Antoine de Brichanteau, Marquis de Beauvais-Nangis (1552 – 1617) was a French noble, military commander, and royal favourite during the French Wars of Religion and early-17th century. Born into a noble Briard family, Beauvais-Nangis began his military career at a young age, serving during the third French War of Religion at Jarnac and Moncontour, among other engagements. At the former, his valour was recognised by the brother of the king, Anjou, who took him into his household. He fought at the famous Siege of La Rochelle in 1573 and joined Anjou in the Commonwealth when he was elected as king. Upon Anjou's return to France as King Henri III, Beauvais-Nangis was elevated as commander of the Picard regiments during the fifth War of Religion. In November of that year, he was granted the prestigious role of Maître de camp of the French Guard. In the sixth civil war, he fought at the siege of Hiers-Brouage. In 1579, he was dispatched on a diplomatic mission to Portugal. By his return, however, his relations were becoming increasingly frayed with the king. He had repeatedly found himself in dispute with other favourites of the king, and resented his lack of financial compensation for the diplomatic mission. In 1581, he embarrassed the king in a confrontation he undertook with Henri's brother Alençon, in which he killed several of the duke's men. Henri felt obliged to disgrace him, and in March of that year, he was relieved of the post of Maître de camp. He spent the next several years aggrieved on his estates in Brie.
In 1584, the king's brother Alençon died, and with the heir to the throne now the Protestant Navarre, a Catholic ligue formed in opposition. Beauvais-Nangis was recruited into this with the promise that he would receive the office of colonel-general of the infantry, which he resented the royal favourite Épernon for having received. In March 1585, the ligue entered war with the crown and secured a favourable settlement in July of that year. Beauvais-Nangis was already disillusioned with the ligue which had failed to deliver him the office he desired and was fairly easily brought back into the royal orbit. In 1587, he entered the royal council, and he participated in the royalist attempt to suppress the ligue in Paris, which resulted in humiliation for the king. His participation in the Estates General of 1588 was engineered by the king, who needed more loyalist representatives to combat the ligue. In December of that year, he was involved to some extent in the deliberations that resulted in the decision to assassinate the Duke of Guise. In the war with the ligue that followed the assassination, Beauvais-Nangis fought loyally for the king and was rewarded with the office of admiral in February 1589. He held that office until 1592, when he was relieved of it by Navarre, now styled Henri IV after the death of Henri III. In 1614, he again served as a representative for an Estates General, dying three years later.
Early life and family Family Antoine de Brichanteau was born in 1552 as the son of Nicolas de Brichanteau and Jeanne d'Aguerre. His father was a client of the Lorraine family, serving as governor of the town of Guise in Picardie. He served as a gentilhomme de la chambre and captain in the gendarmerie, dying in 1564. The family was from the Briard nobility, and had been attested to going back to the 14th century. He inherited the lordships of Nangis and Guerey near Provins. In the former, he held the rights of high justice and was a direct vassal of the king; in the latter, he held rents of justice.
His nephew Jacques de La Fin would be a favourite and agent of Henri III's brother Alençon. His sister Françoise de Brichanteau married the prominent ligueur Marquis de Vitry in 1580, while his other sister Marie de Brichanteau would marry the ligueur Baron de Sennecey in 1571, who would recruit Beauvais-Nangis into the ligue after his disgrace.
Marriage On 18 February 1577, Beauvais-Nangis secured an advantageous marriage to Antoinette de La Rochefoucauld, the daughter of Charles de La Rochefoucauld and Françoise Chabot, two important families in Bourgogne. She brought with her to the marriage a dowry of 30,000 livres and the barony of Liniėres in Berry, which was worth around 100,000 livres. In the coming years, her barony would become one of their primary residences.
His son Nicolas de Brichanteau would succeed him as Marquis of Beauvais-Nangis.
Youth In his youth, Beauvais-Nangis completed his studies at the in 1564 before entering the Paris Academy to learn how to fight. At this time, he was under the protection of Marshal D'Aumont. D'Aumont occupied a relatively independent position in the court, propped up by the esteem for his long service and military experience. In 1568, Beauvais-Nangis was dispatched by his mother to join the army of the Duke of Anjou.
Unlike many favourites of Henri III, Beauvais-Nangis would not purchase a hôtel in Paris, and would content himself to rent an apartment in the hôtel of the Parlementaire Michel Le Tellier, near the Place Maubert. Le Tellier also served as his private attorney.
Reign of Charles IX Early service
Beauvais-Nangis began his service with the brother of the king and lieutenant-general of the army Anjou at a young age. From 1568, when he was only 16, he accompanied Anjou in his campaigns during the Third War of Religion. He also participated in the Battle of Jazaneuil and Pamprou in that year. On 11 March 1569, two days after participating in the Battle of Jarnac, Anjou named him a gentilhomme de la chambre, impressed by what he had seen on the field. He would bond with other future favourites of Anjou in this role, among them Joachim de Châteauvieux and René de Villequier. He served then as a guidon in an ordinance company for the Duke of Angoulême, an illegitimate son of Henri II, seeing service at the decisive royal victory of Moncontour the following year. In the wake of this victory, the royal army became bogged down in the Siege of Saint-Jean-d'Angély where Beauvais-Nangis also saw combat.
