Jacques de Savoie, duc de Nemours (12 October 153115 June 1585) was a French military commander, governor and Prince Étranger. Having inherited his titles at a young age, Nemours fought for king Henri II during the latter Italian Wars, seeing action at the siege of Metz and the stunning victories of Renty and Calais in 1554 and 1558. Already a commander of French infantry, he received promotion to commander of the light cavalry after the capture of Calais in 1558. A year prior he had accompanied François, Duke of Guise on his entry into Italy, as much for the purpose of campaigning as to escape the king's cousin Antoine of Navarre who was threatening to kill him for his extra-marital pursuit of Navarre's cousin. In 1559 Henri II died during a joust, and was succeeded by his young son François II. The new administration, led by the Guise due to François' young age was plagued with religious and financial difficulties, that emboldened a conspiracy to form against it. Nemours played a key role in crushing the Conspiracy of Amboise, capturing several of the leaders, and infamously promising the baron de Castelnau that if he surrendered no harm would come to him, the baron shortly thereafter being executed despite the pleas of many nobles. The following year he involved himself in a conspiracy to spirit away the 10-year-old Anjou from court, so that he could be 'raised in Catholic environs'. The plot was uncovered, and facing arrest, Nemours fled from court. The case against him collapsed, however, as the only evidence was the word of the young prince. Around this time a case was also looming against him for his relationship indiscretions. Françoise de Rohan being distraught that he had given her a child without fulfilling his promise to marry her, the case would gestate for the next four years until the archbishop of Lyon ruled in his favour in 1565, allowing him to marry the widowed Anne d'Este the following year. Nemours fought during the first war of religion, fighting the baron des Adrets around Lyon and the Dauphiné. With the death of the Marshal Saint-André on the field of Dreux in December, he became the governor of the Lyonnais, an office he would hold for the next nine years before resigning it in favour of his lieutenant-general François de Mandelot. Nemours remained close with the Guise, supporting them in