FOOTNOTES
[1] The terms right and left signify, throughout this study, the spectator’s right and left.
[2] The picture was acquired, with two others, from the late Earl of Radnor, for £55,000; of which £25,000 was contributed by the State, and £30,000 by Messrs. Nath. Rothschild and Sons, Sir Edward Guinness, Bart. (now Lord Iveagh), and Mr. Charles Cotes. (See Catalogue of the National Gallery, under “Holbein.”)
[3] The husband of Mme. Vigée Le Brun, the painter.
[4] These measurements are incorrect. See note 4, page 9.
[5] Le Brun, “Galerie des Peintres Flamands, Hollandais et Allemands.” Paris, 1792, vol. i., page 7.
[6] The following entries occur in the Account Books of Longford Castle:
- 1808, Feb. 18, Buchanan, Picture Dealer, on account, £100.
- 1809, June 24, Buchanan and his assignee Halden, £1,000.
As on a print of the picture at the British Museum a note is inscribed, “sold by Buchanan for 1,000 guineas,” there can be no doubt that the entries in question refer to “The Ambassadors.” These and other facts relating to the Longford period in the story of the picture have been kindly communicated to the writer by Lady Radnor.
[7] “Some account of the Life and Works of Hans Holbein,” by Ralph Nicholson Wornum, London, 1867, chap. xiv., page 275.
[8] “Holbein und seine Zeit,” by Dr. Alfred Woltmann, second German edition, vol. i., page 372, vol. ii., page 141.
[9] “Archæologia,” vol. xliv., part ii., pp. 450-455. (“Remarks on some pictures of Quintin Matsys and Holbein in the Collection of the Earl of Radnor at Longford Castle,” by John Gough Nichols, Esq., F.S.A.) In spite of errors of fact and speculation, Mr. Gough Nichols’ treatment of the subject was by far the most scientific it had met with up to that time.
[10] Amongst the Windsor drawings by Holbein there are two portraits of Wyat. Several oil paintings also exist of this personage.
[11] Curiously enough, Mr. Gough Nichols actually cites the name of George de Selve, Bishop of Lavaur, but rejects it, having examined it only with regard to the left-hand figure, which obviously is not that of a Bishop! So near did he come to the truth.
[12] “Times,” September, 1890. “Art Journal,” January, 1891.
[13] It seems unnecessary to record here the many interesting suggestions put forward for the identification of Holbein’s sitters. An exception should perhaps be made with regard to Mr. Sidney Colvin’s proposal of Nicholas Bourbon, the poet, for the second figure; because, in consequence of an article from his pen in the “Art Journal” for January, 1891, the idea was repeated in more permanent form, though merely as a surmise, by Mr. Lionel Cust, in the “Dictionary of National Biography” (art. “Holbein”). It is sufficient to say here that Mr. Colvin immediately withdrew his suggestion when the real identity of the second individual was made known. (“Times,” Dec. 10, 1895.)
[14] The seigneurie of Avaux in Champagne was raised to the rank of a Comté in 1638, in favour of Jean Jacques de Mesmes, who had married the heiress of that estate.
[16] “Times,” May 15, 1894. Mr. Dickes had a different theory of his own which his interesting find materially assisted to overthrow.
[17] The catalogue of the National Gallery (1898) gives the dimensions as follows: “In oil, of ten vertical panels, 6 ft. 10 in. high, by 6 ft. 10¼ in. wide.” It is curious that while the catalogue of the Beaujon sale makes the picture much wider than high, Le Brun’s description, about five years later in date, exactly reverses those proportions. Le Brun’s measurements are obviously the less incorrect of the two, as the engraving in the “Galerie des Peintres Flamands,” etc., shows that the picture, if represented in proportions that at all corresponded with the original, was, in his time, much higher than broad; but both descriptions must have been very inaccurate. Excessive carelessness on the part of the French writers is probably the main explanation of the discrepancies.
[18] The spectator’s right.
[19] The signature and date have been recorded as existent or non-existent at various times in the history of the picture, according to the condition of the painting and of the light at the moment of examination. In the excellent circumstances it now enjoys, both one and the other are plainly visible.
