Jacques d'Humières

Jacques d'Humières, marquis d'Encre (c. 1520-c. 1579) was a military governor and lieutenant-general during the French Wars of Religion. Coming from a prominent Picard family, Humières succeeded his brother Louis to the governorship of Péronne, Montdidier and Roye in 1560 upon the latter's death. In the following year the province came under the domination of the House of Bourbon-Vendôme with Louis, Prince of Condé's ascent to governor. Humières was not among Condé's Protestant supporters, but succeeded to the office of lieutenant-general of Picardie in 1568 as Condé declined from favour. This gave him the authority of governor over the province in the absence of the governor.

By 1576 the crown had recently concluded the fifth war of religion with the Peace of Monsieur, this peace offered generous terms to the Protestants of the kingdom, in the hopes of sating the king's brother François, Duke of Alençon who had aligned himself against the crown. The provisions of this peace, in particular that granting Picardie's governorship and the town of Péronne to Henri, Prince of Condé as surety to confirm the peace outraged many militant Catholics in Picardie.

Pressured by his subordinates Humières put himself at the head of a Ligue in opposition to this policy, a group of Picard nobles and urban elites swearing an oath and terms to oppose the appointment. This organisation began to spread, its Catholic character increasingly coming to the fore as it reconfigured into an anti-Protestant national Ligue with the Duke of Guise outlining what he believed the Ligue should be. Alarmed by the rapid spread Henri III sought to stem its growth by co-opting it, putting himself at the head of a national Ligue and then making all provincial leaders swear not to form any rival ligues. Humières who had by now converted from a reluctant leader to a committed one oversaw the refusal of entry to Condé's garrison, forcing the king to back down and offer him an alternate surety town. Meanwhile the Estates General of 1576 called as a term of the peace was dominated by Ligue deputies who pushed for the resumption of war. Unable to overturn their decision Henri resumed the wars of religion. Meanwhile Humières and the other ligue leaders were losing heart in the king's commitment to the project, and began communicating and organising with each other secretly. Nevertheless their success was beginning to collapse, struggling for funds and with rumours of peace increasingly swirling by May 1577. The Peace of Bergerac in 1577 neutralised the Ligue, offering stricter terms for the toleration of Protestantism and outlawing all ligues. Henri courted Humières loyalty, offering him a prime place in his new Order of the Holy Spirit in 1579, the same year he died.