Jacques de La Brosse (c. 1485–1562),cupbearer to the king, was a sixteenth-century French soldier and diplomat. He is remembered in Scotland for his missions in 1543 and 1560 in support of theAuld Alliance.
Mary of Guise, wife ofJames V of Scotland, appointed Jacques de La Brosse as a tutor managing the affairs of her son, François, Duke of Longueville (died 1551). His French estates neighboured those of Mary's Master of Household, Jean de Beaucaire, and his wifeGuyonne de Breüil. After the death of the Duke, La Brosse was a Master Household and gentleman counsellor to the Duke of Guise.[1]
After the death of James V, Scotland was ruled byRegent Arran. His regency was challenged byDavid Beaton andMatthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox. Lennox even threw doubt on Arran's legitimacy. His grounds were the complex legal circumstances of Arran's father’s second marriage. TheAuld Alliance was threatened by an agreement, theTreaty of Greenwich, which would lead toMary, Queen of Scots marryingPrince Edward.
Into this troubled situationFrancis I of France sent a diplomatic mission and military aid to support the alliance between France and Scotland. Two French envoys, Jacques de La Brosse and the lawyer, Jacques Ménage, seigneur de Caigny, with thePapal LegateMarco Grimani, Patriarch of Aquileia, brought money and munitions toDumbarton Castle on 6 October 1543, and unwittingly delivered them to Lennox.[2] According to the later narratives ofClaude Nau andJohn Lesley, they arrived in 5 ships with 60,000 crowns. Nau and Lesley wrongly give the name of the legate as the nuncio, Pierre Francis Contareni, Patriarch of Venice, but mention another colleague, 'James Anort', meaning James Stewart.[3] There were seven ships andJames Stewart of Cardonald, aScots Guard officer who escorted La Brosse and Ménage, told Beaton that the envoys were "na grett personages" who had brought "sellvar and artellyery monesyzonispekes andhalberdes."[4]
La Brosse and Ménage then met with Arran,Mary of Guise, and Beaton, mostly at the Palace ofStirling Castle. On 24 November 1543, they sent a report of their mission toFrancis I of France with 23 articles detailing what they had seen, heard and resolved.[5] Much of this concerns the activities of Lennox, who was to be humoured in his ambition to marry Mary of Guise.[6] La Brosse and Ménage undertook to search the registers of theScottish Parliament in order to find a loophole to invalidate theTreaty of Greenwich.[7]Ralph Sadler, the English ambassador, has no comment on these proceedings, he had taken refuge atTantallon Castle and Arran sought his expulsion from Scotland.[8] Mary of Guise's mother,Antoinette de Bourbon recommended he should become the tutor of Mary's son, Francis,Duke of Longueville.[9] Jacques was still in Scotland in December 1545, and left on Scottish business to meet Francis I atSaint-Germains in February 1546. Jacques said Antoinette was there, with nothing to occupy her except hunting and designing buildings.[10]
Jacques de La Brosse was part of the mission to bring Mary, Queen of Scots, to France in 1548.[11]
Jacques de La Brosse served as a soldier at Metz, in Italy and at Calais. From 1558, during theScottish Reformation, Jacques was stationed in Scotland as a captain of French troops. He was made a knight of theOrder of Saint Michael. Jacques andNicolas de Pellevé,Bishop of Amiens, wrote letters summoning the rebellingLords of the Congregation to attend the Queen Regent in October 1559. As there was no response by 13 November,Francis II of France and Mary instructed them to offer a pardon to all who would submit and punishment to those remaining obstinate. A similar commission which also includedJean de Monluc,Bishop of Valence, was issued on 1 April 1560.[12]
When the English were preparing to intervene in theScottish Reformation crisis in January 1560, Jacques wrote to theDuke of Norfolk, saying that he could not believe a rumour in Edinburgh that Norfolk was lieutenant-general to attack the French and aid the Protestant rebels. An English fleet, commanded byWilliam Winter began to harass shipping inFirth of Forth. An English herald,Chester Herald,William Flower denied all knowledge of the raider to Mary of Guise on 16 February 1560. Jacques andHenri Cleutin spoke in defiance to Flower, and he asked if Jacques would be an envoy into England. Jacques replied he had heard the English army were coming into Scotland and he would then "give them the looking upon." At the conclusion of hostilities on 15 July 1560, Jacques signed a guarantee for the French evacuation of Leith.[13]
French troops had invested the town ofLeith and it was besieged by a Scottish and English army. A French journal of the siege and events from 22 January 1560 to 15 June, by an anonymous author, mentions the activities of Jacques de La Brosse in passing. La Brosse advisedHenri Cleutin, sieur d’Oisel, on tactics on 6 April,[14] and Guise on diplomacy.[15] The journal, edited in its original French and translated by Gladys Dickinson in herTwo Missions of de la Brosse is an important source for the Siege of Leith and corroborates details found in English letters andKnox’sHistory of the Reformation.
Jacques married Françoise de Moussy-la-Contour-de-Puybaillard, their children included a daughter Euchariste.[16] Jacques became a knight of theOrder of Malta.[17] He was killed at thebattle of Dreux in 1562.Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme wrote that Jacques was the most graceful and gracious man-at-arms that was ever seen.[18]
The manuscript of the Journal of the siege of Leith, and Mary of Guise's correspondence with the French ambassadorMichel de Seure are held by the Archives des affaires étrangères, Paris, (Angleterre 15). This material, and an archive known as the Balcarres Papers, held by theNational Library of Scotland, possibly represent the papers of one of the secretaries of Mary of Guise, Pierre de Grantrie or Grandrye.[19]