Note 36 — Book I. LETTERS TO MAXIMILIAN.
Reading edition
Jean de Montluc, Bishop of Valence, was one of the most successful diplomatists of his day; he had been ambassador at Constantinople in 1537, on which occasion he received the pot of balsam, which he afterwards lost in Ireland (see vol. i. p. 387). Henry III. owed his Polish Crown to his exertions and diplomatic skill. He was father of that bold and unscrupulous adventurer, Balagny.
His career is thus sketched by a contemporary:—
‘Il avoit esté de sa premiere profession jacobin, et la feue royne de Navarre Margueritte, qui aymoit les gens sçavans et spirituels, le cognoissant tel, le deffrocqua et le mena avec elle à la Court, le fit cognoistre, le poussa, luy ayda, le fit employer en plusieurs ambassades; car je pense qu’il n’y a guieres pays en l’Europe où il n’ayt esté ambassadeur et en negotiation, ou grande ou petite, jusques en Constantinople, qui fut son premier advancement, et à Venize, en Polongne, Angleterre, Escosse et autres lieux. On le tenoit Lutherien au commencement, et puis Calviniste, contre sa profession episcopalle; mais il s’y comporta modestement par bonne mine et beau semblant; la reyne de Navarre le deffrocqua pour l’amour de cela.’—Brantôme, iii. 52.