Dominique de Gourgues
Dominique (or Domingue) de Gourgues (1530–1593) was a French nobleman and soldier. He is best known for leading a privateer attack against Spanish Florida in 1568, in retaliation for the no quarter given after the capture of Fort Caroline and the subsequent Massacre at Matanzas Inlet. He was a captain in King Charles IX's army. Youth De Gourgue's early life is not well known. He came from the old and powerful family of Gourgue, one of the most important families of the French city of Bordeaux. He served in the Italian wars under Maréchal de Strozzi, was captured by Spaniards in 1557, and then by the Turks, and served several years in the galleys. After his return to France, he made a voyage to Brazil and the West Indies, and then entered the service of Duke de Guise, and was employed against the Huguenots. Situation in the colonies Philip II of Spain was a Roman Catholic king who hated Protestants, including the French Huguenots, and considered them heretics. He ordered his troops to kill any they found in the colonies. Therefore, in 1565, troops under Pedro Menéndez de Avilés notoriously massacred hundreds of Frenchmen around Fort Caroline in what is