His brothers Anne and Claude were captured in 1587 after the Battle of Coutras and killed in the general massacre that followed. As a result, François became Duke of Joyeuse. In 1590 the title of Duke of Joyeuse was passed to another of his younger brothers, Scipion, who drowned himself in the Tarn after the defeat of Villemur in 1592, then to Henri de Joyeuse, the youngest brother, who died in 1608. The title passed to Henri's daughter Henriette, who had married Henri de Montpensier in 1597.