BALUE, GIOVANNI

BALUE, GIOVANNI. – Angevin cardinal. Born at Angle-Luçon in Biton in 1421, died at Ripatransone in the Marches on 5 December 1491. Of extremely humble origin, he earned a doctorate in law at Angers in 1457; and, having entered the court, received important assignments from Luigi XI. Appointed bishop of Evreux on 20 May 1465, he was transferred to Angers on 5 June 1467 and received the cardinal’s hat from Paolo II on 18 September 1467, for the part he had played in the abolition of the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges. Although he had shown himself an open defender of Luigi XI in the “War of the Public Weal” (1465–69), after the meeting at Peronne he was accused of being in secret understanding with Carlo the Bold, duke of Burgundy, and was imprisoned (cf. Mélanges d'archéol. et d'histoire, 29 [1899], p. 259 ff.); he obtained his release only at the beginning of 1481 through the intervention of Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, and entered Rome with him on 3 February 1482; he became bishop of Albano on 31 January 1483. During those years he lived the life of the Curia, apart from a brief period from October 1483 to February 1485, when he was legate in France for the coronation of Carlo VIII; he took an active part in the intrigues and affairs of those years and made himself so powerful as to intimidate Innocenzo VIII himself. Having declined the legation to Germany, he went as legate to the Marches in 1490, where he succeeded in quelling continually recurring disputes.