François de Scépeaux

François de Scépeaux de Vieilleville, lord of Vieilleville, 1st comte of Durtal, was a French governor, diplomat, ambassador, conseillé du roi and marshal. During his career, he would serve four French kings. He fought throughout the later years of the Italian Wars, acquiring for himself the key frontier governorship of Metz in 1553. Under King Charles IX he would be elevated to marshal and would serve the crown in the early religious wars, increasingly in the role of peacemaker and diplomat, though with scattered military service as with the recapture of Le Havre in 1563. He died in 1571, shortly before France would be shaken by the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre.