Montgomery

Montgomery, GABRIEL, COMTE DE, a French knight of Scottish extraction, and an officer in the Scottish Guard of the king of France, was born about 1530. At a tournament given, 30th June 1559, by Henry II. in honour of his daughter's marriage with Philip of Spain, the king insisted upon young Montgomery entering the lists with him. Montgomery reluctantly complied, and, the shaft of his broken lance entering the king's visor at the eye, Henry was borne insensible from the ground, and so continued for eleven days, when he died. Montgomery, though blameless, felt it impossible to remain about the court, and retired to the family estate in Normandy, afterwards travelling in Italy and England. On the commencement of the religious wars in 1562 he returned to support the Protestant cause, and defended Rouen with great bravery. In the third religious war he was one of the leaders of the Protestants, and gained many advantages over the royalists in Languedoc and Béarn. During the massacre of St Bartholomew he happened to be in Paris, but escaped by the swiftness of his horse, and took refuge, first in Jersey, then in England. In April 1573 he appeared off Rochelle with a small fleet, but failed in accomplishing anything, and was obliged to retire. Next year, at the head of a band of Huguenots, he landed in Normandy, and commenced war there; but being compelled at last to surrender the castle of Domfront, where he had entrenched himself, he was carried to Paris; and although the general to whom he surrendered had assured him of his life, he was beheaded, 27th May 1574.