Claude de La Châtre de La Maisonfort.

About Claude de La Châtre de La Maisonfort

Claude de La Châtre, baron de Maisonfort was a French aristocrat, governor and Marshal, who was active during the latter Italian Wars and the entirety of the French Wars of Religion. Originally a client of the Montmorency, he migrated into the service of the Guise in 1557, serving with the duke of Guise in Italy in 1557 and France in 1558. A Catholic, he remained loyal to the crown when the French Wars of Religion broke out in 1562, and was rewarded for his loyalty with elevation into the highest chivalric order and the governorship of Berry in 1568. On the death of Charles IX he avoided involvement in the Malcontent conspiracy of 1574, and strongly resisted concessions to the King's brother Alençon to restore his loyalty, which would have meant yielding his town of Bourges. Despite this hostility to Alençon, the two would gravitate towards each other with the coming of peace, and La Chârtre served under Alençon in the subsequent civil war during the brutal capture of La Charité-sur-Loire and Issoire from rebel Protestants.