Jean de Vivonne, seigneur de Saint-Gouard and marquis de Pisani ( – 7 October 1599) was a French soldier, governor, courtier and diplomat during the final years of the Italian Wars and throughout the French Wars of Religion. Starting his military service at the age of 15, he participated in the siege of Mariembourg in 1554 against the Imperial (Holy Roman) forces, and was briefly made captive. He then fought in several campaigns in Italy under the leading commanders of the day before the peace of 1559. In the first French War of Religion he fought at the climactic battle of Dreux. In the coming years he would participate in the major battles of Saint-Denis, Jarnac and Moncontour. In 1571 he received a break in his recognition when he gained stature through a mission he conducted to the Papal States that secured the release of a French subject condemned by the inquisition, succeeding through an audacious and aggressive style in intimidating the Pope.
The following year, Saint-Gouard was chosen to replace the long serving ambassador to Spain the baron de Fourquevaux. He was confronted immediately by several crises in relations between France and Spain, chief among them covert French involvement in the rebellion against Spanish rule in the Netherlands. Saint-Gouard fruitlessly tried to convince king Philip II of the innocence of the French crown in the affair. He faced much anger in Spain after the French candidate for the throne of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the king's brother the duc d'Anjou bested the Spanish candidate. A little while later the French king died and was succeeded by the duc d'Anjou who took the name Henri III. On his return to France, Henri was confronted by a new civil war which would involve the rebellion of his brother the duc d'Alençon. Alençon dispatched an agent to the Spanish court to negotiate with Philip. Saint-Gouard tried to frustrate the agents negotiations, largely unsuccessfully. Efforts to convince Philip of French good intentions in the Spanish Netherlands would continue in the late 1570s, and would become more complex as Alençon increasingly involved himself in the territory. This would culminate in 1580 with the princes establishment as a replacement king for Philip in the rebel held territory. Saint-Gouard assured Philip Henri opposed Alençon's designs in the Netherlands. Relations between the two countries would be most seriously tested in the crisis of Portuguese succession after the death of the king without heir. Philip asserted his rights to the crown, and invaded Portugal, establishing himself in Lisbon. Saint-Gouard intrigued to frustrate Philip's hold on the kingdom without success. He met with the king in Lisbon and increasingly wore on the king and his advisers. This climaxed after the French crown sent an expedition to seize the Azores in 1582. That same year he was relieved of his responsibilities in Spain after ten years, ending his residency by trying to engineer the torching of the Spanish fleet in Lisbon.
Back in France, Saint-Gouard was rewarded with induction into the king's new most senior chivalric order and the post of governor of Saintonge in 1583. When the following year the ambassador to the Papal States, Paul de Foix died, Saint-Gouard was chosen to replace him. Arriving in the territory in March 1585 he enjoyed a combative relationship with the new pope, Sixtus V. This culminated in his expulsion from the Papal States after he vigorously supported his king's decision to refuse to receive the new Papal Nuncio. His return would be facilitated in 1586, and as a reward for his services, Henri erected the marquisate of Pisani in his favour. Over the following years he would defend his king against challenges to his Catholicity, and push the Pope to condemn the resurgent Catholic Ligue (League) which had re-emerged after the death of Alençon with Henri's heir now a Protestant, an unacceptable state of affairs to the members. The crisis between the French crown and the Catholic ligue would explode in December 1588 with the assassination of the duc de Guise, leader of the ligue and his brother the cardinal de Guise. The Pope was enraged that a cardinal had been murdered. Pisani and his ally the cardinal de Joyeuse would desperately try to stop the Pope employing radical action against Henri. However, after Henri entered into alliance with his Protestant heir, Sixtus issued a monitoire threatening to excommunicate Henri unless certain conditions were met. At this time Pisani withdrew from Roma. After the assassination of Henri III and succession of the king of Navarre as Henri IV, Pisani would be among the royalist Catholics who stood by the Protestant king. He received a final further honour in 1596 when he was made the governor of the heir to the French throne the prince de Condé. He died three years later, leaving his lands to his daughter, the celebrated marquise de Rambouillet.
Early life and family Jean de Vivonne was born around 1530 in Aunis, the son of Artus de Vivonne and Catherine de Brémond. His parents had married in 1519. His father Artus served the French crown during the Italian Wars, meanwhile his mother was in the entourage of the queen mother Louise. While Jean would have many siblings, only one had descendants, Marie de Vivonne. He came from the junior branch of an old family (recorded from the latter 11th century) established in the Saintonge and Angoumois.
Vivonne family The family enjoyed many connections to great noble families such as the: Montmorency, Chabot, Rochechouart, La Rochefoucauld, Clisson, Saint-Gelais and Lusignan.
Jena de Vivonne, as a member of the noblesse seconde (upper crust of the provincial nobility) was an anchor of royal authority in Saintonge and a conduit between the crown and the local nobility. It was useful for the king to have men such as Jean to aid his control in a region far from his authority and racked by religious divisions during the civil wars.
