AMBOISE, GEORGES D’

AMBOISE, GEORGES d’. - Cardinal, born in 1460 into a most noble family at Chaumont-sur-Loire, he rapidly advanced in his career: already almoner to Louis 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 the Duke Louis of Orléans (the future Louis XII), in 1491 he was sent as extraordinary ambassador to Switzerland and in 1494 as lieutenant-general in Normandy. When Louis XII ascended the throne (1498), he became his prime minister and energetically directed his policy, aimed above all at establishing French dominion in Italy. He favored Cesare Borgia; he received the red hat from Alexander VI on 17 Sept. 1498, and in 1501 the legation in France. At the Conclave after the death of Alexander VI (1503), he strove to secure the tiara for himself, but without success. After the brief pontificate of Pius III (1503), his new hopes for the papacy vanished; he favored the election of Julius II, from whom he obtained the permanent legation in France, Avignon, and the Comtat Venaissin, and secured repeated creations of French and related cardinals. Continuing, during the lifetime of Julius II, to aspire to the tiara, the failures of his Italian policy finally induced the Pope to prepare the liberation of Italy from the French, which actually followed soon after the cardinal’s death. Otherwise, he was a great lord, munificent and beneficent, a wise administrator, and promoted the reform of the clergy and monasteries in France. His private life was without stain. He died on 25 May 1510 at Lyon.