Urbain de Saint-Gelais, bishop of Comminges (1540–5 February 1613) was a prelate, diplomat, military leader and rebel during the French Wars of Religion. Urbain was born in 1540, the illegitimate son of the royal favourite Louis de Saint-Gelais, seigneur de Lanssac and Louise de La Béraudière. Thanks to the court influence of his father, he secured the sensitive bishopric of Comminges on the border with Spain in 1570. He would hold this charge for the rest of his life. He quickly ingratiated himself with his flock, seeing to it that their privileges were affirmed by the king Henri III in 1574. His involvement in the first Catholic Ligue (League) in 1576 is speculated, though he remained in good royal graces, and was tasked in 1579 with conducting a diplomatic mission to Lisbon to champion the rights of the queen mother Catherine to the Portuguese throne, though the mission was not a success.
His involvement in the second Catholic Ligue that emerged in response to the death of the king's brother the duc d'Anjou (duke of Anjou) in 1584 which established the Protestant king of Navarre as the heir to the throne, is more definitive. He helped arrange the accord between the leaders of the Catholic ligue and the Spanish crown, and participated in the war with the crown in 1585, both by encouraging the estranged queen of Navarre in her rebellion and in his own military actions in Comminges. His see of Saint-Bertrand was sacked by a Protestant force in 1586 and he had to reconquer it by siege. He participated in the Estates General of 1588 as a ligueur aligned representative and fled from Blois after the king executed the leader of the Catholic ligue in a royal coup in December.
Arriving in Toulouse he marshalled the city towards the ligueur camp, being elevated to governor of the city for the ligue at the end of January for the war against the crown. In February two leading parlementaires in the city were accused of involvement in a royalist plot and lynched. The bishop of Comminges' involvement in this is a matter of debate. He established a new religious confraternity in the city and worked to build connections with the Spanish and raise a ligueur army for Toulouse. He found himself in conflict with the ligueur governor of Languedoc the vicomte de Joyeuse, who (alongside the duc de Mayenne) was unnerved by Comminges' Spanish sympathies. Joyeuse moved to oust him from Toulouse, and succeeded in November in forcing him from the city. The bishop returned to Comminges where he spent the next several years nourishing the local ligueur movement (known as the Ligue Campanère). He consistently supported the Spanish king Felipe II, working towards an invasion of France across the Pyrénées, something he advocated for both in his writings to the Spanish court, and when he visited Madrid on a diplomatic mission. As the war dragged on, the situation became increasingly bleak for the ligueur cause, with the king of Navarre (now styled Henri IV after the assassination of Henri III) converting to Catholicism and winning many converts to his cause. The bishop of Comminges remained defiant, despite a faux submission made in June 1594. It would only be with the absolution of Henri IV by the Pope in September 1595 that the bishop made his genuine capitulation. Henri left him in his bishopric, and he would remain there until his death in 1613.
Early life and family
Urbain de Saint-Gelais was born in 1540, the illegitimate son of Louis de Saint-Gelais, the seigneur de Lanssac and Louise de La Béraudière. His father had the affair while on military campaign against the Holy Roman Emperor.
His father, Louis, enjoyed great royal favour, in particular with the queen mother Catherine. He was thus showered with royal honours. He undertook numerous diplomatic missions including to the Council of Trent in 1562. By the time of his death, Louis had amassed a fortune of around 64,000,000 livres (pounds). His favour was a great boon to his children, who found themselves raised proximate to power. Urbain's half brother, Guy de Saint-Gelais would enjoy many governorships and an important diplomatic mission.
Urbain had ties with the Vivonne family of whom the baron de Saint-Gouard would serve as the French ambassador to Spain from 1572 to 1582.
Urbain enjoyed an excellent command of both the Italian and Castilian languages.
Urbain had illegitimate issue of his own: Guy de Saint-Rys.
Reign of Charles IX Bishopric of Comminges
During the 1560s, the bishop of Comminges was . He struggled in his diocese, suspicious to both the French monarchy and the Spanish crown. His own flock attacked him in his residence in Saint-Bertrand. He resisted the prospect of conversion to Protestantism that his niece, the queen of Navarre Jeanne desired for him and her supporters chased him from the diocese. With the see vacant, it was preyed upon by the Spanish bishop of Urgell who sought to annex the Val d'Aran, a cross border component of the bishopric. There was a strong desire in Aran to remain within the bishopric of Comminges. Through the two archpriests of Aran, the diocese held a presence inside Spain. Comminges at large was a firmly Catholic territory, wedged between the Albret lands of Béarn and Foix. Indeed, the Albret enjoyed suzerainty over several territories inside the comté de Comminges (the baronnie d'Aspet, Larboust and Nébouzan). Despite this Protestantism made little headway in Comminges.
