Louis II de La Trémoille (The Knight Without Reproach)

Louis II de La Trémoille (1460–1525), 1st Prince of Talmont and Viscount of Thouars, was the foremost royal general of France during the late 15th and early 16th centuries, serving four successive kings: Louis XI, Charles VIII, Louis XII, and François I. In 1488, at just twenty-seven, he won the Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier, capturing Duke Francis II of Brittany and the future King Louis XII, effectively incorporating Brittany into the French crown.

During the Italian Wars, La Trémoille commanded the French invasion that drove Ludovico Sforza from Milan in 1500 and won the Battle of Agnadello in 1509 against the Republic of Venice. In 1515, he fought heroically at Marignano. At the catastrophic Battle of Pavia in 1525, the veteran sixty-four-year-old commander fought beside King François I until he was shot through the heart by an Imperial Spanish arquebus.