The Chateau de Brissac 
Brissac’s French soldiers turned up in those 
blood and travel-stained rags and tatters 
which they had worn on many an expedition. 
Bezion de Villars says that the Spanish 
general professed to be heartily ashamed 
of the contrast between the men of the two 
detachments and that he gave vent to his 
feelings to Brissac: “You have taught me 
a most valuable lesson. Whilst my men are 
clad like damsels, yours appear like soldiers 
whose finest clothing are the stains and 
grime which they have received on the field 
of honor.” 
Fighting in Flanders, Brissac displayed 
the greatest courage, when wounded and 
almost unarmed he held the enemy at bay 
with his broken sword until his own forces 
had time to come up and rescue him. This 
act of valour impressed King Francis I. so 
much that he publicly invited him to drink 
out of his cup. 
His patriotism was even more conspicuous 
still during the campaign of the French army 
in Savoy. His troops had been victorious 
in Piedmont but were disbanded without 
pay. In their indignation they asked their 
leader, with threats, where they could obtain 
bread. “From me as long as it lasts,” was 
his reply. The local merchants gave the 
army what it required on his word of honor 
that they would be paid. On his return to 
France he found that the Guises, who then 
ruled the country, were little disposed to meet 
his engagements so he turned round to his 
wife: “Here are men who have risked their 
all on my word. The Minister will not pay 
them and they are ruined. Let us put off the 
marriage we were contemplating for Madem¬ 
oiselle de Brissac and let us give these wretches 
what we had destined for her dowry.” With 
the funds thus secured and with borrowed 
money, he was able to pay the merchants 
half that was due to them and gave them 
full and ample security for the remainder. 
His beauty was said to have enamoured the 
lovely Diane de Poitiers and to have excited 
the jealousy of King Henry II., who kept 
him out of harm’s way by employing him as 
much as possible in Italy. 
His brother, Artus de Cosse, was also re¬ 
nowned for his courage, and likewise raised 
to the rank of a Field Marshal. When he 
was appointed Minister of France his wife, 
who belonged to the old family of Pui- 
Grissier, but who always put her foot in it, 
came to make her obeisance to the Queen: 
“Faith, ma’am,” said she, “Without this 
appointment we were ruined for we owed a 
hundred thousand crowns. Thank God, we 
have paid this debt within the year and have 
earned another hundred thousand crowns 
with which we hope to buy some fine prop¬ 
erty.” This stupid remark amused the 
Queen and the Court immensely, but was 
profoundly distasteful to her husband who 
sent her home on the spot. 
The great architect of the family fortunes 
was, however, Charles de Cosse’s son, Charles 
II., first Count and then Due de Brissac. He 
was one of the Leaders of the League and 
had earned such a reputation for valour and 
generalship, that when he was taken prisoner 
at Falaise, Henry, King of Navarre, after¬ 
wards Henry IV. of France, wrote to the 
Comtesse de Gramont: “I have won Ivry, 
Argenton and Falaise, but I have done far 
more for I have taken Brissac prisoner.” He 
was appointed Field Marshal in 1593 and 
Governor of Paris for the League in 1594. 
The conversion of Henry to Roman Catholi¬ 
cism enabled the new governor to surrender 
the capital with a clear conscience to the King 
of France and of Navarre, who made his 
solemn entry on March 22d, 1594. 
In the meanwhile Brissac itself had been 
a bone of contention between the various 
factions and had suffered considerable dam¬ 
age from both Huguenots and Catholics 
alike, as they in their turn captured the strong¬ 
hold from one another until finally Judith 
d’Acigne, Countess de Brissac, was author¬ 
ized to take up her residence there, on condi¬ 
tion that the fortifications were razed to the 
ground. 
One of the first objects of her husband was, 
therefore, once peace had been restored to 
France, to repair the ravages made by time 
and by civil war. In 1607 he laid the founda¬ 
tions of the northwest pavilion which consists 
of seven storeys and rises to a height of 143 
feet from the ground. In 1615, Jacques 
Dangluse was appointed architect in chief 
and was assisted in his work by Michael 
Hutin and Charles Corbineau, who together 
with him superintended the works until 
1620. Edme Pothier who had come to live at 
167 
