François d'Espinay, seigneur de Saint-Luc et baron de Crèvecœur (1554 –8 September 1597) was a French noble, courtier, military commander and governor during the later French Wars of Religion. Born into the middling Norman nobility as a son of Valéran d'Espinay and Marguerite de Groucher, Saint-Luc had his debut into French politics with his participation in the siege of La Rochelle in 1573 in which he was injured. When the king's brother, the Duke of Anjou was elected king of the Commonwealth he travelled with the duke to his new kingdom, serving as his Chambellan in the country. Upon Anjou's return to France as Henri III, Saint-Luc maintained his proximity to the king, holding various positions in his household. A man with significant skill in war, he served the crown during the fifth war of religion, fighting at Guise's celebrated victory of Dormans. In the following civil war he fought under the command of the king's brother Alençon at the sieges of La Charité-sur-Loire and Issoire. He was rewarded for his military service with command of various regiments and the position of maître de camp. At the end of the sixth war of religion, the duke of Mayenne secured the strategic Guyenne town of Brouage, which controlled a deep port and salt production. In December 1578 Saint-Luc was appointed governor of Brouage. In May 1579 he added the governate of Aunis to his responsibilities. In the autumn he accompanied Catherine de Medici, mother to the queen on her mission to negotiate with Henri's disgraced favourite Marshal Bellegarde who had set himself up in rebellion.
In February 1580, Saint-Luc entered rebellion himself and fled from court to Brouage. A host of reasons have been proposed by contemporaries and later historians for his disgrace. In the following months he and the local royal commander postured and negotiated, before he was brought back into obedience with a compromise in June by which he agreed to divest himself of his governate in return for financial compensation, forgiveness and the release of his wife Jeanne de Cossé from royal captivity. He would not however yield Brouage, and he remained distrusted by Henri. Looking for a new patron, he supported Alençon in his campaigns into Nederland. He stayed with Alençon until the disaster of the surprise of Antwerp. Upon the death of Alençon in July 1584, the king's heir due to his childlessness, he aligned himself with the Catholic ligue that was established by the Lorraine family to oppose the succession of the Protestant Navarre. He fought with the ligue against the king in 1585, which convinced Henri he needed to re-secure good terms with his former favourite. With peace in September, the king made an offer to buy him out of Brouage for 300,000 livres, however this did not go anywhere. With the crown now at war with the Protestants as a term of the peace, he was unsuccessfully besieged by Navarre's cousin the prince of Condé. In 1587 he was captured at the disastrous Battle of Coutras, fought against Navarre. Upon the death of Henri III, he quickly flocked to Navarre's banner, despite his Protestantism and fought against the Catholic ligue that opposed him. He was rewarded with the post of lieutenant-general of Bretagne in 1592, then lieutenant-general of Picardie in April 1596. Established as grand maître de l'artillerie on the resignation of La Guiche he would die in the conduct of this charge on 8 September 1597 during the siege of Amiens.
Early life and family Family François d'Espinay was born in 1554, the son of Valéran d'Espinay and Marguerite de Groucher. His family was a member of the ancient middle nobility of the region of haute Normandie, which claimed to have ruled the fief of Hayes since the 12th century. The lands of Saint-Luc's seigneurie were acquired by the family at the end of the 15th century, and were located around Évreux His father Valéran d'Espinay was a gentilhomme de la chambre for Henri II as well as his écuyer d'écurie and governor of Louviers. He would serve the duke of Guise as the guidon of his company, fighting in Italia, where he would die in 1557 during the Battle of Guastalla.
Marriage and children A marriage contract was signed between Saint-Luc and Jeanne de Cossé on 26 January 1578. The two were married on 9 February 1578 at the Louvre. The event was a flashpoint for relations between the king and his brother, with one of Henri's favourites Maugiron taking the opportunity of the ball to celebrate the match to insult the prince to his face. This secured an alliance for him with the powerful Cossé family, who were associated with the king's brother Alençon. Jeanne had been promised in marriage to the comte de La Roche-Guyon who was furious at the move. La Roche-Guyon departed court shortly thereafter, and did not return to January 1585, having been involved in many seditions during his absence.
Jeanne would have responsibility for managing the families domestic affairs. She received the homages given to the couple by their vassals in the Cambrésis. On 2 May 1578 Saint-Luc provided her with the power of attorney for all the families affairs. The couple had possession of several boats, and were able to use them to considerable financial advantage, with the ships manager owing Saint-Luc 50,000 livres in September 1578. This worked well with the control of Brouage's salt.
Together the two would have children: Timoléon d'Espinay (1580-1644), governor of Brouage and lieutenant-general of Guyenne Artus d'Espinay (-1629), abbé de Redon, Bishop of Marseille Charles d'Espinay (-1622), commander of Harleux François d'Espinay, commander of Sepoix
In 1579, Henri granted him the Château de Beaulieu, near Rozay-en-Brie. Henri would further grant the Abbey of Cercamp to a relative of Saint-Luc's. To ensure he was aware of ecclesiastical vacancies at the first opportunity, he had a network of spies in Normandie, so that he could quickly request their granting in ways that suited his families interests.
