Jean V of Parthenay
[6] Raised by his mother versed in the classical humanities, frequenting poets from an early age, and nurtured by his sister Anne of Latin or Greek texts, Jean V hardly seems predestined for the military career in which his life was subsequently worn out.
[7] In 1528, Renée of France married Duke Ercole II d'Este and moved to Ferrara, Italy, along with Michelle, Jean V, and two of his sisters.
[9] According to La Popelinière, Jean V of Parthenay was "a gentleman of fine appearance, endowed with great estates and estates, liberal and honorable in all his actions, grave in speech and manners, affable and gracious nevertheless in conversation, disdainful of his domestic affairs as much as affectionate to the public and especially to the good of the kingdom, diligent and enemy of the birds".
[12] Born in 1532, she was twenty years younger than her husband, but she overtook the management of Château du Parc-Soubise, for example, by calling Bernard Palissy and Philibert Hamelin, whom she protected, to settle some differences between Jean V and his vassals.
[11][13] On 22 March 1554, his wife Antoinette gave birth to their daughter Catherine, who would later become a celebrated woman of letters and action, writer, mathematician, and protector of science.
[1] Early in his adult life, the child of honor of Henry II,[14] Jean V of Parthenay seemed destined for the pleasures of the court until he met John Calvin in Ferrara.
Antoine de Navarre and his brother, the Prince of Condé, attended the celebration from 13 to 19 May 1558, which drew many gentlemen to the Reformed faith.
[18] Peace made, Jean V de Parthenay was acquitted of the Renaudie affair in 1560 and he returned to the good graces of the queen and tried again to bring her back to the cause of the Calvinists.
They were commanded by Antoine of Navarre, whose wife Jeanne d'Albret, pregnant with the future Henry IV, remained at the scene of the fight with her husband.
On 25 February 1555, he moved to Parma at the rate of 500 pounds per month and helped to keep the duke in benevolent neutrality concerning the French, though Farnese ended up getting closer to Philip II of Spain two years later.
Around the same time, Jean de Parthenay witnessed the capitulation of Montluc in Siena on 17 April, being unable to help him due to a lack of troops.
[5] La Renaudie took the lead in the conspiracy,[30] which originated in December 1559, in Geneva, shortly after the execution of Anne du Bourg.
[31] La Renaudie was personally angry with François II and Charles de Guise who had his brother-in-law arrested and executed.
La Renaudie, who linked up with Soubise at the siege of Metz, confided to him his intention of seizing the king from the month of September 1559, at a time when the conspiracy was far from having taken shape.
[33] A first assembly of conspirators was held in Nantes in February 1560, and their troops, nearly 500 men, split up with the intention of moving towards Blois, Tours, and Orléans.
Condemned for the crime of lèse-majesté, Castelnau, Mazères, and Raunay died beheaded or hanged at the windows of the castle of Amboise.
[19] On 1 March 1562, Francis, Duke of Guise passed through Wassy in Champagne, and sent his armed men to interrupt a Protestant ceremony; 500 Huguenots were forced out of their place of worship.
[40] Jean V, citing the sympathies the queen once declared for Calvin, made great efforts to win Catherine de' Medici over to the reform party.
He took command of Lyon on 15 or 19 July 1562, with the full powers of the Prince of Condé (letters dated 25 May) to counterbalance the abuses and cruelties of François de Beaumont, Baron des Adrets.
One of the most courageous leaders of the Protestant party on the eve of Saint Barthélemy, Jean V de Parthenay managed to hold the city until the pacification edict of 19 March 1563.
This siege is illustrated two years later by the "speech that occurred in the city of Lion [Lyon] while Monsieur Soubise commanded there," a pleading attributed to François Viète and published (for the first time in the 19th century) by Hector de the Ferriere.
[44] During this siege, Jean V organized the supply of the city by the Dombes, which attracted to him the unfailing hatred of Louis III de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier.
After Viète went with him to Lyon to illustrate his defense in 1564, the lawyer was assigned the role of tutor to Soubise's daughter, the learned Catherine de Parthenay.
[51] In October 1565, he saw Catherine de' Medici again in Meaux in April 1566, one last time in Moulins, where he was almost assassinated with all the Huguenot leaders present in this city.
[52] The party of Lorraine princes and, during the following century, some Catholic historians, Brantôme, Antoine Varillas, then Bossuet, the eagle of Meaux, hardly credit him with good deeds.
He could not find peace and, although he harbored few illusions as to his chances of converting the Queen Mother to the "true religion", his repeated, ongoing efforts caused the party of Lorraine to abandon their last forces fairly quickly.
[59]The second recognizes himself, [Queen Catherine de' Medici] had continual talks with Soubise, a man of great quality, devoted to the Huguenot party and well instructed in the new doctrine.
Antoine Varillas read his memoirs and took it for granted that Catherine de' Medici had some Protestant leanings, or at least that she was Catholic only out of politics.
Eugène and Émile Haag, Auguste-François Lièvre, Jules Bonnet, Hector de la Ferrière, Auguste Laugel bring to light all that is chivalrous in his attitude.
Finally, the rediscovery of François Viète by Frédéric Ritter and Benjamin Fillon naturally leads many historians of science to focus on this minor nobility of Poitou, open to new ideas, keen on Greek, Latin and Hebrew, a small protective circle of an astonishing master of requests, who, starting from the bottom, was awakened to mathematics by a 12-year-old girl, served as secretary to her father, and was about to found the new algebra.
