[scrsco] LESCARBOT’S BARON DE LERY 249 
Gabriel d’ Alegre, baron d’Alegre and sieur de St. Just, is probably 
the person indicated in Lescarbot’s work. The phonetic resemblance 
of the titles, while far from conclusive in itself, is yet close enough to 
count for something. More important as a piece of evidence is the 
coincident appearance of the term “baron” in the titles of the two 
persons. This form of territorial title did not commonly appear as a 
titular designation among the important French nobles of the 16th 
century. Among the native Norman nobility it seems especially 
infrequent. Gabriel d’Alegre was one of the few leading nobles of his 
time for whom a baronial title was the chief designation. Therefore, 
when Lescarbot refers to his colonizer as “le sieur baron” he affords a 
clue of much significance, and one that strongly reinforces the probabil- 
ity that De Lery and D’Alegre were the same person. 
Gabriel d’Alegre came of a family which in the 14th century 
acquired the lands of Alegre and St. Just in Auvergne. Their 
castle was near the village of Alegre in the modern department 
of Haute Loire and from this locality they took the baronial title. 
The baron Yves d’Alegre attained position at the court of Naples 
and at the French conquest passed into the French service. Thus 
it happened that Gabriel, younger son of Baron Yves, had oppor- 
tunity to become a royal chamberlain of Louis XII. In 1509 he held 
the office of master of requests. Baron Yves and his eldest son met. 
their deaths in 1512 at the battle of Ravenna, the succession to the 
family honors thereby falling unexpectedly upon Gabriel! A year 
later the new baron wedded the daughter of Jacques d’Estouteville, 
provost of Paris, about the same time succeeding to that office at the 
retirement of his father-in-law. The official decrees of the new provost 
refer to him as “Gabriel, baron et seigneur d’Aleigre.””? It would 
seem that the death of the retired provost occurred in 1518, for in that 
year D’Alegre did homage for the two fiefs of Oissery and Blainville, 
which had belonged to the family D’Estouteville and apparently now 
fell to D’Alegre in right of his wife, heiress of their previous holder. 
On the modern map Oissery lies a little southeast of Senlis, and Blain- 
ville is about eleven miles from Rouen. By this inheritance D’ Alegre’- 
interests became connected with Normandy, but he retained the provosts 
ship of Paris until 1526. Meanwhile he seems to have been a govern- 
ment agent in Italy about 1524, in connection with the campaign of 
Bonnivet.* 
It was probably in 1526 that D’Alegre became a Norman by 
residence. By royal commission of April 17, 1526, he acquired the 
! La Chenaye-Desbois, Dict. de la Noblesse, I, p. 153; VI, p. 188. 
? Lespinasse, Metiers et Corporations de Paris, I, p. 385; II, p. 62; III, p. 347. 
3 Actes de François Ier, III, p. 83. 
