Damville was the son of Anne de Montmorency, chief favourite of Henri II and Madeleine of Savoy granting him a central place in French politics.

In 1567, with the establishment of the king's brother Anjou as lieutenant-general of the French army, Méru joined his council to advise him on political matters.

Méru believed himself to have been betrayed by the young duke of Guise and remarked, 'if someone other than the king had brought me out from behind that curtain, I would have plunged my dagger into their chest'.

The Montmorency clan received the rights to nominate 18 chevaliers, with Méru granted two of this number to choose at his discretion.

They surrounded the brother to the king Alençon alongside the vicomte de Turenne, feeding the young prince's dissatisfaction with his position.

With the duke gone, his younger brothers Méru and Thoré started congregating in Alençon's apartments and began plotting conspiracy against the crown in earnest.

[16] In April 1574 Alençon made a failed attempted to flee court, in the interrogations that followed the Montmorency family was accused of involvement.

As a result of this assault against his family, Damville and his two brothers, Méru and Thoré entered into an alliance with the Protestants of southern France in opposition to the crown.

[22][23] In the conspiratorial discourses that swirled in the pamphlets of the time, it was claimed that Méru was one of the victims of a 'group of foreigners' who were presently governing France and leading the country into ruin.

[24] On 30 May 1574 Charles IX died, and with no sons, the succession defaulted to his brother Anjou who styled himself Henri III.

[26] It would primarily be through Condé's efforts that the army was raised with the son of the elector Palatine, Méru meanwhile was instrumental in securing the financial backing of Elizabeth I of England for the rebel cause.

In his entreaty to Elizabeth he described the motivating factor as being a response to the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew in which 'innocent blood of many valiant men was spilled' in a 'long planned' betrayal.

[27] With a mercenary invasion of France looking to be increasingly close to coming to pass, the crown sought to leverage the imprisonment of Montmorency.

He was at first defiant, urging Henri to carry out his threats, however he moderated himself and on 28 August wrote a letter to Damville, Thoré and Méru to that effect.

[29] On 16 September Alençon succeeded in escaping from court, and promptly used the leverage his rebellion held to secure the release of Montmorency, who was allowed his freedom on 2 October.

[30][31] In parallel to these developments Thoré led the advanced guard of the German mercenary army across the border into France, he was bested by the duke of Guise at the Battle of Dormans.

[34] Méru remained close to Alençon, and in 1578 took responsibility for raising troops to support his plans for entry into the Spanish Netherlands.

The soldiers he raised were deplored by the contemporary writer Claude Haton [fr] who denounced them for the depredations they wrought in the French countryside as 'specialists in rape, ransom and horse theft'.

[4][36] In September 1580, Alençon entered formal negotiations with the Dutch States General to be established as king of Nederland.

[36] As the reign of Henri continued, there was growing discontent among the great magnates of the realm at his increasingly autocratic style of rule.