Jérôme Groslot, Sieur de l'Isle (died 1622) was a French diplomat.
Background His father, also Jérôme Groslot (1520–1572), was killed during the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in Paris. Jérôme Groslot came to Scotland and was brought up for a time with the young James VI at Stirling Castle.Alexander Courtney, James VI, Britannic Prince: King of Scots and Elizabeth's Heir, 1566–1603 (Routledge, 2024), pp. 31, 105.Gareth Russell, Queen James: The Lives and Loves of Britain's First King (London: William Collins, 2025), p. 49. In Scotland, Jérôme Groslot was sometimes known as "the son of the Baillie of Orleans".David Agnew, Protestant Exiles from France: Refugees naturalized before 1681, vol. 1 (1886), p. 104. His sister Louise married Samuel Puchot de Bertreuille in 1601.
Diplomacy Groslot returned to France in 1581 and George Buchanan, his former tutor, wrote to Theodore Beza on his behalf. He visited Oxford and Cambridge universities with Paulus Melissus.David Agnew, Protestant Exiles from France: Refugees naturalized before 1681, vol. 1 (1886), p. 257.
Jérôme Groslot was sent to Scotland in April 1589 to advocate the marriage of James VI to Catherine de Bourbon, sister of Henry of Navarre.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 37, 49.Gareth Russell, Queen James: The Lives and Loves of Britain's First King (London: William Collins, 2025), p. 113. An English observer at the Scottish court Thomas Fowler wrote that François de Civille and Jérôme Groslot encouraged Edinburgh merchants who dealt with France to support the Navarre marriage.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 97.
John Colville wrote to the Laird of Wemyss that James VI was set on the Danish marriage and l'Isle's efforts were likely to be in vain.Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1589-1593, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 49. When he left Scotland in July, James VI gave him 200 French crowns to fund his journey to Navarre with James's answers.H. Aubert, Correspondance de Théodore de Bèze: 1575, XVI (Geneva, 1993), pp. 189-191: Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 37, 116: Miles Kerr-Peterson & Michael Pearce, 'James VI's English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts, 1588-1596', Scottish History Society Miscellany XVI (Woodbridge, 2020), pp. 23, 57, 59, 63.
Death He died in 1622.Natasha Constantinidou, Responses to Religious Division (Leiden, 2017), p. 63.
References