[20] Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Estampes, Cote Yᵈ, 184; and a second copy in the same library, Imprimés, V, 8201, 18. Catalogue de tableaux ... après le décès de M. Beaujon ... redigé par P. Rémy et C. F. Julliot, fils. Pp. 7 et 8, Ecole des Pays-Bas, Jean Holbein. In the margin of the first copy named is a note in ink: “Prix de vente 602L. A été vendu avec le No. précédent et pour la même somme.” The preceding number (16) is under the same heading “Jean Holbein.” But as it is said to represent “La Cour de François II.,” who began to reign in 1559, while Holbein died in 1543, it is scarcely necessary to observe that, if rightly described, it can have had nothing to do with this painter. The sale began on April 25, 1787; the “Ambassadors” and its companion picture were disposed of on May 5.
[21] “Revue de Champagne et de Brie,” vol. xxiv., page 318. M. Lefèvre-Pontalis alludes to the same notice in his preface to the “Correspondance politique d’Odet de Selve,” edited by him for the French Foreign Office.
[22] The paragraph in brackets is in another writing. See facsimile, facing page 12.
[23] Up to Easter (April 13), 1533, the year was still 1532 by the old reckoning.
[24] “[Remarks on the subject of an excellent picture of the Sieur d’Inteville Polizy, and George de Selve, Bishop of Lavour, showing the offices they held, and the time of their decease.
“In this picture is represented, life-size, Messire Jean de Dintevile chevalier Sieur de Polizy, near Bar-sur-Seyne, Bailly of Troyes, who was Ambassador in England for King Francis I. in the years 1532 [O.S.] and 1533 and since Governour of Monsieur Charles de France, second son (sic) of the said King; the same Charles died at Forest Monstier in the year 1545, and the said Sr. de Dintevile in the year 1555. Interred in the Church of the said Polizy. There is also represented in the said picture, Messire George de Selve, Bishop of Lavaur, a personage of great learning and virtue, who was Ambassador with the Emperor Charles V.; the said Bishop was the son of Messire Jean de Selve, Premier President of the Parliament of Paris; the said Bishop died in 1541, having in the above-mentioned year 1532, or 1533, gone to England by permission of the King, to visit the said Sieur de Dintevile, his intimate friend, and also of all his family; and they two having met in England an excellent Dutch painter, employed him to make this picture, which was carefully preserved at the said place, Polizy, up to the year 1653.”
This document is now the property of the Trustees of the National Gallery.]
[25] Possibly the writing of the docket might be identified by a person conversant with the handwritings of the French antiquaries of the seventeenth century, who did such good service by the preservation of ancient manuscripts.
[26] “Gallia Christiana” (Lutetiæ, 1715), vol. xiii. (1722), page 344. “Ecclesia Vaurensis,” No. xxi., Georgius de Selve.
[27] This deed, preserved at Villiers-par-Cerny, near La Ferté-Alais (Seine-et-Oise), and never before published, was kindly placed at the writer’s disposal by the Marquis de Selve. The Papal licence forms an authoritative standard by means of which the many loose statements regarding the bishop’s age, with which the printed notices of his life abound, may be easily checked. Villiers was owned by Jean de Selve, Premier President, father of the Bishop of Lavaur, at least as early as 1528.
[28] Joachim de Dinteville, the head of the elder line who resided at Dinteville in Champagne, died in 1607. He was Lieutenant du Roi in that province, and a man of great ability and reputation. His correspondence has been published in the “Revue de Champagne et de Brie.” With his demise the male line of the house of Dinteville became extinct in both branches.
[29] Brother to Jean, the Ambassador.
[30] Paris, Bibl. Nat., Fonds Du Puy, 702 f. 147. Camusat to Du Puy. Madame de Cessac was niece to the Bishop of Auxerre.
[31] Paris, Bibl. Nat. MSS. fr. nouv. acquisition, 6208 (“Corr. des frères de Sainte-Marthe”), f. 74. Camusat to MM. de Sainte-Marthe, Troyes, 21 August (probably 1607). “Je vous envoye une généalogie qui m’a esté donnée par la dame de Sesac, laquelle est de la maison de Polizy Dinteville....”
[32] “Meslanges Historiques,” part ii., p. 211 (Troyes, 1st ed., 1619).
[33] Not to be confounded with a distant connection, Louis de Castlenau, Marquis de Cessac, a celebrated gambler, who is alluded to by various writers of the time. John Evelyn mentions having paid this person a sum of money owed to him by Lord Berkeley, which Castelnau immediately played away. (“Diary,” Bray’s ed., vol. ii., p. 107.)
[34] Dubuisson-Aubenay, “Journal des guerres civiles,” edited by M. Saige, vol. ii., pp. 65-73. The Dictionaries of Nobility, etc., mention only the daughter, Charlotte-Marie, who survived.