Alongside serving the Duke of Anjou as gentilhomme de la chambre, he would also hold the role of chambellan for the prince. In 1571, he joined his first crusade against the Devlet-i ʿAlīye-i ʿOsmānīye with the Duke of Mayenne.
La Rochelle In response to the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew, the Protestant-dominated city of La Rochelle entered rebellion against the crown. The brother to the king, Anjou, was dispatched to lead the effort to reduce the city. Joining him on the siege lines would be many young nobles eager to prove themselves militarily, among them Beauvais-Nangis. The siege would drag on, before Anjou's election as king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth allowed him to bring it to a close by negotiated settlement.
Commonwealth Beauvais-Nangis was among the French nobles who served Anjou during his reign on the Commonwealth. Anjou was displeased that Beauvais-Nangis departed from him for a second time to crusade against the Devlet-i ʿAlīye-i ʿOsmānīye along with the Duke of Mayenne and Jean de Saulx, criticising their behaviour.
Anjou resolved to flee the Commonwealth, to return to his home country and establish himself as King of France. To this end, on 18 June, he fled from his chambers on horseback at night. He was accompanied by several loyal servants, and they rode to Oświęcim, where they rendezvoused with Pibrac, Villequier, Caylus, and Beauvais-Nangis. The combined group then continued their flight into Austria.
Reign of Henri III Upon Anjou's return to France, now as Henri III, the grandee Duke of Nevers felt marginalised in the new court. He bemoaned the betrayal of men who had demonstrated more loyalty to Marshal Bellegarde than him and drew up a list of those upon whom he felt he could rely for political support. Among those names were La Rocheguyon, Schomberg, Malicorne, and Beauvais-Nangis.
Picard regiment The young noble would receive important military command during the Fifth War of Religion, receiving leadership of the Picard regiments on 30 June 1575. With this appointment, he departed from his role in the company of Angoulême as guidon. In November of that year, the Maître de camp of the French guard, a very prestigious military post, was vacated by the murder of its incumbent Du Guast. The King of Navarre demanded that a man of his suite, Lavardin fill the office; however, Henri was keen to invest the post in a man who had been loyal to him before his rise to power as king and chose to grant it to Beauvais-Nangis.
Beauvais-Nangis was established as a gentilhomme de la chambre du roi. He would, however, refuse take the oath required for the role at the hands of François d'O, the premier gentilhomme de la chambre, greatly disliking this favourite of Henri.
Chevalier During the reign of Henri, the creation of new chevaliers of the Ordre de Saint-Michel largely ceased. However, he occasionally continued to bestow the honour on his favourites. As such, in 1577, the honour went to the Comte de Brienne and Beauvais-Nangis. During the sixth civil war in 1577, Beauvais-Nangis entered dispute with another favourite of the king, Saint-Luc. Beauvais-Nangis was very reluctant to hand over the command of the Picard regiments to Saint-Luc. He stalled the handover as much as he could, maintaining the command of the regiments during the siege of Brouage in the summer of that year. During the Brouage siege, two favourites of Henri—La Guiche and the Comte de Caylus—were captured by a Protestant commander. The men looked to Beauvais-Nangis to secure their release, however he was unable to do so, and they remained in captivity until peace was made three months later. Saint-Luc eventually gave up on acquiring the troops from Beauvais-Nangis and sold the rights to lead the company to Beauvais-Nangis, using the sum he raised from the sale to aid in his purchase of the government of Brouage.
In early 1578, he fell out with Caylus, who was presently chief in the favour of the king. Caylus was pursuing a dispute with the Seigneur de Bussy, paramount favourite of the king's brother Alençon, and brought to bear many other of Henri's favourites for the purpose of confrontations with Bussy. However, Beauvais-Nangis refused to participate in the campaign against Bussy.
By 1580, Beauvais-Nangis would no longer hold the office of écuyer that he had enjoyed in prior years.
La Fère During 1580, the Prince of Condé seized the important border town of La Fère hoping to advance his position. The crown responded by ordering the city be put to siege. The siege was led by Marshal Matignon. Matignon granted the royal favourite Épernon the honour of situating his troops right alongside the Champagne regiments right up against the city. Beauvais-Nangis was incensed by this as the honour of such a position theoretically belonged to the guards regiment, of which he was the Maître de camp. In an act of insubordination, he situated his troops right in front of the city.
Beauvais-Nangis was not blind to the delicate situation he had manoeuvred himself into. When his father-in-law Barbezieux, the lieutenant-general of Champagne sought to resign his charge to Beauvais-Nangis, the young favourite refused the post, fearful that, if he were away from the king, his disgrace would become inevitable. The charge was instead granted to another favourite: Joachim de Dinteville.
Colonel-General