Coligny

Coligny, Gaspard de (1517-1572), a French admiral. Born at Chatillon, he came to court in 1539 and became the friend of Francis of Guise. He took part in the campaign of 1543, and was twice wounded, and was knighted on the field of battle during the Italian campaign of 1544. He took part in several other campaigns, and was made admiral. In 1551 a quarrel between Francis and Coligny broke out, and after Coligny's conversion to Huguenot views a little later this quarrel was changed to open and violent hostility. In 1562 the Civil war began, but the assassination of Francis in 1563 led to the maintenance of peace for some years. After another outbreak of war with various results, from 1567 to 1570, peace was again concluded and Coligny returned to court, where he rose into favour with Charles IX. He proposed to the king a descent on Spanish Flanders with a joint army of Catholics and Huguenots to be led by the king, and this proposal so alarmed the queen-mother that she determined on the massacre of St. Bartholomew. On the 22nd of August, 1572, Coligny was shot at and wounded in the streets, and two days later, on the night of the massacre, he was slain. Catherine seized and burned his papers, among which was - it is said - a good history of the Civil war.