[35] Imperial territory.
[36] Dubuisson-Aubenay, “Journal des guerres civiles,” vol. ii., pp. 65-73.
[37] Polisy was sold 1654, Deschenetz in 1656, the smaller properties no doubt following suit as occasion offered.
[38] Memoir in explanation of three letters sent by Monsʳ. Camusat, Canon of St. Pierre at Troyes, [touching a picture made in England of George de Selve, Bp. of Lavaur, who had gone thither to visit the Bailly of Troies, Sr. de Polizi, Jean d’Inteville, at that time the king’s ambassador].
There are two relating to the Bishop of Lavaur, George de Selve, son of M. le Premier President de Selve, which Bishop had been invited by M. de Polizy, bailly of Troyes, ambassador in England in the years 1532 [O.S.] and 1533, to visit him in England, which he did, having first taken leave of the king. And being in England, they had made the excellent picture by a Dutch painter, Holben, which picture was preserved in the House of Polizy, distant but one league from Bar-sur-Seine, a hundred and forty [sic] years and more, as belonging to the Seigneur of the place, Sʳ. de Sessac, until the year 1653, when he had it removed to Paris, to his house near the parish of St. Sulpice; the said picture representing the said Sr. de Polizy, Jean de d’Inteville, and the said Bishop of Lavaur who was afterwards ambassador with Charles V.; the said Bishop died in 1541. The said picture is considered the finest piece of painting in France in the opinion of the best painters. M. le Maréchal du Plessis-Praslain bought the estate of Polisy for three hundred thousand livres from the said Sr. de Sessac.
M. de Vic, garde des sceaux, formerly said that it was the most beautiful piece of painting in France.
M. George de Selve, and his brothers, worthily served France in various embassies and legations.
[39] The portion between brackets is in another hand. See facsimile, on opposite page.
[40] It will be remembered that these dates are reckoned in the old style, i.e., the year beginning at Easter. Jean de Dinteville was in England on this occasion from February to November, 1533. The commencement of his sojourn would therefore belong to 1532, by the old reckoning.
[41] The name “Holben” is inserted between the lines, but is in the same hand and of the same date as the writing which surrounds it. See facsimile, on opposite page.
[42] Obviously a slip of the pen for “cent vingt ans.”
[43] “Méri de Vic, sieur d’Ermenonville, président au parlement de Toulouse, conseiller d’Etat, garde des sceaux (24 Dec., 1621), mort le 2 sept. 1622.” (Lalanne, “Dict. Hist. de la France.”)
[44] Paris, Bibl. de l’Institut, Collection Godefroy, Portefeuille 216, f. 34.
[45] “... The said Bishop ... went to visit in England in 1532 [O.S.] an intimate friend of his, Mr. de Polizy, Jean de d’Inteville, bailly of Troyes, who was then ambassador with Henry VIII.; and then also the said Bishop and Bailly of Troyes had made in England the excellent picture which is now at Paris, in the dwelling of M. de Sessac, in which the said Bailly and Bishop are represented life-size; the said picture is by the hand of a Dutchman; the piece is esteemed the richest and best wrought that is to be found in France.”
[46] Paris, Bibl. de l’Institut, Fonds Godefroy, p. 520, ff. 282 and 283. Mémoire de M. Camusat, chanoine de Troyes touchant les enfans et descendans de Mr. le premr. président de Selves, etc. Dated 1654.
[47] Archives of Polisy, kindly communicated by M. Abrand, the proprietor’s agent.
[48] Paris, Arch. Nat., Y 25, fol. 325.
[49] Berty et Tisserand, “Topographie Historique du vieux Paris” (Région du Bourg St. Germain), pp. 155, 157, 159. (Paris, 1876.)
[50] In 1779 Carlos de la Traverse wrote from St. Ildefonse (Spain) to M. d’Angeviller, proposing to him to buy some cartoons for tapestry designed by Holbein. But the offer was declined on the ground that Holbein was “un peintre sec et demi-gothique.” (“Nouvelles Archives de l’Art français,” IIᵉ Série, t. i., 7th of the collection, pp. 258-262.) The cartoons in question represented scenes from the Passion.
