Coligni, Or Coligny, Gaspard De, leader of the French Huguenots, and principal victim of the St. Bartholomew massacre, born at Chatillon-sur-Loing, Feb. 16, 1517, murdered in Paris, Aug. 24, 1572. He was introduced in 1539 to Francis I. by his uncle, the great constable Anne de Montmorency, and was knighted for his services in the battle of Ceresole, and appointed to the command of an infantry regiment. He soon acquired the reputation of being one of the best officers in the army. His stern sense of duty and indomitable bravery contrasted in a striking manner with the gay and frivolous disposition of the young nobles of his time. On the accession of Henry II. he was promoted to the rank of colonel general of the French infantry. Owing to his skilful efforts the strictest discipline soon prevailed among soldiers who had heretofore been notorious for insubordination. The rules he established became the basis of the French military code, and he may be regarded as one of the founders of the French system of infantry. Soon afterward he received the commission of admiral, which office, being more of a military than naval character, placed him in power next to the constable.

His colonel-generalcy he resigned to his brother Dandelot. He accompanied Henry II. in his conquest of the " three bishoprics," Metz, Toul, and Verdun, and subsequently contributed to the victory won at Ren-ty by the French over the army of Charles Y. Appointed governor of Picardy, he displayed remarkable intrepidity in conducting the defence of St. Quentin against the Spanish troops. Although all hopes of holding the town were gone, Coligni refused to surrender, and was taken prisoner (1557) while fighting desperately at the head of a few soldiers, and sent to the castle of Sluis, where he was confined for several months, but finally recovered his liberty on paying a ransom of 50,000 crowns. With the genius of a warrior he combined the fervor of a religious reformer. He was a devoted Calvinist, having for years meditated upon the opinions promulgated by the great French reformer; and although not yet openly avowing the new creed, he had proved an active supporter of the French Protestants. He now proposed to secure for them a place of refuge, and sent several expeditions to America, one of which, intrusted in 1562 to Jean Ribault of Dieppe, erected Fort Charles on the coast of Carolina, but soon abandoned it and returned to France; another in 1564, placed under the command of Laudonniere, settled near the mouth of St. John's river, Florida, but they were expelled and nearly exterminated by the Spaniards, who claimed the ownership of the country.

After the death of Henry II. (1559), Coligni came boldly forward as the leader of the Huguenots, and his attempts to secure religious liberty for his followers having been defeated by the intrigues of the duke of Guise and of Catharine de' Medici, he reluctantly took up arms in 1562.

At the battle of Dreux, fought in that year, the prince of Conde was taken prisoner; and after this prince's death at the battle of Jarnac (1569), Coligni gathered the remains of the Protestant army, and was soon able to confront again the Catholics at Moncontour. In this last encounter he was defeated; but although severely wounded, and unable to ride on horseback, he led the retreat from his litter, preserving such good order and presenting such an unbroken front to the enemy that the Catholics themselves became favorable to a termination of the war, and peace was actually made a few months afterward. It has been very justly said of Coligni that he was never more to be dreaded than after a defeat, and he has been called the "general of retreats." After the treaty of St. Germain in August, 1570, Coligni reappeared at the court, where he submitted to Charles IX. plans for the improvement of his government and the direction'of his foreign policy. Charles seemed to receive his advice with great deference, but he was surrounded by courtiers who would not tolerate the influence of a Huguenot, and the great admiral was destined to be the first victim of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. Two days previous to the consummation of this tragedy, Coligni had been shot at from a house belonging to the Guise family by a man named De Maurevel, a creature of the queen.

Charles IX. called on the wounded warrior, seemed to sympathize with his misfortune, and swore that the murderer should not escape punishment; but his mother persuaded him that the Huguenots were ' about to attempt a massacre of the Catholics, and that they must be anticipated. The admiral was abandoned to the-same fate which overcame all the other Huguenots. A band of murderers, led by Behme, a German in the service of the duke of Guise, invaded the admiral's house. On entering his room, they were at first subdued by the prestige of his presence; but Behme, soon recovering his presence of mind, stabbed him in the stomach with a boar spear and threw the body into the court, where the duke himself was in waiting. This young prince had always, but unjustly, accused Coligni of having been an accomplice in his father's murder, and could only be satisfied by his death. The head of the unfortunate hero was brought to Catharine, who had it embalmed and sent to Rome. His lacerated remains were dragged through the streets, and at last placed on the gallows at Montfaucon, where it is said Charles IX. went to look at them, accompanied by his courtiers.

Some faithful servants of Coligni carried them away during the night, at the peril of their lives, and his cousin Montmorency had them secretly buried in Chantilly. In 1786 Montesquieu transferred them to his estate of Maupertuis, where he dedicated a chapel and a monument in honor of the admiral. After the revolution, the latter was removed to the musee des monuments frangais. Coligni left memoirs of his own time, but they were destroyed. The only work of his which has been preserved is his Relation du siege de St. Quentin. An essay entitled Souvenirs historiques sur l'amiral Coligni, sa famille et sa seigneurie de Chatil-lon-sur-Loing, was prepared in 1858 by M. Becquerel, a member of the French academy, and read before that body.