Joseph Boniface de La Môle

Joseph Boniface de La Môle (c. 1526-April 30 1574) was a Catholic nobleman, and the son of Jacques Boniface, seigneur de la Môle et de Colobrières, of Marseilles.

La Môle was the Provençal lover of Marguerite de Valois (and many other women), during the early part of her marriage to Henry III of Navarre, the future Henry IV of France.

He served François, Duke of Anjou and Alençon, Marguerite's brother and youngest son of King Henri II of France and Catherine de' Medici. He represented the Duc d’Alençon during marriage negotiations with Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1572. In 1574 he was implicated in a Malcontent conspiracy against the reigning king, Charles IX, who was gravely ill, supported by Alençon. He was accused of making an attempt on the king's life when a wax figurine pricked with needles, which he had obtained from the astrologer Cosimo Ruggieri, was found on his person. After being subjected to questioning and torture, he was condemned to death. He was quartered and beheaded at the Place de Grève in Paris with his co-conspiritor, Annibal de Coconas. It was rumoured that Marguerite embalmed la Môle's head and kept it in a jewelled casket.

In popular culture

The hero of Alexandre Dumas's novel "La Reine Margot", la Môle is transformed into Joseph-Hyacinthe Boniface de Lerac de la Mole, a Protestant nobleman saved by Queen Marguerite during the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. The figure who was saved after stumbling into the Queen's bed chamber was not, in fact, la Môle, who took part in the Massacre, but rather was a gentleman named M. de Teian.

Fictional descendants of La Môle also feature prominently in Stendhal's novel "The Red and The Black".

He is also portrayed by Swiss actor Vincent Pérez in the film "La Reine Margot".