Henri Cleutin, seigneur d'Oisel et de Villeparisis (1515 – 20 June 1566), was the representative of France in Scotland from 1546 to 1560, a Gentleman of the Chamber of the King of France, and a diplomat in Rome 1564–1566 during the French Wars of Religion.
Early life Henri was one of five children of Pierre Cleutin, or Clutin, mayor of Paris, and grandson of Henri, both were Councillors to the French Parliament. Jean Le Laboureur, the editor of Castelnau's memoirs, surmises the family had its origins in a cloth merchant who supplied Charles VI of France. Pierre Cleutin acquired the lands of Villeparisis and built a castle, and Henri Cleutin was made its lord in 1552. Henri may have been destined for the church but was involved in a murder in Paris in 1535 and fled the country. He had a pardon in 1538. On the basis of this incident the historian Marie-Noëlle Baudouin-Matuszek revised his birth date to 1515.Jean Le Laboureur, Les memoires de Messire Michel de Castelnau, vol. 1 (Brussels, 1731), 430: Marie-Noëlle Baudouin-Matuszek, 'Un ambassadeur en Ecosse au XVIe siècle: Henri Clutin d'Oisel', Revue Historique, 281:1 (569) (January–March 1989), 80–3, 102.
Rough Wooing Henri Cleutin, who was usually known as Monsieur d'Oysel, or d'Oisel, became ambassador resident in Scotland from 1546 during the war of the Rough Wooing. After Paul de Thermes left Scotland, he became Henry II of France's Lieutenant-General in Scotland. Cleutin was very much a follower of the House of Guise, who were gaining political powers in France.Marcus Merriman, The Rough Wooings (East Linton, 2000), p. 219. Scotland was ruled by Regent Arran, on behalf of Mary, Queen of Scots. He became the Duke of Châtelherault in 1548, but considerable power and a portion of the crown income was in the hands of Queen Mary of Guise, the widow of James V of Scotland.Amy Blakeway, Regency in Sixteenth-Century Scotland (Boydell, 2015).
Cleutin arrived in Scotland during an interlude of peace with England resulting from the Treaty of Ardres. However the peace treaty between Scotland and the Holy Roman Empire was not completely concluded. The Imperial ambassador in London François van der Delft became aware of Henri Cleutin, who he called "Oysif", in December 1546. The English Privy Council joked about his concerns and said that Cleutin carried letters of Bellerophon, the figure of classical myth set the impossible task of killing the chimaera after murdering his brother.Calendar State Papers Spain, vol. 8 (London, 1904), 528. It was said that during the Siege of St Andrews Castle, Cleutin counselled Regent Arran that those in the castle should be promised what they asked for, and beheaded when they came out. Arran refused such treachery, and Cleutin was said to have joked with Mary of Guise, that this was good natured of the Regent but unlike the actions of any prince he knew.Calendar State Papers Foreign Elizabeth, 1559–1560 (London, 1865), p. 11.
The war with England soon recommenced, and after Scotland's defeat at the Battle of Pinkie in September 1547, d'Oisel and Mary of Guise rode to Stirling Castle. According to John Knox, Cleutin was as scared as a fox being smoked in his hole.Knox, John, History of the Reformation, Book 2, e.g., Lennox, Cuthbert ed., (1905), 103. Cleutin and Walter Ogilvy took the news of the defeat to France.David Caldwell, Vicky Oleksy, Bess Rhodes, The Battle of Pinkie, 1547 (Oxbow, 2023), p. 237. On 7 July 1548, when André de Montalembert Sieur d'Esse spoke at the parliament at Haddington, proposing the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots to the Dauphin, d'Oysel as French ambassador accepted the unanimous approval.Thomson, Thomas, ed., Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, vol. 2 (1814), 481. D'Oysel then went to France, returning after a long discussion with Mary of Guise's brother, Francis, Le Balafré, Duc de Aumale, on 23 January 1548 at Savigny-le-Temple.Marguerite Wood, Balcarres Papers, vol. 1 (Edinburgh: SHS, 1923), pp. 179–180.
When Ferniehirst Castle was recovered from the English in February 1549, d'Oysel was one of the first at the walls and then he settled a heated debate over the army's next step. Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon, advocated making a fortification at Roxburgh before the army moved on, and after the commanders held an inconclusive vote, d'Oysel appealed to the authority of Arran who finally agreed with Villegaignon.Annie I. Cameron, Scottish Correspondence of Mary of Lorraine (SHS, Edinburgh, 1927), 288: Patrick Abercromby, The History of the Campagnes in Scotland, 1548 and 1549 (1707), pp. 96–97.
The peace
The war with England was concluded in 1550. Cleutin was sent to England as a commissioner on border issues in April.Auguste Théodore de Girardot, Pièces inédites relatives à l'histoire d'Écosse, Archives du Cher (Paris: Plon, 1846), p. 11. In May, he travelled to the border to meet the brother of Mary of Guise, the Marquis de Mayenne, who had been a hostage for the peace negotiations in England. While waiting for the Marquis, he visited Dunbar Castle, Fast Castle, and Tantallon Castle. Cleutin wrote to Mary of Guise from Dunglass remarking that there was nothing there in the abandoned English fort except the things they had brought themselves. The countryside could hardly provide for their horses.Annie Cameron, Balcarres Papers, 1548–1557 (Edinburgh: SHS, Edinburgh, 1925), pp. x, 63–65. Cleutin, not the Duke of Châtelherault, was left in charge of Scotland when Mary of Guise, the Queen Dowager, visited France in 1550. He visited the Duke's Craignethan Castle in November 1550.Pamela Ritchie, Mary of Guise (East Linton, 2002), pp. 127–9: National Records of Scotland E32/11 Household account of Regent Arran, ff. 26r & 99r. He wrote to Mary of Guise asking her to ensure that no impediment was made for food to be shipped to Scotland from France in February 1551 on account of the needs of the town of Edinburgh and the French soldiers because of the pillages and burnings during the war. Cleutin and Regent Arran travelled to Jedburgh with Camillo Marini, an Italian military engineer to plan new fortifications on the border.Annie Cameron, Balcarres Papers, 1548–1557 (Edinburgh: SHS, 1925), 86–7, 92–3.
