Godefroi, Comte d'Estrades (1607 – February 26, 1686) was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 diplomatist and marshal

Marshal of France

The Marshal of France is a military distinction in contemporary France, not a military rank. It is granted to generals for exceptional achievements...

.

He was born in Agen

Agen

Agen is a commune in the Lot-et-Garonne department in Aquitaine in south-western France. It lies on the river Garonne southeast of Bordeaux. It is the capital of the department.-Economy:The town has a higher level of unemployment than the national average...

, the son of Francois d'Estrades (d. 1653), a partisan of Henry IV

Henry IV of France

Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....

, and brother of Jean d'Estrades, bishop of Condom

Bishop of Condom

The city of Condom, France was a bishopric from 1317 to 1792.-List of bishops of Condom:*1317–1340 : Raymond de Galard*1340–1369 : Pierre de Galard*1369–1401 : Bernard Alaman*1401–1405 : Hugues Raimbaud*1405–1408 : name not known*1408–1418 : Aymeric Noël...

. He became a page to Louis XIII

Louis XIII of France

Louis XIII was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1610 to 1643.Louis was only eight years old when he succeeded his father. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during Louis' minority...

, and at the age of nineteen was sent on a mission to Maurice of Holland

Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange

Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange was sovereign Prince of Orange from 1618, on the death of his eldest half brother, Philip William, Prince of Orange,...

.

In 1646 he was named ambassador extraordinary to Holland, and took part in the conferences at Münster

Münster

Münster is an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also capital of the local government region Münsterland...

. Sent in 1661 to England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, he obtained in 1662 the restitution of Dunkirk. In 1667 he negotiated the treaty of Breda with the king of Denmark

Frederick III of Denmark

Frederick III was king of Denmark and Norway from 1648 until his death. He instituted absolute monarchy in Denmark and Norway in 1660, confirmed by law in 1665 as the first in western historiography. He was born the second-eldest son of Christian IV of Denmark and Anne Catherine of Brandenburg...

, and in 1678 the treaty of Nijmwegen, which ended the war with Holland. Independently of these diplomatic missions, he took part in the principal campaigns of Louis XIV

Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

, in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 (1648), in Catalonia

Catalonia

Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...

 (1655), in Holland (1672); and was created marshal of France

Marshal of France

The Marshal of France is a military distinction in contemporary France, not a military rank. It is granted to generals for exceptional achievements...

 in 1675. He left Lettres, memoires et négociations en qual d'ambassadeur en Hollande depuis 1663 jusqu'en 1668, of which the first edition in 1709 was followed by a nine-volume edition (London (the Hague), 1743).

Of the sons of Godefroi d'Estrades, Jean Francois d'Estrades was ambassador to Venice and Piedmont; Louis, marquis d'Estrades (d. 1711), succeeded his father as governor of Dunkirk, and was the father of Godefroi Louis, comte d'Estrades, lieutenant-general, who was killed at the siege of Belgrade, 1717.

See Felix Salomon, Frankreichs Beziehungen zu dem Schottischen Aufstand (1637-1640), containing an excursus on the falsification of the letters of the comte d'Estrades; Philippe Lauzun, Le Marichal d'Estrades (Agen, 1896).

External links

• Godefroi, comte d'Estrades at the Classic Encyclopedia, based on the 1911 Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica
  Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition
  The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition is a 29-volume reference work, an edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. It was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time...