SEIGNEURS AND

DUKES OF

See also:

• RETZ, JEAN FRANCOIS PAUL DE GONDI, CARDINAL DE (1614-1679)
• SEIGNEURS AND DUKES OF RETZ

RETZ  . The district of Retz or Rais, in S . Brittany, belonged in early times to a house which bore its name, and of which the eldest branch became extinct in the 13th century in the Chabot family . From the Chabot family the lordship passed to the Lavals . Gilles de Laval, sire de Retz (1404-1440), the comrade-in-arms of Joan of Arc and marshal of France, gave himself over to the most revolting debauchery, and was strangled and burned at Nantes . The barony of Retz passed successively to the families of Tournemine, Annebaut and Gondi . In 1581 it was erected into a duchy in the peerage of France (duchy-pairie) for Albert de Gondi, marshal of France and general of the galleys . Pierre de Gondi, brother of the first duc de Retz, became bishop of Paris in 1570 and cardinal in 1587 . He was succeeded by his nephews, Henri (d . 1622) and Jean Francois de Gondi (d . 1654), for whom the episcopal see of Paris was erected into an arch-bishopric in 1622, and by his great-nephew, Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, the famous cardinal de Retz . With the death of the last male of the house of Gondi in 1676 the duchy-pairie became extinct; the lordship passed to the house of Neuville-Villeroy .

(M .