Guy d'Arces

Guy d'Arces, baron de Livarot, Saint-Martin-de-la-Lieue et Giricourt (c. 1555–2 May 1581) was a French noble, military commander, and favourite of king Henri III during the French Wars of Religion. Scion to an ancient noble family of Dauphiné, he was elevated to court through his connections to his maternal uncle, Laurent de Maugiron, lieutenant-general of Dauphiné. He served as head of Maugiron's men-at-arms, during the fourth and fifth civil war. This included service under the overall command of Marshal Bellegarde during the ignominious siege of Livron. Around this time, he entered the favour of the king's brother Alençon, as his cousin had, serving the prince as his écuyer d'écurie.

It was through this that he came to the attention of the king, Henri, who desired to peel off the key regional favourites that his brother had acquired. During 1577 he elevated Livarot to the post of gentilhomme de la chambre du roi, and Livarot entered his service, abandoning his former patron Alençon. Livarot was close to another favourite of the kings, Caylus, during the tense months when Alençon was in the capital in early 1578. After Alençon fled court in February, Caylus, Livarot, and the other favourites of the king who had been menacing Alençon's favourites, turned their attentions to the favourites of the duke of Guise. Caylus attempted to engineer the transfer of the office of grand maître from the duke to himself. The favourites further sparred over women, and it was to this end that the famous 'duel of the mignons' arose on 27 April. Caylus, with Louis de Maugiron and Livarot as seconds, faced off against Guise's favourite Entraguet, with Ribérac and Schomberg as seconds. After the fight that followed, only two of the six would survive, Entraguet for the duke, and Livarot for the king, though he was severely wounded.

During 1580, Livarot secured a secondary patron, that of the duke of Nevers, who he represented in a legal case against the duke of Montpensier. Despite his earlier duel, Livarot would go on to serve under a member of the house of Guise at this time, fighting under Mayenne in Dauphiné at the siege of La Mure in October. Livarot brashly attempted to get the Protestant commander of the town to face him in a duel, but he declined. Tiring of the siege, Livarot departed in December for the court at Blois. He had by this time accumulated significant military office as maître de camp for the French infantry, and in his absence, his regiments became violently disorderly. In Blois he entered a new dispute over a woman with the marquis de Pienne. During the duel that followed on 2 May, both men were killed.