JOYEUSE, FRANÇOIS-HENRI. - French cardinal, b. June 24, 1562, d. Aug. 27, 1615 at Avignon. Elected archbishop of Narbonne in 1581 and cardinal on Dec. 13, 1583 by Gregory XIII, at the request of Henry III, he upheld at the court of Rome the policy of his king against the machinations of the Spanish ambassador. Archbishop of Toulouse (1588), he was appointed a member of the Consistorial Congregation and of the newly created Typography of the Papal State.
Although he had been opposed to Henry IV, after the latter's abjuration and absolution he was, together with Ossat d'Arnaud, his representative at Rome and one of the commissioners who declared the nullity of the king's marriage to Margaret of Valois. Cardinal protector of the Capuchins from 1602, he favored their development especially in his archdiocese. Having become archbishop of Rouen (1604), he established the Seminary there, took various reform measures as he had already done at Toulouse, and presided over the General Assembly of the Clergy (1605). In 1605 he took part in the Conclave, in which he was head of the French party and had a decisive influence on the election of Cardinal Alessandro de' Medici as supreme pontiff (Leo XI). As mediator in 1607 in the bitter dispute then under way between the Holy See and the Venetian Republic, he acted with great skill and succeeded in obtaining a compromise between the two parties and the revocation of the interdict on Venice. He was designated by Henry IV as a member of the council of regency and presided over the Estates General of 1614.
Bibliography3 works
Piero Sannazzaro