The queen of Navarre attempted to install the illegitimate son of her husband, Charles de Bourbon in the diocese. By this means, Charles de Bourbon received the revenues of the diocese according to letters patent issued by Charles IX in 1569. He would not however be invested in it, and through the intervention of Urbain's father Louis de Saint-Gelais, and a letter of support from Charles IX recalling Louis de Saint-Gelais' deeds, Urbain became the bishop of Comminges in 1570 with the blessing of the Pope. This greatly embittered the prince de Béarn (future king Henri IV, and half brother of Charles de Bourbon) who saw little reason the house of Saint-Gelais should profit at the expense of the royal house of Bourbon. In compensation for his removal from the diocese, it was agreed that Charles de Bourbon would be paid 15,000 livres. The queen mother, Catherine also promised the queen of Navarre that Bourbon would receive the bishopric of Lectoure.
Bishop of Comminges
The affection between the new bishop of Comminges and his diocese was fostered quickly. Before even the agreement of the king or the governor had been received the councillors of the Val d'Aran travelled to meet with their new bishop at his see of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges to gain recognition of their privileges and other agreements.
The bishop of Comminges did not have a place in the provincial 'Estates of Comminges', the presidency of which belonged to the bishop of Couserans. Nevertheless, he would endeavour to appear before them on occasion.
After Urbain adopted the mantle of bishop of Comminges, the Spanish king Felipe II ceased his efforts to peel off the Val d'Aran into the bishopric of Urgell in addition to his plans to introduce the Inquisition in Aran. This area would become a general exception to the Spanish policy of standardising the ecclesiastical boundaries alongside the political ones. Brunet suggests this might reflect an aligning of views between Felipe and the bishop of Comminges as early as the 1570s.
In 1571 he succeeded to one of the two positions of conseiller-clerc (councillor-clerk) in the parlement (most senior sovereign courts of France) of Toulouse after his uncle the bishop of Uzès who had resigned the charge.
In addition to his responsibilities in the parlement of Toulouse, he would request a role in those of Bordeaux and possibly Paris in 1572.
The bishop of Comminges played host at his episcopal residence at Alan (Saint-Bertrand having been abandoned in favour of residences at Alan, L'Isle and Saint-Frajou at the termination of the medieval period as far as the bishops residence was concerned) to Spanish members of his diocese from the Val d'Aran in January 1574. The bishop worked to court the Spanish members of his flock by intervening with Henri III to see that the (local agreements made in the mountain border regions of France and Spain to guarantee common pastures, unified policing, the maintenance of commerce during war time and the combatting of threats to the peace).
Reign of Henri III During 1574, the governor of Toulouse, the baron de Fourquevaux appeared before the Estates of Languedoc. He had a scathing assessment of the bishops of the territory, who he decried as absentees interested in little more than idle pleasures. He noted that the bishop of Comminges was the only positive example, who was "in his sheepfold doing the office of a good shepherd".
Early ligueur The historian Brunet believes it likely that when the seigneur d'Ardiège engaged his marauding band in their first attack against the church of Eoux where the bishop of Comminges was to be found, in May 1575, that the bishop was in the process of raising a militia from the surrounds of Alan. The bishop was meeting with the baron de Gondrin during the attack, one of his servants was killed, with the bishops mantle scorched in several places by arquebus fire. It was only thanks to the baron de Gondrin that the bishop of Comminges was saved.
In 1576 a generous peace was reached between the French crown and the Protestant/Malcontent faction, bringing to a close the fifth French War of Religion. By its terms generous concessions were made to the Protestants. This inspired a hot reaction among militant Catholics who responded by the formation of a national Catholic Ligue (League). This Ligue opposed the peace, and compromise with Protestantism.
One of the most committed ligueurs (leaguers) among the senior clergy, the bishop of Comminges had affiliated with the ligue since 1576. Comminges' half brother, Lanssac, met with the duc de Guise (duke of Guise) and cardinal de Guise prior to the declaration of the ligue in Bourg. However, unlike his brother, any involvement Comminges had, was discreet.
Portugal
In 1579, the bishop of Comminges undertook an extraordinary diplomatic mission to Portugal and he travelled to Lisbon to this end. Alongside him for the conduct of this mission was the royal favourite the marquis de Beauvais-Nangis. The queen mother Catherine had recommended him to the king for this mission as a 'prelate of the church and a man of letters'. His was not the only extraordinary diplomatic posting to Portugal in 1579, and the sécretaire (secretary) to the Spanish ambassador the baron de Saint-Gouard, the sieur de Longlée also undertook a mission in this year. According to Carpi and Lhoumeau the purpose of the bishop's mission was to defend Catherine's rights as concerned the prospect of succession to the Portuguese throne. This was through her descent from king Afonso III who had died in 1279. According to the historian Le Roux the purpose of his mission was to advocate for the rights of the prior do Crato (prior of Crato), an illegitimate grandson of the Portuguese king Manuel and thus nephew of the current childless king. Either way the bishop of Comminges' mission was not a success. Brunet speculates that the bishop of Comminges' half brother, the seigneur de Lanssac might have had a role to play in the failure of his mission. Lanssac had adopted an attitude that appeared contrary to Catherine's interests in favour of the Spanish king Felipe.
Going forward from this time, Comminges would maintain contacts in Spain.