THE “OLD CREW”

In September, 1567, about two weeks before the Huguenot attack on the royal court at Meaux precipitated the second civil war, Melchion Gatico, commissaire extraordinaire des guerres, and Jehan Girard, commis par le roy au conteroolle de ses guerres, conducted musters of two companies of veteran French infantry stationed at the piedmontese fortress city of Pignerol. One of the units was a regular infantry company commanded by the young Count Brissac, colonel general of all French infantry stationed beyond the mountains and son of the recently deceased Marshal Brissac. The other was the garrison company of the citadel of Pignerol, commanded by its governor, Jehan de Monluc, son of the famous Blaise de Monluc, the future marshal of France.

Commissioners Gatico and Girard pursued two different purposes at the muster. The first was simply to pay the men of both companies for their service during the previous months of July and August. The second was to compile a roolle signale of each company, that is, a roster containing a detailed individual description of each soldier. An order to compile such rosters had been sent earlier in 1567 to the duke of Nevers, the military governor of French Piedmont, and reissued to the commissioners a week before the muster.