AMBOISE, GEORGES d'. – Cardinal, born in 1460 of a most noble family at Chaumont-sur-Loire, he made a rapid career: already almoner to Luigi XI, in 1484 he was bishop of Montauban, in 1492 archbishop of Narbonne, and in 1493 archbishop of Rouen. Meanwhile, he had devoted himself to politics: a friend and partisan of Duke Luigi d'Orléans (the future Luigi XII), in 1491 he was sent as extraordinary ambassador to Switzerland and in 1494 as lieutenant general in Normandy.
When Luigi XII ascended the throne (1498), he became his first minister and energetically directed his policy, aimed above all at creating French dominion in Italy. He favored Cesare Borgia; he received the purple from Alessandro VI on 17 September 1498, and in 1501 the legation in France. In the Conclave following the death of Alessandro VI (1503), he did everything to secure the tiara for himself, but did not succeed. After the sudden death of Pio III (1503), his renewed hopes for the papacy having vanished, he favored the election of Giulio II, from whom he received the permanent legation in France, Avignon, and the Venosino, and obtained repeated creations of Frenchmen and relatives as cardinals. During the lifetime of Giulio II, he continued to aspire to the tiara, and the failures of his Italian policy finally induced the Pope to prepare the liberation of Italy from the French, which actually followed as soon as the cardinal had died. Otherwise, he was a great lord, munificent and charitable, a wise administrator; he promoted the reform of the clergy and monasteries in France. His private life was without blemish. He died on 25 May 1510 in Lyon.