Cardinal de Pellevée

Nicolas de Pellevé (18 October, 1518 – 24 March, 1594) was a French archbishop and Cardinal. He was a major figure of the Catholic League.

Nicolas de Pellevé, the second son of Charles de Pellevé, Sieur de Jouy and Hélène du Fay, was born on October 18, 1518. His brother Robert was Bishop of Pamiers (1553-1579). He obtained the degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Bourges. With a law degree he obtained an appointment as Councillor of the Parliament of Paris. He then became Master of Requests. He enjoyed the benefice of the Abbey of S. Corneille de Compiègne from 1550 to June, 1552, when he was promoted to the Episcopacy.

He was a courtier of Henry II of France (died July 10, 1559), and then of the Cardinal de Lorraine, Charles de Guise (died December 26, 1574).

He was named bishop of Amiens in 1552 by Henri II, with the patronage of Cardinal Charles de Lorraine-Guise. King Henri died on July 10, 1559. But Bishop Nicolas continued to serve the Monarchy, as an agent of Francis I of France and Mary, Queen of Scots in Scotland from October 1559 to 15 July 1560 during the Scottish Reformation. The famous Calvinist preacher, John Knox, had returned to Scotland from Geneva on May 2, 1559, and had roused the Protestant Lords against the Catholic supporters of the French Mary of Guise, the mother of the six-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots. Pellevé's intervention was unsuccessful, and in any event a Peace (the Treaty of Edinburgh) was worked out between France and Scotland following the death of the Regent Mary of Guise (June 10, 1560), which made a military expedition impossible. He returned to France, without having achieved any notable success against the Calvinist supporters of John Knox. As Bishop of Amiens, he accompanied the Cardinal de Lorraine to the Council of Trent in 1562. He was promoted archbishop of Sens in 1562. During his absence in Rome from 1574 until 1592, his diocese was administered for him from 1579 by Christophe de Chéfontaine, titular bishop of Caesarea, former Minister General of the Friars Minor.

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