Armand de Gontaut, baron de Biron

Armand de Gontaut, baron de Biron (born c. 1524—died July 26, 1592, Épernay, France) was a soldier and marshal of France during the 16th-century Wars of Religion.

As a young page of Margaret, queen of Navarre, Biron attracted the attention of the Marshal de Brissac (Charles de Cossé), who took him to Piedmont. There he commanded the artillery but was lamed by a wound. He brought back to the royal army in France the professional spirit of the Italian soldiers and, in the battles of 1568–69, won the post of grand master of the artillery, held by Brissac before him. He took La Rochelle in 1573, commanded in Guienne, and in 1577 was made marshal of France, with command in the south against Henry of Navarre. In 1581–83 he commanded the Duke d’Anjou’s forces in Artois.

Having been a loyal friend of Henry III, he became in 1589 the chief commander of the army under Henry IV. The latter owed much to his sagacity at the battles of Arques and Ivry and in many sieges, but Biron was believed to be prolonging the war for his private advantage. He was killed at the siege of Épernay. There is an edition of his correspondence by E. de Barthélemy (1874).