Philippe Chabot

As depicted in Les vrais pourtraits et vies des hommes illustres grecz, latins et payens (1584) by André Thevet.

Philippe de Chabot, Seigneur De Brion, Count of Charny and Buzançois (c. 1492 – June 1, 1543), also known as Admiral De Brion, was an admiral of France.

Biography

The Chabot family was one of the oldest and most powerful in Poitou. Philippe was a cadet of the Jarnac branch. He was a companion of Francis I as a child, and on that king's accession was loaded with honors and estates. After the battle of Pavia he was made admiral of France and governor of Burgundy (1526), and shared with Anne de Montmorency the direction of affairs.

He was at the height of his power in 1535, and commanded the army for the invasion of the states of the duke of Savoy; but in the campaigns of 1536 and 1537 he was eclipsed by Montmorency, and from that moment his influence began to wane. He was accused by his enemies of peculation, and condemned on the 10th of February 1541 to a fine of 1,500,000 livres, to banishment, and to the confiscation of his estates. Through the good offices of Madame d'Étampes, however, he obtained the king's pardon almost immediately (March 1541), was reinstated in his posts, and regained his estates and even his influence, while Montmorency in his turn was disgraced. But his health was affected by these troubles, and he died soon afterwards on the 1st of June 1543.

His tomb in the Louvre, thought to be by Jean Cousin the Elder, is a fine example of French Renaissance work. It was his nephew, Guy Chabot, seigneur de Jarnac, who fought the famous duel with François de Vivonne, seigneur de la Châtaigneraie, in 1547, at the beginning of the reign of Henry II.

Chabot was instrumental in arranging the voyages of Giovanni da Verrazzano.

Marriage and children

On 10 January 1526, Chabot married Francoise de Longwy, Dame de Pagny and de Mirebeau (c.1510- after 14 April 1561), the eldest daughter of Jean IV de Longwy, Seigneur de Givry, Baron of Pagny and of Mirebeau (died 1520), and Jeanne of Angouleme, Countess of Bar-sur-Seine, the illegitimate half-sister of King Francis. They had six children:

• Leonor Chabot, Count of Charny (1526- 1597), married firstly Claude Gouffier, by whom he had two daughters; and secondly Francoise de Longwy-Rye, Dame de Longwy, by whom he had another four daughters, including Marguerite de Chabot, Countess of Charny (1565- 29 September 1652), who married Charles I of Lorraine (province), the Duke of Elbeuf.
• Francois Chabot, Marquis of Mirebeau, married firstly, Francoise, Dame de Lugny, by whom he had one daughter; and secondly on 25 December 1565, Catherine de Silly, by whom he had seven children.
• Francoise Chabot de Charny, married Charles de La Rochefoucard, Seigneur de Barbesieux, by whom she had three daughters.
• Antoinette Chabot de Charny, married Jean VI d'Aumont, Count of Chateauroux, by whom she had one son.
• Anne Chabot de Charny, married Karl van Halewijn, Marquis of Maignelais, by whom she had one daughter.
• Jeanne Chabot de Charny, Abbess of Porcelet (died 1593)

Sources

The main authorities for Chabot's life are his manuscript correspondence in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, and contemporary memoirs. See also E. de Barthlemy, Chabot de Brion, in the Revue des questions historiques (vol. xx. 1876); Martineau, L'Amiral Chabot, in the Positions des l'hses de l'Ecole des Chartes (1883).

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)