Guillaume de Rochefort (c.1433 r 1439– 12 August 1492) was a lawyer who served as

Lord Chancellor of France In France, under the ''Ancien Régime'', the officer of state responsible for the judiciary was the Chancellor of Francesometimes called Grand Chancellor or Lord Chancellor (french: Chancelier de France). The Chancellor was responsible for seei ...

, under the French kings

Louis XI Louis XI (3 July 1423 – 30 August 1483), called "Louis the Prudent" (french: le Prudent), was King of France from 1461 to 1483. He succeeded his father, Charles VII. Louis entered into open rebellion against his father in a short-lived revol ...

and Charles VIII. Guillaume is thought to have been born at Pluvault or

Rochefort-sur-Nenon Rochefort-sur-Nenon (, literally ''Rochefort on Nenon'') is a commune in the Jura department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. Population See also *Communes of the Jura department The following is a list of the ...

( Jura), and was the son of Jacques II and his wife Agnès de Cléron. He was also the elder brother of Guy de Rochefort, another Chancellor of France. He began his career in the service of the dukes of Burgundy Philip the Good and

Charles the Bold Charles I (Charles Martin; german: Karl Martin; nl, Karel Maarten; 10 November 1433 – 5 January 1477), nicknamed the Bold (German: ''der Kühne''; Dutch: ''de Stoute''; french: le Téméraire), was Duke of Burgundy from 1467 to 1477. ...

, first as a counsellor and later as chamberlain of Burgundy. Guillaume's first wife was Guye de Vurry ou Wourey, dame de Fouchereau; she gave birth to four children, and died in 1487. After her death, Guillaume married Anne de la Trémoille. In January 1484, Rochefort made a statement to the Estates-General, to the effect that King Richard III of England had murdered his nephew, King

Edward V of England Edward V (2 November 1470 – mid-1483)R. F. Walker, "Princes in the Tower", in S. H. Steinberg et al, ''A New Dictionary of British History'', St. Martin's Press, New York, 1963, p. 286. was ''de jure'' King of England and Lord of Ireland fro ...

, and taken the crown for himself. It is assumed that he obtained this information from

Dominic Mancini Dominic Mancini ( it, Domenico Mancini) was an Italian monk who visited England in 1482–3. He witnessed the events leading up to Richard III being offered the English crown. He left in 1483 and wrote a report of what he had witnessed. He calle ...

, who is thought to have been in personal contact with him the previous month.''Richard the Third''

Paul Murray Kendall Paul Murray Kendall (March 1, 1911 – November 21, 1973) was an American academic and historian, who taught for over 30 years at Ohio University and then, after his retirement, at the University of Kansas. Biography Kendall was born in Phila ...

,, p 468. Accessed 5 January 2015

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rochefort, Guillaume de 1430s births 1492 deaths Chancellors of France