Nicolas de Montmorency (ca. 1556–1617), count of
Estaires, was an office holder and spiritual author in the
Spanish Netherlands.
Life
Nicolas de Montmorency was born in by 1556, the third son of François de Montmorency, lord of Wastines, and Hélène Villain. In his youth he served in the household of
Philip II of Spain. In 1583 he was appointed as Chief of Finances (president of the Council of Finance) for the
Spanish Netherlands and a councillor of state. On 8 August 1611 he was made count of Estaires.
In 1604 he founded a
Bridgettine convent in
Lille that was early struck by a notorious case of demonic possession.[1] The
Neo-Latin poet
Maximiliaan de Vriendt addressed two epigrams to him, one of which attests to his reputation for piety. He married Anne de Croy (died 12 April 1618), lady of Bermeraing, but remained childless.[2]
He died in Ghent on 16 May 1617. His entrails were buried in the city, his heart in the family vault in
Estaires, and the rest of his remains in the Bridgettine convent he had founded.[3]
Fontaine d'amour divisée en sept parties, composée & recueillie à l'honneur de Dieu, pour l'entretien des âmes devotes (Brussels, Rutger Velpius and Hubert Anthoon, 1613)
^Jean Le Normant, Histoire veritable et memorable de ce qui c'est passé sous l'exorcisme de trois filles possedées és pais de Flandre, en la descouverte & confession de Marie de Sains, soy disant princesse de la magie; & Simone Dourlet complice, & autres, vol. 1 (Paris, 1623).