Antoine de Castelnau was the son of Louis de Castelnau,
baron of
Castelnau,
Miremont,
Buanes and Bats (1460 – before 1529), and Susanne de Gramont (died after 1525). Castelnau was appointed
Bishop of Tarbes in 1534, a position he held until 1539. His brother, Louis de Castelnau, Abbot of Divielle (died 1549), succeeded him as Bishop of Tarbes in 1540. He succeeded
Charles de Solier, comte de Morette, as Francis I's ambassador to the court of
Henry VIII of England from 26 June 1535 until 1537. It was there he discovered the secret intrigues of
Charles V, who had proposed a marriage between
Princess Mary, daughter of Henry VIII, and
Dom Luis, his brother-in-law, with the
Duchy of Milan as the prize. He was succeeded as ambassador by
Louis de Perreau, Sieur de Castillon. Castelnau was in London during the dramatic fall of
Anne Boleyn, the second wife of
Henry VIII, and it was under the ambassador's roof that his secretary,
Lancelot de Carle, an eye-witness to the queen's trial and execution, wrote a controversial
poem detailing her life and all that he had seen and heard. Castelnau was later appointed ambassador to
Spain. He died in
Toledo, Spain, in 1539. ==Footnotes==