Arms: Azure three lions passant guardant in pale Or armed langued and crowned Gules.
Jacques Nompar de Caumont, Duc de la Force 30 Oct 1558 – 10 May 1652
SOURCE, NOTES & CREDITS: Blazon for arms: page 388, column 2, “Armorial General”, Rietstap, Volume I reworked by J. H. Gaylor. B&W background illustration from Plate XLII, 2nd from the left, three down from the top, “Illustrations to Rietstap’s Amorial General”, Vols. I & II, A-F, V. & H.V. Rolland. Text adapted from the Wikipedia Articles in French and English on de la Force.
The Duc de la Force, Jacques Nompar de Caumont was born as a Protestant on 30 October 1558, survived the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in which his father and older brother were killed to serve Henri IV of France. He became the King’s Governor of Bearn ( 1593 ) and of Navarre and became the Captain of the Kings Guard ( read security force ) and was serving as such when the King was assassinated in Paris on 14 May 1610 by a fanatic, one M. François Ravaillac, who stabbed the king to death in Rue de la Ferronnerie, while the King’s coach’s progress was stopped by traffic congestion. De la Force captured the assassin and took possession of the weapon which is discussed in our files under Haddington 3, in an article by the late Sir Iain Moncrieffe of that Ilk.
Later he became a Marshal of France under Louis XIII in 1622 and was created duke & peer of France in 1637, also under Louis XIII, as the Duc de la Force. He died in 1652 at age 94 and was succeeded by his son as the 2nd Duc.
The artwork is a rendering by John Hamilton Gaylor
2019 0515
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