Duke of Mercoeur, Died

Duke of Mercoeur - who planned a return to Breton independence. died February 19, 1602, in Nuernberg

Philippe Emmanuel de Lorraine, Duke of Mercoeur (born September 9 1558, Nomeny, Meurthe-et-Moselle) the eldest surviving son of Nicholas, Duke of Mercoeur and Jeanne de Savoie-Nemours, was a French soldier and prominent member of the Catholic League.

He was made a knight of the Order of Saint Esprit in 1578, and married Marie de Luxembourg (1562-1623), Duchesse de Penthievre, on 12 July 1579 in Paris.

In 1582 he was made governor of Brittany by Henry III of France, who had married his half-sister. Mercoeur put himself at the head of the League in Brittany, and had himself proclaimed protector of the Roman Catholic Church in the province in 1588. Invoking the hereditary rights of his wife, who was a descendant of the dukes of Brittany, he endeavored to make himself independent in that province, and organized a government at Nantes, calling his son prince and duke of Brittany.

With the aid of the Spaniards he defeated the duc de Montpensier, whom Henry IV of France had sent against him, at Craon in 1592, but the royal troops, reinforced by English contingents, soon recovered the advantage. The king marched against Mercoeur in person, and received his submission at Angers on 20 March 1598. Mercoeur subsequently went to Hungary, where he entered the service of the emperor Rudolph II, and fought against the Turks, taking Szekesfehervar in 1601.