The chief among these foreigners were Gondi, Birague, and Strozzi. Albert de Gondi--better known in history as Marshal de Retz--was a man of low origin, his mother acting as wet-nurse to Catherine’s children, so that Albert and Charles IX. were foster-brothers, and thus there naturally grew up a strong attachment between them. After the death of Henry II. Albert rose rapidly, and was made successively knight of the orders of St. Michael and of the Holy Ghost, first gentleman of the bed-chamber, privy councilor, general of the galleys, duke, peer, marshal, and governor of Provence, in which he succeeded Marshal Tende, “to the great indignation of the nobility,” says De Thou.[461] It was this man who, appointed governor to the young king Charles, corrupted and perverted all his promising qualities. His latter days were very miserable: for twenty years he lingered on, not living but suffering, and died in 1602, an example of divine justice.[462] Abstulit hunc tandem Rufini pœna tumultum, Absolvitque Deos. Pierre de Gondi was chancellor to the queen, bishop, Duke of Langres, and then of Paris, the possessor of four abbeys, commander of the order of the Holy Ghost, and cardinal. There was another brother, Charles, also well provided for. René de Birague, who had succeeded the virtuous L’Hopital in the chancellorship, was a Milanese, and in succession lawyer, soldier, courtier, priest, chancellor, and cardinal. He was a thorough Italian, careless of religion, unscrupulous, fond of intrigue, time-serving, and slavishly submissive to the king’s caprices. Mezeray describes him as “a magistrate without learning or application, who bent like a reed before every breath of wind from the court.” It was he who advised Charles IX. to get rid of the Huguenots, not by the help of soldiers but of cooks--in other words, by poison. Philip Strozzi, son of the brave but unfortunate Marshal Pietro Strozzi, became, at the early age of twenty-two, quarter-master of the French guards, and colonel-general of the French infantry, which gave him almost unlimited authority. The French soldiers murmured at being placed under his orders.[463]