Montmorency

Anne de Montmorency is Constable of France, the king's oldest confidant and the most powerful nobleman at court after the throne itself. He treats the newly arrived Catherine de Medici with open contempt, seeing her as a low-born Italian merchant's daughter unfit for a French crown, and he guards his influence over Henri jealously and without apology.

Barry Atsma plays him with the ease of a man who has never had to justify his place in a room, which makes his scorn for Catherine land harder than shouting could. The writing uses him as the court's establishment made flesh — charming, entitled, immovable — so every small victory Catherine wins against him feels earned.