Bertrand-Rambaud de Simiane

Bertrand-Rambaud V de Simiane, baron de Gordes (c. 1513-c. 1578) was a French military commander and lieutenant-general of Dauphiné. First achieving prominence during the latter Italian Wars of Henri II he fought in the Piedmont campaign of 1552, becoming governor of Mondovì a post which he would hold until 1556. He fought in the famous Metz campaign of late 1552 and would go on to serve in the disastrous Picardy campaign.

With peace declared in 1559 he found himself achieving further advancement under the young king Charles IX receiving the Order of Saint-Michel in 1561, and then being elevated to Lieutenant-General of Dauphiné in 1564, replacing the disgraced Laurent de Maugiron. Far more moderate religiously than Maugiron he sought to govern the religiously contentious region through a greater deal of compromise. When civil war resumed in 1567 he was initially successful, but the combined forces of the Protestant nobles in the region forced him to retreat to Lyon. With baron des Adrets support he re-entered Dauphiné in early 1568, but peace was declared before he could achieve notable success.

In the third civil war Gordes and Guillaume de Joyeuse attempted to stop the local Protestant armies joining their compatriots in Languedoc, they were however unsuccessful. Gordes was equally unsuccessful when he attempted to stop Montbrun from re-entering the territory. With the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew unfolding in 1572, Gordes resisted pressures to spread it into Dauphiné. In the following years however he would unite with the Catholic nobility of the province in a league.