Introduction

Summary

In December 1576 Queen Elizabeth's principal agent in the Netherlands, Thomas Wilson, proclaimed that the entire fate of Christendom rested in the hands of three men: Don John of Austria, William of Orange, and François de Valois, duke of Anjou. Although he died prematurely only two years later, Don John had already made a name for himself as a military commander at Lepanto. William of Orange led a small group of Dutch provinces in a successful revolt against the mightiest power in Western Europe and, in so doing, established himself as one of the principal heroes of the sixteenth century as well as the pater patrice of the Dutch Republic. What became of the duke of Anjou? All his political and military ambitions ended in tragic failure. He died in 1584 at only 29 years of age and has been largely forgotten ever since. Because all his grandiose dreams ended in frustration and his career was cut short by a premature death, Anjou has been assigned merely a walk-on role on the European stage. After four hundred years of historical writing about the French Wars of Religion, not one biography or major monograph – either serious or popular – has been devoted to the duke of Anjou. This is hardly a just reward for someone who was considered one of the three most important men in all Christendom.

Although Wilson's prognostication proved inaccurate, it is nevertheless an indication that Anjou was a far more consequential figure in the eyes of his contemporaries than his historical press would indicate.