Charles_de_Balsac,_seigneur_de_Clermont
Charles de Balsac, seigneur de Clermont
Late 16th-century French courtier and royal favourite
Charles de Balsac, seigneur de Clermont (known as Entragues or Clermont-Entragues) (c. 1545 –14 March 1590) was a French courtier, favourite and soldier during the French Wars of Religion. The second son of Guillaume de Balsac and Louise d'Humières he was a member of a prominent Massif-Central noble family. He began his career during the peace between the first and second wars of religion, serving under the command of Marshal Cossé. He became close to the king, serving him as a gentilhomme de la chambre, before defecting to the household of his brother Anjou. He fought under the command of Anjou during the siege of La Rochelle, and joined the prince when he became king of the Commonwealth. Upon Anjou's return to France, as king Henri III he became first écuyer and then one of the captains of the king's bodyguard.
He received both of the highest chivalric orders of the king, being made chevalier of the Ordre de Saint-Michel in 1576, and then of the Ordre du Saint-Esprit in 1583. He remained loyal to the king during the crisis of the Catholic ligue in 1584, unlike his elder brother the seigneur d'Entragues. Frustrated at the continued concessions he was forced to make to the ligue, Henri resolved in December 1588 to kill its leader the duke of Guise. Entragues had a role to play in the assassination, his troops surrounding the residence of the dukes mother the duchess of Nemours. The killing of the duke brought Henri into war with the ligue again, and Entragues remained with the king as his bodyguard in early 1589. On 1 August the king was fatally wounded by a radical Catholic. Entragues was with the king in his final hours, and on his death was distraught. His heir, the Protestant Henri IV secured his service through a promise to protect Catholicism, and he served with him against the ligue in early 1590. On 14 March 1590 he was killed fighting alongside the king against the Catholic ligue at the Battle of Ivry.