Complainte du Maréchal de Biron sur son Emprisonnement fait à Fontainebleau
- Ballad Title
- Complainte du Maréchal de Biron sur son Emprisonnement fait à Fontainebleau
- Indicated Tune
- Verdun
- Background Information
- Maréchal de Biron in prison relates his arrest and final days before his execution
- Event Date
- 1699
- Event Location
- Bastille, Paris, France
- Printing Location
- Troyes, France
- First Line
-
Je vous prie écoutez,
Messieurs une Chanson, - Crime
- Treason
- Gender of Accused
- Male
- Method of Punishment
- Beheading
- Relevant Countries
- France
- Category
- Crime and Punishment Ballads
- Language
-
French Ballads
- Notes
-
Charles de Gontaut, duc de Biron (1562 – 31 July 1602) was a French soldier whose military achievements were accompanied by plotting to dismember France and set himself up as ruler of an independent Burgundy.
He was born in Saint-Blancard. He was the son of Armand de Gontaut, baron de Biron, under whose command he fought for the royal party against the Catholic League in the later stages of the Wars of Religion in France. His efforts won him the name “Thunderbolt of France” (Latin: Fulmen Galliae). Henry IV made him admiral of France in 1592, and marshal in 1594. As governor of Burgundy in 1595, he took the towns of Beaune, Autun, Auxonne and Dijon, and distinguished himself at the battle of Fontaine-Française. In 1596 he was sent to fight the Spaniards in Flanders, Picardy, Artois and finally at the Siege of Amiens where he funded much of the King's army.
After the peace of Vervins, he discharged a mission at Brussels in 1598. From that time, he was engaged in intrigues with Spain and Savoy aiming at the overthrow of the Bourbon dynasty, the dismemberment of the kingdom of France into provincial states, and his own elevation as sovereign of Burgundy. Notwithstanding these intrigues, he directed the expedition sent against the duke of Savoy (1599–1600). He fulfilled diplomatic missions for Henry in Switzerland (1600) and England (1601), the latter mission being to announce the marriage of Henry to Maria de' Medici.
While engaged in these duties, he was accused and convicted in his absence of high treason by the French Parlement. He was induced to come to Paris, where he was apprehended and then beheaded in the Bastille on 31 July 1602. - Another well known song with multiple variants exists about Biron:
- TRÉSORS DE LA CHANSON POPULAIRE FRANÇAISE. AUTOUR DE 50 CHANSONS RECUEILLIES EN ACADIE, by Geneviève Massignon, Georges Delarue, 1994
Part of Complainte du Maréchal de Biron sur son Emprisonnement fait à Fontainebleau