In his capacity as ambassador he worked to see the fruition of Catherine's marital projects, chief among them that of the king Charles to the daughter of the Emperor Anna von Österreich.

[14] When, that same year, Irish magnates appealed to the French king Henri II for support against the government in England, Fourquevaux and Monluc were dispatched to the island see if an agreement with them could be arrived at.

[21] During the dispute between Henri II and the Papacy in 1551, Fourquevaux counselled the French crown through a letter to the sécretaire Beauregard to oversee the revocation of the donations of Pepin and Charlemagne which had created the territorial realm of the Papal States in Italia.

[26] During October, Fourquevaux alongside Boucher sécretaire to the French ambassador to Roma would lead the Gallican party in Italia in the conflict with the Papacy from his position as treasurer in Mirandola.

This letter came as a great blow, and Henri wrote to the duca di Ferrara, cardinal de Tournon and the Pope to do what they could to stop Parma defecting to the Imperial cause.

[73] The league was modelled on those established by the rebel Protestants, with four layers of authority from the province down to the parish level, overseen by councils of members of the three estates and captains responsible for the raising of soldiers.

[93] For Fourquevaux this assignment put him in an unusual position, to defend Catherine's policy of religious concord that he despised and deal with the Spanish attacks against the French crown to which he was attached.

[99] Gellard highlights that his virulently anti-Spanish disposition may not be entirely organic, but also partly provided to the French crown as an assurance of his loyalty in the face of doubts about him.

[104] In May 1566 Catherine ordered Fourquevaux to ensure that when he provided diplomatic dispatches back to France, that he put any discussions related to Charles or Marguerite's marriages in a separate secret packet that was to be delivered directly to the sécretaire L'Aubespine.

Charles was concerned that while nominally the Spanish naval force might be intended to go out against the Ottoman Empire it could instead be used to attack the French colony of fort Caroline in Floride.

Charles ordered those who had participated in the outrage to be arrested, but when Coligny defended the conduct of the troops in council, arguing that they had avenged the dishonours being done to France in Brasil, and moreover that they had been attacked first.

An attempt was made to capture the royal family by Coligny, the prince de Condé and the other leading Protestants, however this failed, and France was plunged into civil war once more in September 1567.

[145] It was with the resumption of civil war in France that Fourquevaux made his first request to the crown for recall, keen to serve the monarchy in a way more fitting to his conception of the noble ideal.

[146] After the failed coup, Catherine and Charles received offers of military support from the duque de Alba and the Spanish ambassador in Paris Álava.

[153] To show their firm attitude, the despatches Fourquevaux received from the French court developed increasing bellicosity, describing the Protestant rebels as 'scoundrels' 'vermin' and being recipients of 'exemplary punishment'.

[159] According to a despatch written to Fourquevaux on 22 January, those talks that had transpired had been undertaken so that the true intentions of the royal party might be disguised and preparations for the preservation of cities in royalist hands might be assured.

Catherine complained to Felipe that not only had Alba's force not materialised to provide aid, but the German army had been able to resupply in the Spanish held Franche-Comté, while the duc d'Aumale could not enter the territory to impede them.

[155] When Fourquevaux presented the articles of the peace that was under negotiation to Felipe during April, the Spanish king informed him that they were all pernicious as they would allow for the continuation of religious deviancy in France.

He highlighted that Felipe disapproved of a peace being established that might be to the disadvantage of the French crown, and yet he was open to making such an agreement on similarly poor terms with his own religious rebels, the Moriscos.

[194] The French king picked up this argument on 18 June and used it in a despatch to Fourquevaux, highlighting that it was 'strange' given how close to destruction the Moriscos were reported to be by the duque de Alba.

A French army of 12,000 foot and 6,000 horse could depart from Narbonne and march to Sevilla, taking advantage of the weaknesses of the Spanish kingdom and the unpopularity of new taxes to bare witness to a revolt by the local population.

[204] In October Fourquevaux held an audience with Éboli and tried to establish that the death of Élisabeth could not mean that Felipe would go back on his word to see Charles married to the Emperors' eldest daughter.

Espinosa invited Fourquevaux and Guise to dinner on 17 February and informed them unofficially that the Spanish king hoped to marry the Emperors daughter Elisabeth to Sebastião.

[215] Having been informed of Fourquevaux's scepticism that Felipe truly intended a match between Marguerite and Sebastião, Catherine requested negotiations for that marriage be conducted in parallel to that of Charles' and that the Portuguese king be made aware of this.

[220] Felipe for his part apologised for the delays with receiving the powers to negotiate the marriage from Sebastião, pleading the youth of his nephew and a plague in Lisboa which had forced the dispersal of the Portuguese court.

Nevertheless, Fourquevaux would continue to appraise the French court of changes in the composition of the Portuguese council, noting the dismissal of one of the opponent advisers to the match and the king's increasing closeness to his grandmother Juana.

By the latter half of the year, as Marguerite's match to Navarre became increasingly finalised, Charles informed Fourquevaux he lacked any interest in continuing to pursue this line of enquiry.

[267] On 7 February 1574, Fourquevaux wrote to the crown that his principal and sole desire was to see the monarchy restored to the authority and prestige it had enjoyed during the reigns of François I, and Henri II.

[23] In May 1574 Fourquevaux and Joyeuse received correspondence from Catherine through Saint-Sulpice and Villeroy instructing the pair to oversee the arrest of Damville and transport him north to the French court.

[13] With Damville in rebellion, Fourquevaux aided in the preservation of Narbonne from an attempted surprise attack before going on the offensive and re-capturing Leucate in June from a subordinate of the rebel governor.