eldest son of Anne de Montmorency and a leader of the Roman Catholic moderates during the French Wars of Religion.

Montmorency fought in Piedmont (1551), defended Thérouanne (1553), and was appointed lieutenant general of the Île-de-France (1556). In 1557 he visited Rome to obtain a papal dispensation releasing him from his betrothal to Jeanne de Piennes so that he could marry Diane de France (Diane De France, Duchesse De Montmorency Et Angoulême) (q.v.). He succeeded his father as Duke de Montmorency in 1567. Having been a close friend of the Huguenot leader, his cousin the Admiral de Coligny (son of Anne's sister Louise), he became a leader of the moderate Catholic party of the Politiques and was imprisoned in the Bastille in May 1574, but he was released before the “Peace of Monsieur” (1576).