[51] In 1661 M. de Cessac signed a deed in the house “on pend pour enseigne le Croissant,” Rue de Bourbon (Toulouse, Arch. de la Hte. Garonne). In 1669, the date of his marriage with Anne Louise de Broglie, he was in the Rue des Boucheries, Faubourg St. Germain. The marriage contract reveals that he possessed at this time, in all, three houses in Paris; the other two being situated in the Rue des “Viels” Augustins. He had therefore parted with the “logis” in the Rue du Four. The contract confers on him the power to sell, or exchange, in like manner, the three houses now in question. Subsequent legal deeds show a series of further changes.
[52] Archives du Var, B 197 (quoted by M. Dardenne).
[53] Milhars is situated in the Department of Tarn, on a rocky height commanding the junction of the small river Cérou with the Aveyron. For all the facts relating to the history of the Château, and for many of those which concern its occupants, the writer is indebted to M. Henri Dardenne, of Carcassonne, Trésorier-Général of the Department of Aude. This gentleman, who is the author of an interesting (unpublished) history of Milhars and its successive owners, based on original documents, most kindly placed his manuscript at the writer’s disposal.
[54] Camusat himself possessed portraits of Guillaume, Seigneur Deschenetz, and Gaucher, Seigneur de Vanlay, brothers of Jean the Ambassador, as well as that of their cousin, Joachim de Dinteville, head of the elder branch of the family, whose residence was at Dinteville in Champagne. The two first-named portraits Camusat left by will (Paris, Bibl. de l’Institut, Coll. Godefroy, vol. 308, f. 116), to D’Hozier, author of the “Nobiliaire de Champagne”; that of Joachim de Dinteville, to the Abbé Bonhomme, a well-known collector of the time at Troyes. (See Bonnaffé, “Les Collectionneurs de l’ancienne France”). The indifference displayed by the Marquis de Cessac to Dinteville records, in allowing Camusat to acquire these portraits (either at the time of the sale of Polisy, or earlier), brings into strong relief the value placed upon “The Ambassadors,” which seems to have been the only picture retained. This is the more striking, as M. de Cessac possessed, it appears, a “Cabinet” of portraits of some interest, derived from the neighbourhood of his family estates, Cessac and Cazillac. Two of these were reproduced for Du Chesne’s “Hist. des Cardinaux François” (Paris, 1660, pages 426 and 521). The two Cardinals in question belonged respectively to the dioceses of Cahors and Limoges; proving sufficiently that the Marquis de Cessac who owned their portraits was François de Cazillac, and not, as M. Bonnaffé states (“Dict. des Amateurs français”), Louis de Castelnau, the notorious card-player, whose property lay in quite a different part of the country. (See also note, page 15.)
[55] The deed recording the attempted donation was drawn up at Milhars, 1st September, 1665. Roger de Guénégaud was the son of Henri Du Plessis Guénégaud, Marquis de Plancy, the well-known Secretary of State and Garde des Sceaux. This gentleman had married Isabelle (or Elizabeth) de Choiseul, daughter of Charles de Choiseul, Marquis de Praslin, and of Claude de Cazillac, aunt of M. de Cessac. As such, Roger de Guénégaud descended, through his mother, in as direct a line from the Dinteville heiress as the Marquis de Cessac himself. The latter lived on terms of intimate friendship with these relations. Mme. de Sévigné records having met M. de Cessac at Fresnes, the country place of Du Plessis Guénégaud. (Letter to the Marquis de Pomponne, 1st August, 1667.)
[56] M. Aug. Vidal of Albi (Tarn) kindly made researches for the writer on this point, both in the Archives at Toulouse and at the Château of St. Géry, now owned by Madame O’Byrn, a descendant of the family of Rey de St. Géry, who purchased Milhars from the Lamoignon family in 1765. This lady, who has at St. Géry a large quantity of legal papers brought from Milhars, was good enough to place them at M. Vidal’s disposition, but unfortunately without result.
[57] Paris, Bibl. Nat., MSS. français, 28,998, f. 17a, De la Roche-Fontenilles. At the end are the words: “Copie pour Monsieur Voisin,” and the date 1685.
[59] Dardenne MS., p. 164, quoted from the Minutes Gaugiron, p. 51. These are one of M. Dardenne’s most important sources. M. Gaugiron was a notary of Milhars, with whom many of the legal documents of this period were deposited.
[60] St. Simon (“Mémoires”), who has nothing but sarcasm for the family of Mesmes in general, is full of admiration for the goodness, amiability, and unaffected piety of Mme. de Fontenilles. This lady seems to have been in every way a contrast to her husband.
