Guy XV de Laval

Guy XV de Laval, born François de Laval-Montfort, (1435–1501) was a French noble, military officer, and Grand Master of the Kingdom of France in 1483.

Family Guy was the son of Count Guy XIV of Laval and Isabella of Brittany. Through his mother, he was the great-grandson of both Joan of Navarre and King Charles VI of France.

Biography

Childhood and Betrothal Guy was baptized under the name of François by the Bishop of Rennes, Guillaume Brillet.

When he was six years old, he was betrothed to the heiress, Françoise de Dinan. She was at the same time sought after by Arthur de Montauban and by Gilles of Brittany, brother of Duke Francis I of Brittany.

Another of her suitors, Arthur de Montauban was disheartened, and hatched a plot against Gilles, who was imprisoned by his brother the Duke, and killed in 1450.

Military career In 1453, Guy accompanied the King on the Guyenne expedition and attended the second siege of Bordeaux.

Guy, with his brother Pierre de Laval, attended the Estates General in 1466, as Count of Gâvres. They were made Princes equal in rank to the Princes of Blood in 1467. Guy was also invested as Count of Montfort-sur-Risle at sometime between 1466 and 1468.

Charles VIII gave, in 1488, to Count Guy, the government of the city of Dreux and conferred on him the vacant office of Grand Master of France. These were rewards for his loyalty in the Mad War against Brittany.

Devotion and Piety Guy XV of Laval demonstrated his Piety in these ways:

He constructed the Church of Saint Vénérand in Laval He sold land to the Jacobin Convent of Laval

Guy possessed a singular devotion to Saint Francis and made in 1494, a nunnery, for the Franciscan nuns that followed the rule of Urban IV.

Succession and Death Guy XV de Laval did not fulfill the functions of his office or attend the coronation of Louis XII on 27 May 1498, due to his infirmities.

In the same year, Guy inherited the barony of Acquigny from his sister Jeanne de Laval, widow of Rene of Anjou, who had just died.

In 1499, Guy suffered a paralytic attack that left him physically and mentally crippled.

Guy's only son had died young and the succession fell to his nephew, Nicholas de Laval, Lord of La Roche-Bernard.

Guy died at the Château de Laval on 28 January 1501.

Titles Guy XV de Laval had several titles. Here is a list of them:

Count of Laval, Baron of Vitré, Viscount of Rennes, Count of Caserta, Baron of Laz, Baron of Acquigny, and of Crèvecœr, of Lohéac, Count of Montfort in Brittany, Baron of Gaël, Lord of Tinténiac, of Bécherel and of Romillé, of Bréal, Montreuil-Bellay, Saosnois, La Guerche, Gournay and of Noyelles-sur-Mer.