With the death of Henri II in 1559 and the disgrace of his patron Diane de Poitiers Bouillon found his position in Normandy tenuous.

Later that month he attempted to assert his authority in Rouen however his decrees were reversed by the crown, and feeling powerless he withdrew to his power base in the Ardenne.

[4] He found himself immediately in financial difficulty, and over the following years would have to sell many of the fiefs that comprised the Brézé inheritance to the Guise, consolidating their position in Normandy.

[5] In 1558 Bouillon entered his governorship for the first time, heading to Dieppe with the goal of reorganising its defences to protect it against English or Spanish attacks.

[6] Despite his Protestantism he was little interested in taking up leadership of the local Protestant community, and thus that role fell to lesser nobles in the territory such as Montgommery.

[12] When civil war broke out in 1562, Bouillon was ill inclined to join Condé's rebellion, and remained neutral, holding up in Caen.

[16] Reinstated to his office, Bouillon again visited his troublesome governorship, his arrival in Rouen created uproar among militant Catholics as he sought justice for a murder of a Protestant judge that had occurred the year prior, arresting several suspects, and further ordered that Protestants who had been denied their office in the wake of the siege of Rouen be restored to their former status in the city.

As the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew unfolded in the days after, Bouillon saved his life by promising to convert to Catholicism, and urging those he was hiding with to do likewise.

[19] His Principality of Sedan became a base for Protestant malcontents, and during the Politique conspiracy that consumed France in early 1574 a large number of Huguenot nobles rendezvoused in the state.