LA VALETTE, LOUIS DE NOGARET de. — Cardinal, b. at Angoulême on 8 February 1593, d. at Rivoli (Piedmont) on 28 September 1639.
The youngest son of the Duke of Epernon, he was destined for an ecclesiastical career and accumulated numerous abbeys at a very young age. In 1614 he was appointed archbishop of Toulouse and in 1621 cardinal, at the insistence of Richelieu, of whose most influential favorites he was one (Pastor, XII, p. 247). Having resigned the archbishopric in 1627 because he was disliked by the Chapter, and never having received Orders, he held various positions in the army. He commanded the Army of the Rhine (1635), which prompted a protest brief from Pope Urban VIII (Pastor, XIII, p. 526 ff.), and then that of Italy (1638). Upon his death, the Pope prohibited the funeral service (ibid., p. 534).