ARMAGNAC, GEORGES d'. - Cardinal, b. probably in 1507, d. June 5, 1585. He received a fine education, especially at the court of the King of Navarre. He was protected by Margaret of Angoulême, sister of Francis I. It was thanks to her favor that he was elected bishop of Rodez (1530) and governor of the lands of Armagnac and Rouergue. In 1536 he was sent as ambassador to Venice. This was in the midst of the struggle between Francis I and Charles V, and d'A. was supposed to obtain the alliance or at least the neutrality of Venice. In 1538 he returned to France, but two years later he was sent as ambassador to Rome, where he remained until 1545. A year earlier he had already been created cardinal (Dec. 19, 1544). On his return to his homeland he was transferred to the archbishopric of Tours, which he held until 1551. Between 1547 and 1560 he returned to Rome three more times. After 1560 he limited his activity to southern France, always a friend of the house of Navarre. Indeed, it was he who baptized the future Henry IV. Having become bishop of Toulouse (1551), he fought with firmness and at the same time with moderation against the Calvinist heresy. He took part in the colloquy of Poissy (autumn 1561). From 1565 to 1585 he assisted Cardinal de Bourbon in the legation of Avignon. In the intricate events of the wars of religion, d'A. managed to maintain relative tranquility in the principality. He was a friend and correspondent of the best French and Italian men of letters of the time.
A humanist himself and a lover of books, he left behind one of the finest libraries of the century. Unfortunately, his correspondence, which exceeds a thousand letters, and his dispatches are still largely unpublished and scattered in various archives in Italy and France. They would be, it seems, a most important historical source.
BISL.: Pastor, V. pp. 482, 486; VI, pp. 6, 344; VII, pp. 14, 16, 24, 27, 377, 461; VIII, p. 338; X, p. 166; Ch. Samaran, s. v. in DHG, IV, coll. 263-67; E. G. Ledos, s. v. in Dictionn. de biographie française, III (1936), coll. 677-79.
Ireneo Daniele