Jean de Poltrot
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Jean de Poltrot (c. 1537-1563), sieur de Méré or Mérey, was a nobleman of Angoumois, who murdered Francis, Duke of Guise.
He had lived some time in Spain, and his knowledge of Spanish, together with his swarthy complexion, which earned him the nickname of the Espagnolet, procured him employment as a spy in the wars against Spain.
Becoming a fanatical Huguenot, he determined to kill the Duke of Guise, and gained admission as a deserter to the camp of the Catholics who were besieging Orléans. In the evening of February 18, 1563, he hid by the side of a road along which he knew the Duke would pass, fired a pistol at him, and fled.
He was captured the next day, then tried, tortured, and sentenced to be drawn and quartered. On the March 18, 1563, he suffered an agonising death. The horses were not able to drag off his limbs, so he was hacked to pieces with cutlasses.
He had made several contradictory declarations regarding the complicity of Admiral Coligny, who protested emphatically against the accusation, which appears to have had no foundation.
See Mémoires du prince de Condé (London, 1743); TA D'Aubigné, Histoire universelle (ed. by de Ruble, Société de l'histoire de France, 1886); A de Ruble, L'Assassinat du duc François de Lorraine (Paris, 1897).
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- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
