Biron. I. Arm and de Gontant, baron, afterward duke de, a French general, born about 1524, killed July 26, 1592. He was educated among the pages of Margaret, queen of Navarre, served in Piedmont under Marshal Brissac, distinguished himself during the religious wars in the Catholic army, fighting at the battles of Dreux, St. Denis, and Moncontour, and was created grand master of artillery in 1569. He was suspected of a secret inclination to Protestantism, and owed his safety on the eve of St. Bartholomew to his precaution in shutting himself up in the arsenal. He negotiated with the Huguenots the peace of St. Germain, received the baton of marshal of France in 1577, held various commands in Guienne and the Low Countries, was one of the first to recognize Henry IV., contributed to the victories of Arques and Ivry, and was killed at the siege of Epernay. He was the godfather of Cardinal Richelieu. II. Charles de Gontant, duke de, son of the preceding, a French general, called the "lightning" of France, born in 1562, beheaded July 31, 1602. His valor was distinguished at the battles of Arques and Ivry, at the sieges of Paris and Rouen, of Amiens and La Fere, and in the encounter at Aumale. He was made admiral of France in 1592, marshal in 1594, governor of Burgundy in 1595, duke and peer in 1598, and was ambassador to the court of Elizabeth of England and to the Swiss cantons.

Notwithstanding the favors bestowed upon him by Henry IV., excited by mercenary motives, he plotted with Savoy and Spain for the dismemberment of France. His intrigues were discovered by the king, who pardoned him once, and even after he renewed his treason Henry was disposed to indulgence, provided he would confess and repent of his crime. Biron, however, denying everything, was committed to the Bastile, and speedily condemned and executed. III. Armand Lonis de Gontant, duke de, born in Paris, April 15, 1747, executed there, Dec. 31, 1793. He is better known as the duke de Lauzun, which was his title till 1788, when he succeeded his uncle as duke de Biron. In 1778 he published a pamphlet on the state of defence of England and its foreign possessions, and was placed in command of an expedition against the British colonies of Senegal and Gambia, Africa, which he reduced early in 1779. Having squandered his fortune, he joined Lafayette in 1780 in America, and in July, 1781, commanded an unsuccessful expedition designed to capture New York from the British. He took part in the siege of York-town, and was present at the surrender of Cornwallis. In 1789 he was chosen by the nobility deputy to the states general, and after- ward accompanied Talleyrand in his mission to England. In July, 1792, he was appointed general-in-chief of the army of the Rhine, and in May, 1793, of the army of the coast at La Rochelle. He captured Saumur, and defeated the Vendeans; but being accused of incivism for having twice offered his resignation, and for his leniency toward the Vendeans, he was brought before the revolutionary tribunal of Fouquier-Tinville, and condemned to death on the charge of having conspired against the republic.

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Biron (originally Biren or Buhren), Ernest John, duke of Courland, born in 1687, died Oct. 28, 1772. The grandson of a groom, he entered as equerry the household of Anna Ivanovna, niece of Peter the Great, and became her favorite and lover during her reign in Courland and residence in Mitau. After Anna became empress, she took him with her to St. Petersburg and made him grand chamberlain. He now adopted the coat of arms and the name of the celebrated French ducal family of Biron. As the favorite of the empress, he ruled absolutely over Russia; and hundreds, if not thousands, were put to death by his command. The nobility of Courland, who a few years before had refused to admit his name in the rolls of their caste, frightened by his ferocity, elected him as their sovereign duke. Named by Anna regent of the empire and tutor of her nephew and succes- • sor Ivan during his minority, the ambitious adventurer was suspected of a design to push aside his pupil, and to seize the imperial crown for his own eldest son, marrying him to the grand duchess Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great. His reign as regent lasted but a few weeks.

As early as 1740, Field Marshal Mun-nich, once his accomplice, secretly conspired against him, and on the night of Nov. 20 gave orders to seize him in his bed and to put him in irons. He was shut up first in the fortress of Schlusselburg; then after his condemnation to death in 1741, and the commutation of this penalty into exile for life, he was sent to Pelim in Siberia, and confined in a prison specially prepared for him by the orders of Munnich. The princess Anna Carlovna, mother of the infant sovereign, was proclaimed by Munnich regent of the empire, but was in her turn overthrown in 1741 by Elizabeth, who sent Miinnich to Siberia, to replace Biron, whom she recalled from his prison and exile. Biron was ordered to reside in the city of Yaroslav. When Peter III. succeeded Elizabeth in 1762, he recalled Biron to St. Petersburg, and Catharine II. subsequently restored to him his forfeited duchy of Courland. On Jan. 20, 1763, Biron entered his capital of Mitau, and his rule was just and mild until his death. - He left two sons, the eldetl of whom, PETER, succeeded to the dukedom of Courland. Driven thence in 1795, he went to Prussia, where he acquired by purchase several ducal estates, among others that of Saltan. He died on one of his estates in 1,800 leaving four daughters, one of whom was known in the political world first as duchess of Dino, and afterward as duchess of Sagan.