Henri Cleutin

Henri Cleutin, seigneur d'Oisel et de Villeparisis (1515 – 20 June 1566), was the representative of France in Scotland from 1546 to 1560, a Gentleman of the Chamber of the King of France, and a diplomat in Rome 1564-1566 during the French Wars of Religion.

Henri was one of five children of Pierre Cleutin, or Clutin, mayor of Paris, and grandson of Henri, both were Councillors to the French Parliament. Labourier, the editor of Castelnau's memoirs, surmises the family had its origins in a cloth merchant who supplied Charles VI of France. Pierre Cleutin acquired the lands of Villeparisis and built a castle, and Henri was made its lord in 1552. Henri may have been destined for the church but was involved in a murder in Paris in 1535 and fled the country. He had a pardon in 1538. On the basis of this incident the historian Marie-Noëlle Baudouin-Matuszek revised his birth date to 1515.

Henri Cleutin, who was usually known as Monsieur d'Oysel, or d'Oisel, became ambassador resident in Scotland from 1546 during the war of the Rough Wooing, and, after Paul de Thermes left Scotland, was Henry II of France's Lieutenant-General in Scotland. Cleutin was very much a follower of the House of Guise who were gaining political powers in France. Scotland was ruled by Regent Arran, who became the Duke of Châtelherault in 1548, but considerable power and a portion of the crown income was in the hands of Mary of Guise, the widow of James V of Scotland.

When Cleutin arrived in Scotland there was an interlude of peace with England resulting from the Treaty of Ardres. However peace between Scotland and the Holy Roman Empire was not completely concluded. The Imperial ambassador in London François van der Delft became aware of Henri Cleutin, who he called "Oysif," in Scotland in December 1546. The English Privy Council joked about his concerns and said that Cleutin carried letters of Bellerophon, the figure of classical myth set the impossible task of killing the chimaera after murdering his brother.

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