Gaspard's title was Comte de Coligny de Chatillon. His 1st wife was Charlotte de Laval, 
whom he married in 1547. The union resulted in 8 children before her death March 3, 
1568.

Gaspard de Coligny was born of a noble family in Chatillon Sur Loing, France in 1519, 
two years after Martin Luther began the Reformation in Germany. Gaspard was a nephew 
of Anne, duc de Montmorency, he came to the French court at an early age. He 
distinguished himself at Ceresole in 1544 in the Italian Wars & was promoted to Colonel 
General of the Infantry & in 1552 became Admiral of France as well as the Governor of 
Picardy.  In 1557 he defended St. Quintin against the Spaniards, but was taken prisoner  
along with is his brother Francois & not released until 1559. Through the influence of his 
brother, Francois d'Andelot, he became a Huguenot (French Protestant) during their 
incarceration converting to Calvinism, & in the same year he made a public profession of 
his conversion to Protestantism. Gaspard joined the Protestants in 1559, soon becoming 
their leader & spokesman, he argued for the Protestant cause with Regent Catherine de 
Medici at the time of the conspiracy of Ambroise in 1560. With Louis I de Conde he 
commanded the Huguenots after the murder of Protestants at Vassy (Vassy murders - 30 
killed, 200 wounded)  in 1562 & also in the second of the Wars of Religion (1567-1568), 
numerous attempts at bringing peace followed, but proved unsuccessful. An unsuccessful 
attemt to capture Coligny & Conde at Noyers in 1568 brought on the third war in which 
Coligny became the sole leader, nominally as adviser to the young Henry of Navarre 
(later King Henry IV of France). Admiral Coligny, the head of the Protestant cause in 
France, the Huguenot leader, won the respect of both sides by his unselfish devotion to 
what he believed were the true interests of his native land. In the midst of the political 
intrigue that marked the religious wars in France during that period, leaders of both 
warring parties - Catholics & Huguenots alike were using the bitter spirit of religious 
controversy for their personal advantage. Defeated at Moncontour, he was victor at 
Arnay-le-Duc in 1570 & in August 1570 negotiated the Treaty of St. Germain with 
Regent Catherine de Medici (she was forced to declare peace with the Treaty of St. 
Germain to stop the Huguenots from taking Paris) The Huguenot leader, Gaspard de 
Coligny succeeded in obtaining freedom of religious practice in all cities except Paris. 
Reconciled with Catherine & King Charles IX in 1571, he became the Kings favorite 
adviser. To weaken Catholic Spain he proposed that France aid the Low Countries, which 
were in rebellion against Spanish rule. Catherine, alarmed at the possibility of war with 
Spain, also feared that Coligny's increasing influence would weaken her own hold on the 
King. The peace of St. Germain had illustrated clearly just how much power was vested 
in the Huguenots. The Catholics feared this power & it was decided to eliminate the 
Huguenots, particularly their leaders.

The murder of French Protestants or Huguenots, began in Paris on Aug 24, 1752, it was 
better known as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. It was preceeded on Aug 22 by an 
attempt ordered by Catherine de Medici on the life of the Huguenot leader Admiral 
Coligny. The failure of the attempt led to formulation of the plan for a general massacre. 
The opportunity was furnished by the presence in Paris of many of the Huguenot nobility 
for the wedding of Henry of Navarre (later King Henry IV)& Catherine's daughter, 
Margaret of Valois. Involved in the scheme were the duc d'Anjou, later King Henry III 
(Henry 3rd duc de Guise) & the reluctant King Charles IX. Gaspard de Coligny was the 
first victim, it was while he was recovering from wounds suffered on the earlier failed 
attempt on his life that he was dragged from his bed where he lay recovering from 
injuries. He was stabbed half to death, then thrown from his winddow. Still alive, his 
head was cut off & sent to Rome as a present to the Pope by the Guises. His head was 
soon intercepted by the Mayor of Lyons & to this day no one knows what finally became 
of it. Some records found stated that " the cause of his death was "a sword run through 
the mouth, thrown from an upstairs window & beheaded."  His body was left behind & 
given to the Catholic Parisian youths for their macabre games, they mutilated him, 
dragged his body through the streets to the bank of the Seine. As they were in the act of 
throwing the body into the river, it was dragged out & placed upon the gibbet of 
Montfaucon, where it hung headless by the feet in chains of iron, & then they built a fire 
beneath, by which he was burned without being consumed; so that he was so to speak 
tortured with all the elements---killed upon the earth, thrown into the water, placed upon 
the fire & finally put to hang in the air. After he had served for several days as a 
spectacle, Francois de Montmorency, who was nearly related to the dead man Coligny & 
still more his friend, took him by night from the gibbet with trusty men & carried to 
Chatillon where he was buried in the Chapel. 

His death was followed by the killing of minor leaders & of all Huguenots within reach 
of the soldiery & the mob. The massacre continued even after a royal order to stop & it 
spread from Paris to other sections of France. Massacres continued into October reaching 
the provinces of Rouen, Lyons, Bourges, Orleans & Bordeaux. An estimated 3,000 were 
killed in Paris & 70,000 in all of France. News of the massacres were welcomed by the 
Pope & the King of Spain. Protestants, however were horrified & the killings rekindled 
the hatred between Protestants & Catholics & resulted in the resumption of civil war.

It was in 1562 that the first prayer is said to have been prayed in the United States of 
America by Jean Ribault. Ribault was the first visitor to seek to claim the land for the 
French in 1664. He & his men wanted to claim the New World for Christianity. Ribault 
was brought to the USA by Coligny, a man who loved God His word & the Bible, 
according to documents. As a General he became one of the most powerful men in 
France. He showed how he could be a Christian soldier & follow religion in a camp. He 
allowed no swearing in his camp & according to the book "Coligny", " he lived for a 
higher worldd than this; that Jesus would one day reward him for all of his trials here & 
though the King of France might be unkind Jesus was ever true". (taken from the writings 
of Julia McNair Wright, 1870)