[61] It will be seen later on, however, that the Voisin inheritance was bequeathed elsewhere, so that on Mme. Voisin’s side the connection could only have affected the fate of the picture by supposing that it was given to, or purchased by, the Premier Président, before her death.
[62] Marie-Renée, who, owing to her quarrel with her mother and residence in Champagne, probably knew nothing of the story of the picture, would certainly have been none the wiser if this were the case.
[63] Perhaps no member of the Lamoignon race is better known to history than this one. Born in 1735, Chrétien-François de Lamoignon, Marquis de Basville et de Milhars, became a President à mortier of the Parliament of Paris in 1758. Mixed up in the political storms which preceded the outbreak of the Revolution, he shared the exile of his party in 1772; was recalled; appointed Garde des Sceaux in 1787; resigned the following year, and died at Basville in 1789.
[64] Chrétien-François died, however, and his son fled, at the outbreak of the Revolution, so the arrangement came to an untimely end.
[65] Nicolas Beaujon, a native of Bordeaux, had raised himself, not always by the most creditable means, from a humble origin to a position of great wealth and influence. He was Banker to the Court, and Treasurer to the Order of St. Louis. Although society smiled at the eccentricities of the parvenu, the magnificence of his house and collections made it impossible to overlook their owner. His charities, moreover, were immense. For these and the facts given in the text respecting Beaujon, the writer is indebted to Dr. Charles Fournel, whose little work, “L’Hôpital Beaujon depuis son origine jusqu’à nos jours” (Paris, E. Deuter, 1884), gives the only correct information to be had respecting the millionaire, being founded throughout on original documents. The popular compendiums of biography bristle, as usual, with errors; not excepting Jal, who, however, gives one authentic document.
[66] Now the Elysée, the residence of the President of the Republic.
[67] The letters and chronicles of the time are rich in local colouring, and are preferable for the present object to the stately histories written in a subsequent age. The immense stores of manuscripts preserved in the public libraries of France, especially in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, fortunately facilitate the task to a great extent. Among printed sources none are more valuable than the various series of State Papers, published both in England and France, the “Meslanges Historiques” of Camusat, and—for a contemporary French view of the events of the time—the Memoirs of the Du Bellay brothers.
[68] Literally, “Des Chenets,” and often so written in early records. But the name soon lost its original meaning and was corrupted into one word.
[69] Paris, Arch. Nat., X¹ᵃ 8611, dated Amboise, 4th Dec., 1516.
[70] Ph. de Comines, “Mémoires” (ed. by Mlle. Dupont for the Soc. de l’Hist. de France), vol. ii., p. 436.
[71] Michelet, “Hist. de France au XVIᵉ̀ᵐᵉ siècle” (ed. 1855), “Renaissance,” pp. 190, 191.
[72] A royal order of 1511 permits Gaucher de Dinteville to recover certain moneys due to him from the heirs of Jean, Duc de Nemours, which he had previously been unable to claim owing to absence from home. In this deed he is called “Seigneur de Pollisy et bailli de Troyes.”
[73] Paris, Bibl. Nat., Fonds fr. 7853.
[74] Paris, Bibl. Nat., Cab. des Titres, Pièces Orig., vol. 1004, No. 65, Dossier Dinteville.
[75] Charrière, “Négociations de la France dans le Levant” (Doc. inéd. sur l’hist. de France), vol. i., part ii., chap. i., “Premières Relations de la France avec la Porte.”
[76] Paris, Bibl. Nat., Fond fr. 5502, f. 50.
[77] Paris, Arch. Nat., X¹ᵃ 1523 (Rég. du Conseil, f. 33).
[78] Boutiot, “Hist. de Troyes,” p. 285.
[79] Marguerite, the widowed Duchesse d’Alençon, was married to the King of Navarre in January, 1527.
[80] Blois.
[81] Louise of Savoy, the king’s mother.
[82] Génin, Lettres de Marguerite de Valois, vol. i., Lettre 56, p. 224. Marguerite “à mon nepveu, M. le Grant-Maistre, de Gabarre, le 17 Octobre, 1527.”
