Duplessis-Mornay, Philippe

Born Nov. 5, 1549, in Buis-les-Baronnies; died Nov. 11, 1623, in La Forêt-sur-Sévre. French political leader and publicist. A Huguenot, close to Admiral G. de Coligny.

From the mid-1570’s until 1593, Duplessis-Mornay was the closest assistant of Henry of Navarre (the future Henry IV). He was active in the religious wars, in which he fulfilled important diplomatic missions, such as requesting English assistance for the Huguenots. After Henry of Navarre converted to Catholicism in 1593, Duplessis-Mornay retired to Saumur, where he had been appointed governor in 1589, and founded the first Protestant academy in France. He was the author of political and theological tracts. Contemporaries named him the “Huguenot pope.” His memoirs are a valuable source for French history. Some scholars have suggested that he was the author of the famous pamphlet against tyrants Vindicae contra tyrannos (1579), using the pseudonym Brutus the Younger (others believe that the author was the French Huguenot H. Languet; still others say that both men collaborated on the pamphlet).