In addition to his seigneurie of Saint-Gouard, and baronie, then marquisate of Pisany, Jean de Vivonne was also the sieur de Ramades, Foyes, Pessines, Les Comes and La Croix-Blance.
Marriage and issue
After his return to court in 1582 rumour swirled at court of his marriage to a fashionable woman of the court named mademoiselle de Vitry. However, Saint-Gouard was happy to remain simply a lover of hers. In 1587 he secured an excellent marriage (enabled by his recent establishment as the marquis de Pisani) to a young widow of a very noble Roman family named Julia Savelli, who had been married to Ludovico Orsini prior to his execution by the senate of Venice. The marriage contract between the two was signed on 22 September 1587, with the marriage itself celebrated in the church of Sant'Eustachio in Rome on 8 November.
Jean de Vivonne and Julia Savelli would have the following issue: Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet (1588–) married the vidame de La Mans in January 1600 and became famous through her salon for her influence on the intellectual life of high society.
His wife and daughter would join him in France during the final years of his life. Julia would be naturalised as French in 1593.
As concerns his youthful education little is known though he had a greater taste for being a 'valiant gentleman' than he did for reading. The historian Ribera highlights that he would have spent much of his youth participating in festivals and hunts. Saint-Gouard enjoyed the privilege of being an enfant d'honneur, meaning that he was raised alongside the royal princes. He first took a role in combat at the age of 15 in 1545 with responsibility for carrying an arquebus. A few years later when he reached 18 he participated in his first real campaign.
Reign of Henri II Latter Italian Wars Saint-Gouard fought in the siege of Mariembourg during the French campaign of 1554–1555. He was to bring supplies to the fortification. In this campaign he was wounded and briefly experienced Imperial captivity.
He fought under the command of the maréchal (marshal) de Strozzi during the latter's campaign in Tuscany, then with the duc de Guise during his 1557 campaign into the peninsula. He was with Guise in Roma which he had come to at the call of Pope Paul IV so that he might campaign into Naples. This campaign made a great impression on Saint-Gouard. After this he was in Piedmont where he fought under the authority of maréchal de Brissac.
Reign of Charles IX After the French kings surrendered their claims to the Italian peninsula, the combat moved to the domestic sphere, as France's problems became internal.
First war of religion and the 'long peace' During the first French War of Religion he participated in the only major field battle of the war at the royal victory of Dreux in December 1562.
With the Ottoman Empire putting Malta to siege in 1565, certain French seigneurs rushed to join the defence of the island bastion. In this they were responding to a call for aid from the grand master Valette. Among those joining the defenders on the walls were the sons of maréchal de Brissac, and maréchal de Strozzi, and Saint-Gouard. In total around 300 French gentleman and 800 soldiers would arrive at Malta. They would however, only arrive after the siege had ended. Nevertheless, the Ottoman government was greatly perturbed at this development, and Catherine sought to sooth their anger through condemning those nobles who had rushed to join the defence of Malta and banishing those who had made the journey. This punishment was however aimed at seeing them return to France.
Second and third war of religion Saint-Gouard fought in the major engagement of the battle of Saint-Denis during the second French War of Religion. During this battle the Constable of France Montmorency was killed.
In the short peace between the second and third French civil wars, Saint-Gouard undertook his first diplomatic mission when he was made an extraordinary ambassador to the Spanish Netherlands.
Saint-Gouard was involved in all the major battles of the third French War of Religion. He fought at the royal victory of Jarnac in 1568 at which the Protestant prince de Condé was executed. At the royal victory of Moncontour in 1569 he was seriously injured.
Saint-Gouard was entrusted with the military responsibility of being capitaine de cinquante hommes d'armes des ordonnances du roi (captain of 50 men-at-arms in the royal ordinance company).
Out of the shadows In the winter of 1571, at the age of 40, Saint-Gouard returned to diplomatic service when he undertook an extraordinary diplomatic mission to the Holy See for the purpose of securing the release from captivity of the comte de Caiazzo, a servant of the French crown who had been put before the Inquisition under suspicion of 'heresy'. Saint-Gouard approached Pope Pius V with haughty resolve on the matter. He reminded the Pope that Caiazzo as a French subject was within the jurisdiction of the king of France, and as such must be released. Pius responded that he was surprised to see Charles was so interested in the fate of a 'heretic'. Three days later Saint-Gouard returned and declared his patience to be at an end, if he were not sated within three days he would look to 'extreme measures'. With this deadline having come and gone he burst in on the Pope without having requested an audience to declare that he was leaving Roma, which he then did. After his departure Pius lost his temper at the behaviour of the ambassador, accusing him of drunkenness. Nevertheless, it seemed that a diplomatic rupture between Roma and France was imminent and there was fear to this effect in Roma. Thus Caiazzo was released. His success against the 'formidable' Pius V in this effort greatly elevated his profile, with Ribera describing the episode as 'bringing him out of the shadows'. To maintain face, Saint-Gouard was asked not to report his explosion with the Pope.