La Rochepot found himself alienated from Henri by the arrangement of a marriage between a royal favourite and a noble promised to his brother.

Subsequently, establishing himself over Nederland, Alençon found himself unsatisfied with the amount of power he had, and attempted a coup to seize the city of Antwerp.

At the ball, a favourite of his brother the king (Louis de Maugiron) subjected him to personal insult, hoping to push him into open revolt.

His preparations to leave were not subtle, and his chambers were invaded by his mother Catherine and one of the captains of the royal guard Jean de Losses on the evening of 10 February to stop him fleeing.

[13] La Rochepot also carried a letter intended to be published more broadly, in which Alençon complained of the domination of the kingdom by a clique of young favourites and the general mistreatment of the nobility.

[14] Alençon was frustrated he had yet to receive a formal offer from the States-General of Nederland, and therefore decided to deal specifically with the one state that had demonstrated particular interest in him.

[12] Catherine and Henri were horrified at the idea Alençon might bring France into war with España and worked to reassure the Spanish ambassador that they would not permit him to lead an expedition into Nederland.

The States was apprehensive, and despite Alençon's protestations of support were not as willing to endorse his actions as Hainault had been in its dealings with La Rochepot and Pruneaux.

[17] Alençon was short of funds to establish the full army he had promised Hainault, and therefore resolved to raise quick money by alienating the rights to income sources from his appanage, an act he was granted permission to undertake from Henri.

On 23 July Alençon wrote happily to the States that he would be dispatching delegates with full powers to conclude a treaty within the next 24 hours.

Bussy d'Amboise and François de La Noue met with Oranj to discuss the religious question on 7 August.

In return, he received the title "defender of the liberty of the Netherlands against the tyranny of the Spanish and their allies" and the towns of Le Quesnoy, Landrecy and Bavay, he was further declared to be the first choice of the States to replace Felipe II as king if they decided not to be ruled by him.

[10] Despite the prohibitions of his mother and Henri, and his promises to remain in Guyenne for several months, he despatched La Rochepot in December 1580 with a small cavalry to make an approach to Cambrai.

[25] La Rochepot refused to serve under the command of the seigneur de Fervaques, on account of his 'modest social origin'.

[26] Alençons force advanced to La Fère on 7 August where again Catherine met them to try and dissuade her son from the enterprise, she brought with her Marshal Matignon who told him that he was leading his army into a disaster.

[25] Realising nothing would stop him, she ordered Jean de Puygaillard who commanded the royal forces in Picardie to escort him to Cambrai.

[36] One of the few areas Henri could count on was the valley of the Loire, where with the exception of Nantes and Orléans the majority of cities (La Charité, Beaugency, Blois, Amboise, Tours, Saumur and Angers held for the royal cause.

The people of Angers armed themselves and sent a delegation to their governor La Rochepot to ensure he swear his loyalty to the Catholic ligue.

The mayor summoned the captains of Angers, the clergy and the magistrates, and all agreed of the importance of affiliating with the ligueur Sainte-Union and expel Protestants from the city.

Another delegation was dispatched to La Rochepot, who informed them that he could not decide matters alone, and needed the consent of the governor of the château Puycharic.

[37] For a while this uneasy situation continued without a breaking confrontation, the two governors doing their best to channel the ligueur fervour into religious pursuits as opposed to martial ones.

However, this balance was disrupted by Brissac, who took advantage of the holy week to lodge his troops in the faubourg de Bressigné and attend a service cathedral of Saint-Maurice.

This caused great distress in Angers, which felt pincered between D'Aumont and La Rochepot on one side and Puycharic on the other.

Brissac saw advantage, and returned to the streets of Angers, encouraging the building of barricades to obstruct the royal force installing ligueur guards at the gates and ramparts.

However the city notables were not keen to be subject to a violent attack, and entered negotiations with d'Aumont and La Rochepot.

New municipal elections were undertaken, which delivered royalist candidates, arousing the indignation of a local ligueur who denounced them as Protestants.

[37] Several days previous, on 14 June 1589, La Rochepot began an attempted assault of the ligueur held city of Le Mans.

On 24 June a man named Saint-Denis was hanged on suspicion of having sold out the faubourg de la Couture to the royalist army.

On 1 September, La Rochepot and Puycharic decided to strike a psychological blow against the ligueurs of the city by celebrating a high mass for Henri III's memory.

No sooner was Brissac installed as governor on 24 January than he opened lines of communication with the royalists, Schomberg, De Thou, the chancellor Bellièvre and his brother in law Rochepot.