[83] It was not the first, nor perhaps the second visit, which Anne de Montmorency had paid to our shores. In 1519 he had been one of eight hostages, four nobles and four commoners, sent to England in connection with the cession of Tournay to France. He bore at that time the title of La Rochepot, which has caused Du Bellay to confound him with his younger brother, subsequently known by that name (see Decrue de Stoutz, “Anne de Montmorency,” part i., p. 13, note 1). One of his fellow-hostages in 1519 was Charles de Solier, Comte de Morette, later more than once French ambassador in England, and the subject of the magnificent portrait by Holbein now in the Dresden Gallery. Another was Antoine des Prez, Seigneur de Montpesat, who also returned subsequently as ambassador (see “Mémoires Du Bellay,” ed. Petitot, vol. i., p. 282). Hall is wrong in saying that there were only four hostages altogether, but identifies Montmorency correctly (see Ellis’s “Original Letters,” 3rd series, vol. i., letter lxxviii., where the passage from Hall’s Chronicle is quoted).
[84] Lefèvre had previously been the instructor of Renée of France, whose sympathies with the Reformers were well known. (Fontana, “Renata di Francia,” vol. i., p. 275, where the further authority is cited: Franz Blümmer, “Renata von Ferrara,” p. 24.) Jacques Lefèvre was born at Etaples about 1455, and died at Nérac in 1537.
[85] Guillaume Budé was born at Paris in 1467. He was secretary to Charles VIII.; was sent by Louis XII. on various missions to the Holy See; was appointed Master of the King’s Library under Francis I., and persuaded that sovereign to found the Collège Royal. His learning and his proficiency in Greek brought him high reputation; he was also the author of many works and translations on a variety of subjects. Budé died in 1540.
[86] Desiderius Erasmus was born at Rotterdam in 1467. Famous alike for profound learning and biting wit, no one, perhaps, exercised greater influence than he in preparing the way for the Reformation. Like many of the humanists of his time, especially those of France, he was not, however, prepared to go to the extreme length of secession from Rome, and was therefore blamed by the Lutherans, rather unjustly perhaps, for weakness and half-heartedness. His relations with England, especially with Warham and More, and his portraits by Holbein, are too well known to need more than a passing mention here. It was owing to his introduction that Holbein first came to England, and was received into the house of Sir Thomas More. Erasmus died at Basle in 1536.
[87] Roussel, another divine of Lutheran leanings, became confessor to the Queen of Navarre, and subsequently Bishop of Oloron.
[88] Erasmus to Lefèvre, 24 March, 1527. Quoted by Ch. Schmidt, “Gérard Roussel.”
[89] Ch. Schmidt, ibid., p. 74.
[90] Erasmus to Germain Brie, 21 September, 1528, quoted by Schmidt, “Gérard Roussel.”
[91] This princess had been brought up by Madame de Châtillon, a lady of high accomplishments, later secretly re-married, it was said, to the Bishop Jean du Bellay.
[92] Daughter of Louis XII. and Anne de Bretagne.
[93] Boutiot, “Hist. de la ville de Troyes,” p. 432. (Paris, 1874.)
[94] Guillaume Du Bellay, Seigneur de Langey, was born at Glatigny, near Montmirail, in 1491, and died 1543. He was Viceroy of Piedmont from 1537, and displayed high capacity in whatever work he undertook. He was part-author of the well-known memoirs, completed by his brother Martin Du Bellay.—Jean Du Bellay, Cardinal, was born 1492, and died at Rome in 1560. As statesman, churchman, ambassador, and author, his career was one of the most distinguished of the reign of Francis I.
[95] Coxe, “Life of Melanchthon,” p. 371.
[96] Ibid.
[97] That is, two hands clasped in each other.
[98] A third souvenir of the Dinteville, and record of their artistic tastes, in the Church of Thennelières, is the beautiful but ruined white marble figure of Louise de Coligny, wife of Gaucher the younger, who inherited Thennelières from his father. It is apparently of Italian workmanship, and was formerly recumbent. It now leans disconsolate in an upright position against the wall of the church, despoiled of its black marble base. See, for an account of the Church of Thennelières, and illustrations of its curiosities, M. Charles Fichot, in the “Statistique Monumentale de l’Aube.”
[99] Louis de Dinteville, Knight of Rhodes.
[100] Guillaume, fourth son of Gaucher, was brought up in the household of Henry, Count of Nassau, who was attached to the Court of Charles V. The Count of Nassau was related to the Dinteville family, and at his death left to Guillaume a house in Paris. On this side the family had both Spanish and German connections.
[101] François (II.), Bishop of Auxerre; Jean, Bailly of Troyes; and Gaucher the younger, who was employed in the public service to carry despatches, etc. All the brothers further held Court appointments.
[102] The following is a literal prose translation of the epitaph: