L'HÔPITAL, MICHEL DE. - Statesman, b. in the castle of La Roche near Aigueperse in 1503, d. in the castle of Bellévat near Etamps on 13 March 1573. He studied law at Padua; having returned to France (1533), he entered the bar in Paris. In 1547 he was sent by Chancellor Olivier to the Council of Trent as an envoy of King Henry II.
In addition to various other offices, he was promoted by the King to superintendent of finances and on 6 Feb. 1554 to first president of the Court of Accounts. Having become chancellor of King Charles IX in 1560, he made himself, among other things, a champion of freedom of conscience, promoted the publication in 1562 of the edict of toleration in favor of the Huguenots, and prevented the promulgation of the decrees of the Council of Trent.
It is difficult to define precisely the personal line of government and the guiding ideas of M. de l'H. In French historiography he commonly passes for a legendary figure, the incarnation of good sense, political wisdom, and mutual tolerance; but perhaps it is more accurate to say that he was a skillful and prudent interpreter of the politique de bascule of Catherine de' Medici, placing, like her, the interest of the State in the foreground of his actions. He served the Queen in her projects aimed at neutralizing, to the profit of monarchical power, the two parties struggling with each other: the Huguenots and the Catholics. Such he showed himself in the convocation of the Estates General at Orléans (Dec. 1560), which led to the proclamation of Catherine's regency, in the ordinance known as that of Orléans (1561), a wise plan of reforms, but one-sided in its ecclesiastical plan, and in the useless conference of Poissy (Aug. 1561) between Catholic and Protestant theologians. He refused to have the sentence of excommunication of Pope Paul IV against the Queen of Navarre inserted in the bullarium. Little by little he lost the confidence of Catherine de' Medici.
From 1568, after the third civil war, the administration of his office was taken from him, and on 6 Feb. 1573 he was dismissed from it. Notwithstanding what has been said of his conduct, at times hostile to Rome, he always remained a Catholic, although his family went over to Protestantism.