Jacques de Savoie, Duke of Nemours

Jacques de Savoie, duc de Nemours (12 October 1531 – 15 June 1585) was a French military commander, governor and Prince Étranger. Having inherited his titles at a young age, Nemours fought for king Henri II during the latter Italian Wars, seeing action at the siege of Metz and the stunning victories of Renty and Calais in 1554 and 1558. Already a commander of French infantry, he received promotion to commander of the light cavalry after the capture of Calais in 1558. A year prior he had accompanied François, Duke of Guise on his entry into Italy, as much for the purpose of campaigning as to escape the king's cousin Antoine of Navarre who was threatening to kill him for his extra-marital pursuit of Navarre's cousin.

In 1559 Henri II died during a joust, and was succeeded by his young son François II. The new administration, led by the Guise due to François' young age was plagued with religious and financial difficulties, that emboldened a conspiracy to form against it. Nemours played a key role in crushing the Conspiracy of Amboise, capturing several of the leaders, and infamously promising the baron de Castelnau that if he surrendered no harm would come to him, the baron shortly thereafter being executed despite the pleas of many nobles.

The following year he involved himself in a conspiracy to spirit away the 10-year-old Anjou from court, so that he could be 'raised in Catholic environs'. The plot was uncovered, and facing arrest, Nemours fled from court. The case against him collapsed, however, as the only evidence was the word of the young prince. Around this time a case was also looming against him for his relationship indiscretions. Françoise de Rohan being distraught that he had given her a child without fulfilling his promise to marry her, the case would gestate for the next four years until the archbishop of Lyon ruled in his favour in 1565, allowing him to marry the widowed Anne d'Este the following year. Nemours fought during the first war of religion, fighting the baron des Adrets around Lyon and the Dauphiné. With the death of the Marshal Saint-André on the field of Dreux in December, he became the governor of the Lyonnais, an office he would hold for the next nine years before resigning it in favour of his lieutenant-general François de Mandelot.

Nemours remained close with the Guise, supporting them in their feud with the Montmorency over the assassination of the duke of Guise without notable results. Nemours was with the court during the Surprise of Meaux and successfully counselled the court to make a flight to Paris. While besieged in Paris the following month, he aided in breaking the ring the Protestants had set up around the city before Anne de Montmorency's victory at the battle of Saint Denis. With Montmorency's death on the field, the young prince, whom Nemours had once tried to lure away from court, Anjou, became lieutenant-general of the army. To support him in the practicalities of conducting the campaign Nemours was among those chosen as his advisers. During the third war of religion, Nemours was tasked with assisting Claude, Duke of Aumale, the late duke of Guise's brother in blocking an entry into France by a German mercenary force in favour of the Protestant army. Aumale and Nemours found themselves too consumed in bickering to effectively block the force, and it linked up with the main Protestant body.

By the 1570s Nemours moved away from active politics and military command. Having resigned his governorship, he devoted himself more fully to matters of the arts. Though he was suspected of involvement in the Ligues after 1576, the king was satisfied with his swearing that he did not desire the overturn of the Peace of Monsieur. In 1585, he died, and was succeeded as duke of Nemours by his son.