At this height of the Auld Alliance between France and Scotland, the Emperor's envoy to Edinburgh, Mathieu Strick, reported that d'Oisel wielded almost sovereign authority in matters of state and justice.Calendar State Papers Spain, vol. 10 (London, 1914), 339. Unlike other French administrators employed by the Scottish court, such as Yves de Rubarye, contemporary sources point to his popularity amongst the Scottish nobility. Even an English observer, Sir Thomas Wharton observed of Guise and d'Oisel, "all in Scotland obey and lyketh them".Pamela Ritchie, Mary of Guise, (2002), 128 & 128 n.23. Later Scottish Protestant chronicle writers George Buchanan and Robert Lyndsay of Pitscottie agree on his ability and singular good judgment. Buchanan describes him as, "hasty and passionate, otherwise a good man, skilled in the arts both of peace and war."Robert Lindsay, History of Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1814), p. 513: George Buchanan, History of Scotland, trans. Aikman (Glasgow, 1827), 382, bk. 16 cap. 1. James Maitland of Lauderdale, a writer of a later generation, mentions some imperfections of his nature, including his "sudden and vehement choler." Cleutin, Yves de Rubarye, and Bartholomew de Villemore, the Regent's financial controller were criticised for their lack of understanding of the Scots language, class distinctions, and regional jurisdictions.James Maitland, A Narrative of the Minority of Mary Queen of Scots (Ipswich, 1842).
Cleutin later wrote of his own embassy to England in peacetime, meaning perhaps February 1552 when his mission concerned the Debatable Lands, when John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland had criticised his role as ambassador of Scotland to his Scottish colleagues;Don't you know to manage your own affairs without the help of French ambassadors? You're making a big mistake to by putting yourself under their care, and you won't be welcome with us.Marcus Merriman, The Rough Wooings, (East Linton: Tuckwell, 2000), p.383 quoting Alexandre Teulet, Relations Politiques, vol. 1 (Paris, 1862), 293.
Jean Scheyfve recorded Cleutin's visit to England in February 1552, writing that he had 30 or 40 captains and soldiers with him, and had heard a rumour that other French troops had passed through Ireland from the garrisons in Scotland, and that some might pass through England. After visiting France he returned to England en route to Scotland in July, but did not visit the English court.Calendar State Papers Spain, vol. 10 (London, 1914), pp. 468, 549.
Paperwork goes astray
The peace concluded with England, France and Scotland after the war of the Rough Wooing (1543–1551) did not necessarily please Spain and the Empire, although a peace treaty with Charles V was concluded by Thomas, Master of Erskine in Antwerp on 1 May 1551.Cosmo Innes, Ledger of Andrew Halyburton (Edinburgh, 1867), pp. lxxxv–lxxxvi quoting a copy of the treaty in Edinburgh city archives. In October 1552, d'Oisel's papers and correspondence with Mary of Guise and Henry II of France was seized by three English agents working for Mary of Hungary, Queen Dowager Regent of the Low Countries while the packet was couriered between Calais and Boulogne.Baudouin-Matuszek (1989), 104: Calendar State Papers Spain, vol.10, 596. The papers included d'Oisel's accounts for the French garrisons in Scotland. Mary of Austria noted that d'Oisel used the title "Lieutenant-General of the King's Army in France and Superintendent of the King's three fortresses," which were Eyemouth, Dunbar Castle, and Inchkeith. He was paymaster of 400 Gascon, Norman, and Breton troops.
There was also a lengthy memoir to Henry II of France concerning how Scotland would be governed after Mary, Queen of Scotland, reached her majority, a subject debated by the French parliament in that year.Teulet, Alexandre, ed., Relations Politiques, vol. 1 (Paris, 1862), pp. 274–8. Mary of Guise feared Châtelherault's powers might be increased. She and d'Oisel would dissemble their concerns for the time being. This memorandum continued on the subject of the arrest in Scotland of an Irishman, George Paris, who carried letters from France and England. Paris's trunk of letters had been seized by the Provost of Edinburgh and taken to Falkland Palace.Haynes, Samuel, ed., A Collection of State Papers (London, 1740), pp. 130–1, Dr Richard Smith to Nicolas Strelley, 11 November 1552.
Mary of Hungary gave Thomas Gresham copies of this paper and secret instructions made for a French ambassador, Louis de Salazar, Sieur d'Asnois, in January 1549. Gresham forwarded the copies to William Cecil. Edward VI was told the news on 24 November 1552 and wrote the story in his journal.Jordan, W. K., The Chronicles and Political Papers of Edward VI, London (1966), 155. The 1549 instructions advised Salazar to foment a civil war in England during the trial of Admiral Thomas Seymour to aid France's war in Scotland.HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 1 (1883), 100: Haynes, Samuel, ed., A Collection of State Papers, (London, 1740), 133–5, the copy has "Sieur d'Avoys": Salazar used the name "d'Anoys," his diplomat instructions are published from the French Archives in Correspondence Politique de Odet de Selve (Paris, 1888), pp. xviii, 481–484 no. 528 & footnote.