Amboise, Georges d'

AMBOISE, GEORGES d'. - Cardinal, born in 1460 to a most noble family at Chaumont-sur-Loire, he had a rapid career: already almoner of Louis XI, in 1484 he was bishop of Montauban, in 1492 archbishop of Narbonne and in 1493 archbishop of Rouen. In the meantime he had devoted himself to politics: a friend and partisan of 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 creating French dominion in Italy. He favored Cesare Borgia; he received the purple from Alexander VI on 17 Sept. 1498, and in 1501 the legation in France. In the Conclave after the death of Alexander VI (1503) he did everything to secure the tiara for himself, but did not succeed. After the rapid disappearance of Pius III (1503), his new hopes for the papacy having vanished, he favored the election of Julius II, from whom he received the permanent legation in France, at Avignon and in the Venosino, and obtained repeated cardinalatial creations of Frenchmen and of relatives. He continued, while Julius II lived, 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 in fact followed as soon as the cardinal died. In other respects he was a great lord, munificent and beneficent, a wise administrator; he promoted the reform of the clergy and of the monasteries in France. His private life was without stain. He died on 25 May 1510 at Lyon.