François de Bonne, Duke of Lesdiguières

François de Bonne, duc de Lesdiguières (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃swa də bɔn dyk də lediɡjɛʁ], 1 April 1543 – 21 September 1626) was a French soldier of the French Wars of Religion and Constable of France, and one of only six Marshals to have been promoted Marshal General of France.

He was the last Constable to be appointed, the only Huguenot to hold the office, and the only one to rise through the ranks of the French army.

Early life

He was born at Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur, to a family of notaries with pretensions to nobility. He was educated at Avignon under a Protestant tutor, and had begun the study of law in Paris when he enlisted in the French army as an archer.

Military service

He served under the lieutenant-general of his native province of Dauphiné, Bertrand de Simiane, baron de Gordes, but when the Huguenots raised troops in Dauphiné Lesdiguières threw in his lot with them, and under his kinsman Antoine Rambaud de Furmeyer, whom he succeeded in 1570, distinguished himself in the mountain warfare that followed by his bold yet prudent handling of troops. He fought at the Battle of Jarnac and the Battle of Moncontour, and was a guest at the wedding of King Henry III of Navarre (later Henry IV of France). Warned of the impending St. Bartholomew's Day massacre he retired hastily to Dauphiné, where he secretly equipped and drilled a determined body of Huguenots, and in 1575, after the execution of Charles du Puy de Montbrun in Grenoble, became the acknowledged leader of the Huguenot resistance in the district with the title of commandant general, confirmed in 1577 by Marshal Doraville, by Henry II, Prince of Condé in 1580, and by Henry of Navarre in 1582.

He seized Gap by a lucky night attack on 3 January 1577, re-established the reformed religion there, and fortified the town. He refused to acquiesce in the treaty of Poitiers (1578) which involved the surrender of Gap, and after two years of fighting secured better terms for the province.