François de Montmorency-Bouteville
François de Montmorency-Bouteville (1600 – 22 June 1627) was the second son of Louis de Montmorency, Comte de Bouteville, Vice-Admiral of France under Henri IV. François succeeded his brother Henri in 1616 and became Duke of Luxembourg and Governor of Senlis. He served with distinction at the sieges of Saint-Jean-d'Angély, Montauban, Royan and Montpellier.
After fighting a duel against the Comte de Pontgibaud, he killed the Marquis de Portes in 1625 and the Comte de Thorigny on 25 March 1626. He injured the Baron de la Frette in 1627, then fled to Brussels to escape the wrath of Louis XIII.
Despite the intercession of many people, including the archduchess of the Netherlands, Louis XIII would not pardon him. Furious, he vowed to fight a duel in broad daylight in central Paris despite the fact that Cardinal Richelieu had issued an edict saying that duelling would be punishable by death.
On 12 May 1627 at the Place Royale in Paris, he killed the Marquis de Bussi d'Amboise in the course of a duel. Their seconds, François de Rosmadec, Comte de Chappelles, and François d’Harcourt, Marquis de Beuvron, also fought one another. While d'Harcourt-Beuvron took refuge in England, Montmorency and Rosmadec, despite their nobility, were beheaded at the Place de Grève in Paris on 22 June 1627.
His posthumous son, François-Henri, became a Marshal of France; his daughter Élisabeth-Angélique was married in turn to Gaspard IV de Coligny (son of Gaspard III) and Christian Ludwig I zu Mecklenburg (son of Adolf Friedrich I).
References
- Charles Clémencet: L'art de vérifier les dates des faits historiques, des chartes, des chroniques et autres anciens monuments, depuis la naissance de Notre-Seigneur. Vol. 12. Paris 1818, page 63.
- Charles Mackay: Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, 1841, page 280.