JEAN DE

See also:

• JEAN DE POLTROT (c. 1537–1563)

POLTROT (c. 1537–1563)  , sieur de Mere or Mercy, a nobleman of Angoumois, who murdered Francis, duke of Guise . He had lived some time in Spain, and his knowledge of Spanish, together with his swarthy complexion, which earned him the nickname of the " Espagnolet," procured him employment as a spy in the wars against Spain . Becoming a fanatical Huguenot, he determined to kill the duke of Guise, and gained admission as a deserter to the camp of the Catholics who were besieging Orleans . In the evening of the 18th of February 1563 he hid by the side of a road along which he knew the duke would pass, fired a pistol at him, and fled . But he was captured the next day, and was tried, tortured several times, and sentenced to be drawn and quartered . On the 18th of March 1563 he underwent a frightful punishment . The horses not being able to drag off his limbs, he was hacked to pieces with cutlasses . He had made several contradictory declarations regarding the complicity of Coligny . The admiral protested emphatically against the accusation, which appears to have had no foundation . See Memoires du prince de Conde (London, 1743) ; T . A . D'Aubigne, Histoire universelle (ed. by de Ruble, Soc. de l'histoire de France, 1886) ; A. de Ruble, L'Assassinat du duc Francois de Lorraine (Paris, 1897) .