Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully

Maximilien de Béthune, first Duke of Sully (1560–1641), was a Huguenot nobleman born near Mantes who became Henry of Navarre's closest counselor from 1571. During the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572, he escaped by carrying a Catholic book of hours.

He fought through the Wars of Religion and was wounded at Ivry in 1590, advising Henry's conversion to Catholicism while refusing his own. From 1596 he reformed royal finances, becoming superintendent in 1601 and balancing the budget while promoting agriculture, roads and the Canal de Briare.

Made a duke and peer in 1606, he resigned after Henry IV's assassination in 1610. Named a marshal in 1634, he died in 1641.