Reputation Saint-Luc was considered by the contemporary historian Brantôme as the model of an ideal soldier-courtier. While he was in favour, Henri III nicknamed him le petiot. While in his exile in Brouage, he and his wife founded a small academy in the town. He had a penchant for composing verse. The contemporary writer Claude Haton by contrast disapproved of the rapid advance in royal favour of a man who was just a 'poor and simple gentleman'.
Reign of Charles IX Unlike many of his contemporaries who would become leading courtiers in the 1570s, Saint-Luc did not benefit from having powerful family members at court to protect his rise.
Siege of La Rochelle
With La Rochelle entering rebellion in response to the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew. The king tasked his brother Anjou with reducing the city. Many young nobles flocked with the prince for their first taste of combat, among them Caylus Saint-Sulpice and Saint-Luc. During the siege they had the ability to interact far more freely with their social superior than in the surrounds of court. In a particularly bloody assault on the city on 7 April, many leading nobles were injured, with Saint-Luc receiving a wound to his eye.
When word arrived at the siege lines that Anjou had been elected as king of the Commonwealth, Saint-Luc was among those young men who accompanied the prince to join his court in the eastern kingdom. Like many other nobles who had been with Anjou during the siege, Saint-Luc received the office of Chambellan in the king's household during his tenure in the Commonwealth. In September 1576 he would again be granted the office of Chambellan by the king of France, establishing continuity with the privilege he had enjoyed abroad. He would only hold this office for a year however. Unlike many of Anjou's travelling companions, Saint-Luc stayed with the king in the Commonwealth until his departure back to France upon the death of Charles IX.
Reign of Henri III Fifth civil war Upon Anjou's return to France as Henri III he arrived to a civil war between the crown and various Malcontents. Saint-Luc would fight for the crown during the war. He saw combat at the Battle of Dormans where the duke of Guise confronted the vanguard of a Protestant mercenary army under Casimir that was attempting to invade the kingdom in support of domestic rebels. Guise was able to defeat the vanguard. In the course of the campaign, Saint-Luc received a wound to his arm.
After the murder of his favourite Guast, Henri's attentions turned towards Saint-Luc. He was one of the four men Henri termed Ma Troupe in his letters, alongside Caylus, D'O and Saint-Sulpice.
During 1576 Henri rewarded him for his service with a promotion to the highest chivalric order of the kingdom, that of Saint-Michel, receiving the promotion at the same time as another favourite Entragues. He was also made a gentilhomme de la chambre du roi alongside his responsibilities as Chambellan, granting him a further income of 600 livres.
Sixth civil war During the sixth civil war, Saint-Luc found himself in command of the Piedmont regiments. In March 1577 he was granted a further honour to command a Lyonnaise company of 200 men. He fought with his men in the main royal army under the command of the king's brother Alençon at the siege of the Protestant held La Charité-sur-Loire, which was concluded with a vicious sack. The royal army then moved to reduce Issoire, with Saint-Luc supporting the prince in the capture of the town, which fell on 11 June, being subject to another brutal sack. After siege of Issoire, the royal army disintegrated for lack of pay and Henri looked to establish a new peace. Saint-Luc meanwhile had departed the army to move to the court, which was staying at Poitiers. From Poitiers he wrote to the duke of Nevers who was the de facto leader of the royal army, given Alençon's inexperience, describing his infinite debts to the duke for protecting him at court and describing how he would forever be the duke's servant. Through this outreach to Nevers, he diversified his patronage, ensuring he was wholly reliant on the king's favour for his position.
Brouage
Mayenne, having fought independently of the royal army secured the valuable and strategic marsh town of Hiers-Brouage for the crown on 21 August 1577, Henri, having integrated the settlement into the royal domain on 17 March 1578, chose to distribute the charge of governor to the seigneur de Lanssac who had supported Mayenne in the siege. Though small, Brouage could boast a deep water port; allowed competition for the control of the coastline with Bordeaux and La Rochelle; and had extensive salt works. Saint-Luc took over as the towns governor in December 1578, assuming the charge on 10 February of the following year, accompanied on his entrance to Brouage by Lanssac. In return for the privilege Saint-Luc promised to pay Lanssac the sum of 65,700 livres for his dispossession. He would not however fully honour his fiscal obligations to Lanssac, with only 6900 livres having reached the former governor by April. In combination with this governorship he received that of the Île d'Oléron and Ré. As a Norman noble, Saint-Luc lacked connections in the region, making his command there challenging. Henri also moved him from command of the peripheral regiment to control of the Picard regiment, much to the annoyance of D'O, who had coveted the role.
Saint-Luc wrote bitterly to the duke of Nevers, complaining of the state that Lanssac had left Brouage in for him. For the administration of the town, Saint-Luc established a client of his from Normandie, Jean de Rivery-Potonville, who would hold his post in the town until his death in 1604.
Ascendency