BELLEGARDE  , the name of an important

French family . Roger de Saint-Lary, baron of Bellegarde, served with distinction in the wars against the French Protestants . He showed much devotion to Henry III., who loaded him with favours and made him marshal of France . He eventually fell into disgrace, 1 Retires, German soldiers of fortune: . however, and died by poisoning in 1579 . His nephew, Roger de Saint-Lary de Termes, a favourite with Henry III., Henry IV. and Louis XIII., was royal master of the horse and governor of Burgundy . His estate of Seurre in Burgundy was created a duchy in the peerage of France (duche-pairie) in his favour under the name of Bellegarde, in 1619 . In 1645 the title of this duchy was transferred to the estate of Choisy-aux-Loges in Gatinais, and was borne later by the family of Pardaillan de Gondrin, heirs of the house of Saint-Lary-Bellegarde . When Seurre passed into the possession of the princes of Conde they in the same way acquired the title of dukes of Bellegarde . (M .