Robert IV de La Marck

Robert IV de La Marck (1491, Sedan, Ardennes, 15 January 1512 – Guise, 1556), was Duke of Bouillon, Seigneur of Sedan and a Marshal of France.

Robert IV de La Marck by an unknown artist around 1570

Biography

Robert was the only son of Robert III de La Marck and Guillemette de Sarrebruck.[1] At the age of 17, he became captain of the Swiss Guards. In 1547, Robert was made a Marshal of France by Henry II of France, and sent him to Rome as French Ambassador. In 1549 he would claim Sedan as a Principality, his son later styling himself as Prince of Sedan.[2] In 1552, Robert participated in the Siege of Metz and took back possession of his Duchy of Bouillon, which had been occupied by the troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor since 1521. Despite its occupation it would not be returned to his family in the Peace of Cateau Cambresis.[3]

As Lieutenant General in Normandy, Robert was made prisoner in Hesdin in July 1553. He would be kept in prison and badly treated in Flanders until the Treaty of Vaucelles of February 1556 under which he was released for a ransom of 60,000 écus.[3] Soon after his release Robert died. He is buried at the Eglise Saint-Laurent in Sedan.

Marriage and children

Robert married in 1538 Françoise de Brézé, daughter of Louis de Brézé and Diane de Poitiers.[4] They had:

  • Henri Robert (1539–1574), Duke of Bouillon and Prince of Sedan, married Françoise de Bourbon, daughter of Louis, Duke of Montpensier.
  • Charles Robert (1541–1622), Count of Maulévrier.
  • Christian, died young.
  • Antoinette (1542–1591), married Henri I de Montmorency[5]
  • Guillemette (1543–1544)
  • Diane (born 1544), married 1) Jacques de Clèves, duc de Nevers,[6] 2) Henri de Clermont,[6] 3) Jean Babou, Count of Sagonne.
  • Guillemette (1545–1592), married John III, Count of Ligny
  • Françoise (born 1547), abbess
  • Catherine (born 1548), married Jacques de Harlay, seigneur de Champvallon

References
  1. Saulnier 1955, p. 216.
  2. Carroll 2013, p. 991.
  3. Carroll 2013, p. 998.
  4. Carroll 1998, p. 20.
  5. Potter 2004, p. 60.
  6. Potter 1990, p. 23.

Source
  • Carroll, Stuart (1998). Noble Power During the French Wars of Religion: The Guise Affinity and the Catholic Cause in Normandy. Cambridge University Press.
  • Carroll, Stuart (2013). "'Nager entre deux eaux': The Princes and the Ambiguities of French Protestantism". Sixteenth Century Journal. 44 (4).
  • Potter, David (1990). "Marriage and Cruelty among the Protestant Nobility in Sixteenth-Century France: Diane de Barbançon and Jean de Rohan, 1561-7". European History Quarterly. 20 (January 1): 5–38. doi:10.1177/026569149002000101. S2CID 144245625.
  • Potter, David, ed. (2004). Foreign Intelligence and Information in Elizabethan England. Vol. 25: Two English Treatises on the State of France, 1580–1584. Cambridge University Press.
  • Saulnier, V.L. (1955). "L'Auteur du Florimont en Prose Imprimé: Girard Moët de Pommesson". Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance (in French). Librairie Droz. 17.
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