Blaise de Lasseran-Massencôme, seigneur de Montluc, a…

Blaise de Lasseran-Massencôme, seigneur de Montluc, a marshal of France from 1574, has become a powerful force within the league of Roman Catholic nobles in the southwest.

Huguenot propaganda has given him an undeserved reputation for barbarity.

In his Commentaires (1592; English translation, 1674), an autobiography that contains his reflections on the art of war, he records his successes with frankness, but he does not conceal his mistakes.

Militarily he stands for the use of mobile infantry (notably harquebusiers) against cavalry.

He dies at Condom at 77 on August 20, 1577.

Montluc’s successor is Armand de Gontaut, baron de Biron, who, as a young page of Margaret, queen of Navarre, had attracted the attention of the Marshal de Brissac (Charles de Cossé), who took him to Piedmont.

There he commanded the artillery but was lamed by a wound.

He has brought back to the royal army in France the professional spirit of the Italian soldiers and, in the battles of 1568–69, had won the post of grand master of the artillery, held by Brissac before him.

He had taken La Rochelle in 1573 and commanded in Guienne; in 1577 he is made marshal of France, with command in the south against Henry of Navarre.