v39_0683 - ARDENNES - PRINCIPALITY OF SEDAN - GUILLAUME-ROBERT DE LA MARCK Double tournois, type 2

ARDENNES - PRINCIPALITY OF SEDAN - GUILLAUME-ROBERT DE LA MARCK

(1574-1588)

Guillaume-Robert de La Marck was born in 1563. His father, Henri-Robert de La Marck, died on December 2, 1574 when he was only eleven years old. Guillaume-Robert will not be declared of age until 1584, the regency being ensured by his mother Françoise de Bourbon. From his majority he had to face the troops of the League who devastated the Ardennes. He gradually lost all his strongholds and fell back to Sedan. In June 1587 he left Sedan to take the lead of an army of mercenaries which disintegrated while retreating to the North after an incursion towards the Loire. His younger brother, Jean de La Marck died of exhaustion and Guillaume-Robert, died in Geneva at the beginning of the year 1588 without ever having seen Sedan again. Charlotte, sister of Guillaume-Robert, inherited the principality when she was only thirteen years old. On November 19, 1591, her marriage to Henri de la Tour marked the seizure of the La Tour d'Auvergne in Sedan..