MONTLUC (or MoNLuc), BLAISE DE LASSARAN MASSENCOME, SEIGNEUR DE (C. 1502-1577), marshal of France, was born at Condom (Gers). He served first as a private archer and man-at-arms in Italy, with Bayard for his captain, fought all through the wars of Francis I., and was knighted on the field of Cerisoles (1544), to which victory he had brilliantly contributed as adviser to the young duke of Enghien. His chief feat was the famous defence of Siena (1555), which he has told so admirably. When the religious wars broke out in France, Montluc, a staunch royalist, held Guyenne for the king. Henry III. made him in 1574 marshal of France, an honour which he had earned by nearly half a century of service and by numerous wounds. He died at Estillac near Agen in 1577. Montluc's eminence above other soldiers of his day is due to his Cowmen taires de Messire Blaise de Montluc (Bordeaux, 1592), in which he described his fifty years of service The Commentaries are in the collection of Michaud and Poujoulat, but the standard edition is that of the Societe de l'Histoire de France, ed. by M. de Ruble (5 vols., a critical edition was published by P. Courteault See P. Courteault, Blaise de Montluc, historien (19o8) ; J. J. de Broqua, Le Marechal de Monluc, sa famine et son temps (1924).
MONTLUcON, a town of France, capital of an arrondisse ment, and the most important industrial centre in the department of Allier. Pop. (1931) 38,296. It is on the Cher, 5o m. S.W. of Moulins by rail. The upper town has steep, narrow, winding streets with several buildings of the 15th and i6th centuries; the lower town, traversed by the Cher, produces glass, chemicals, sewing-machines, and iron and steel, and trades in grain, wood, chemicals, candles, earthenware, marble, glass, pneumatics and artificial silk and woollen goods. The Commentry coal-mines and Neris, a town with thermal springs, are to the south-east. Of the churches, Notre-Dame is of the 15th century and St. Pierre has a I 2th century transept. The town-hall, with a library, occupies the site of an old Ursuline convent. There is also the castle rebuilt by Louis II., duke of Bourbon, and taken by Henry IV. during the religious wars. The town, which formed part of the duchy of Bourbon, was taken by the English in 1171, and by Philip Augus tus in 1181; the English were beaten under its walls in the 14th century. It has a sub-prefecture, a tribunal of commerce, a chamber of commerce and a board of trade-arbitrators.