Paris, 1752), p. 116Google Scholar). His successor as Grand Prior of Champagne, in place by 1596, was probably the chevalier de Chamesson, Jean-Philibert de Foissy, commandeur of La Romagne (Y. and Quenot, X., La Commanderie de La Romagne aux XVIe et XVIIIe siècles: une commanderie champenoise aux confins de la Bourgogne et de la Franche-Comté (Dijon, 2012Google Scholar)), who had entered the order in 1560 (Vertot, Histoire des chevaliers, II, p. 384) and accompanied Henri III to Poland in 1574 with his brother (Catalogue des princes, seigneurs, gentilshommes et autres qui accompaigent le Roy de Pologne (Lyon, 1574)). He participated in campaigns against Spanish troops on the eastern frontier during 1595 (Grappin, P., Mémoires historiques sur les guerres du XVIe siècle au comté de Bourgogne (Besançon, 1788), pp. j, 50Google Scholar) and was talked of in Rome in 1596 as a possible representative of the order in France (Lettres du cardinal d’Ossat, 2 vols (Paris, 1698), II, pp. 74, 100).
44 Some sources suggest that he returned to his position in Saint-Lazare after Salviati's death in 1586. Sibert's manuscript history of the order (BnF, fr. 24967, fos 245v–248r) suggests that there was a vacancy until the succession as Grand Master of Saint-Lazare in 1593 by Aimard de Clermont de Chastes. Boigny was finally returned to the order in December 1595, following de Seure's death.
45 BnF, fr. 24967, fo. 222v, ‘Histoire de l’ordre de Saint-Lazare’, by de Guénégaud, sieur de Brosses.