Languet, Hubert (1518-1581)

French writer and diplomat. He travelled widely in Europe before entering the service of Augustus I, Elector of Saxony, in 1559, whom he represented at the French court from 1561-72. He narrowly escaped the Massacre of St Bartholomew in 1572, and later served Augustus at the imperial court from 1573-77. His extensive correspondence is a valuable source for 16th-century history.

The anonymous treatise Vindicia contra tyrannos/Against Tyranny (1579), which expounds the doctrine of resistance to tyranny by constitutional means, is sometimes attributed to him (others suggest Philippe du Plessis-Mornay as the author, some think it may have been a combined effort). He retired to the Netherlands and may also have helped William the Silent draft his Apologia against the king of Spain, published in 1581. He accompanied on his tour round Europe Philip Sidney, whom he considered his protégé and with whom he may have been in love.

Born at Vitteaux in Burgundy, he was educated by Jean Perrelle, a distinguished Greek scholar, and then studied at Poitiers 1536-39, Bologna, and Padua. In 1549, after meeting Melanchthon at Wittenberg, he became a Protestant.