Pomponne de Bellièvre (1529 – 7 or 9 September 1607) was a French statesman,
chancellor of France (1599–1605).
Life
Bellièvre was born in
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...
in 1529.
Between 1575 and 1588, Bellièvre accepted more than a dozen diplomatic missions for
King Henry III of France (1551–1589). Sometimes he negotiated with foreign rulers, such as
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
Eli ...
, but more often with domestic antagonists, such as
Henry of Navarre
Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarc ...
and his
Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
s,
Henry I, Duke of Guise, and the
Catholic Leaguers, and
Francis, Duke of Anjou and his allies in the
Low Countries
The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...
. In the course of these missions Bellievre corresponded copiously with Henry III, and Bellievre also discussed them with his ministerial colleagues, often stating frankly to colleagues his discomfort with King Henry's decisions. With the king himself, he expressed his doubts more cautiously.
[Dickerman, Edmund H., and Anita M. Walker, "Missions impossible: Pomponne de Bellievre and the policies of Henry III" in ''Canadian Journal of History'', Dec. 200]
online version
at findarticles.com, Retrieved 1 August 2008
Farewell to Henry III
As King Henry III lay dying in 1589, Bellièvre pronounced a devastating commentary on the royal master he had served: "If kings are good, we must preserve them; if they are bad, we must endure them. God sends one or the other to punish or console His people."
[
]
References
*Poncet, Olivier, ''Pomponne de Bellièvre (1529–1607) Un homme d’État au temps des guerres de religion'' (Paris: École des chartes, 1999)
Notes
1529 births
1607 deaths
Chancellors of France
Politicians from Lyon
16th-century French diplomats
17th-century French politicians
French Ministers of Finance
16th-century French politicians
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