Philippe de Chabot

Philippe de Chabot, Seigneur De Brion, Count of Charny and Buzançois (c. 1492 – June 1, 1543), also known as Admiral De Brion, was an admiral of France.

The Chabot family was one of the oldest and most powerful in Poitou. Philippe was a cadet of the Jarnac branch. He was a companion of Francis I as a child, and on that king's accession was loaded with honors and estates. After the battle of Pavia he was made admiral of France and governor of Burgundy (1526), and shared with Anne de Montmorency the direction of affairs.

He was at the height of his power in 1535, and commanded the army for the invasion of the states of the duke of Savoy; but in the campaigns of 1536 and 1537 he was eclipsed by Montmorency, and from that moment his influence began to wane. He was accused by his enemies of peculation, and condemned on the 10th of February 1541 to a fine of 1,500,000 livres, to banishment, and to the confiscation of his estates. Through the good offices of Madame d'Étampes, however, he obtained the king's pardon almost immediately (March 1541), was reinstated in his posts, and regained his estates and even his influence, while Montmorency in his turn was disgraced. But his health was affected by these troubles, and he died soon afterwards on the 1st of June 1543.

His tomb in the Louvre, thought to be by Jean Cousin the Elder, is a fine example of French Renaissance work. It was his nephew, Guy Chabot, seigneur de Jarnac, who fought the famous duel with François de Vivonne, seigneur de la Châtaigneraie, in 1547, at the beginning of the reign of Henry II.

Chabot was instrumental in arranging the voyages of Giovanni da Verrazzano.

The main authorities for Chabot's life are his manuscript correspondence in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, and contemporary memoirs. See also E. de Barthlemy, "Chabot de Brion", in the "Revue des questions historiques" (vol. xx. 1876); Martineau, "L'Amiral Chabot", in the "Positions des l'hses de l'Ecole des Chartes" (1883).

References

*1911