Cardinal du Perron

Jacques Davy Duperron (15 November 1556 – 6 December 1618) was a French politician and Roman Catholic cardinal.

Jacques Davy du Perron was born in Saint-Lô in Normandy, into the Davy family, of the Norman minor nobility, in the branch "Davy du Perron" after a property near St. Lô (in French his name is spelled Jacques Davy du Perron). He is never referred to as "Davy", and he usually signs his documents "Du Perron". The spelling "Duperron" is almost certainly wrong.

His father Julien was a physician, who, on embracing the doctrines of the Reformation, became a Protestant minister; his mother was Ursine Le Cointe, daughter of Guillaume Le Cointe, sieur de Tot et d' Héranville en Cotenin. During the siege of Rouen in 1562 by the troops of King Charles IX, Julien his father was arrested and imprisoned in Old Palais in Rouen. Ursine and her two children escaped through the royal lines and eventually was reunited with her husband in Bas Normandie. To escape persecution the family settled at Bern, in Switzerland. There Jacques received his education, being taught Latin and mathematics by his father, and learning Greek and Hebrew and the philosophy then in vogue, Aristotelianism, as well as that of Thomas Aquinas and that of the Calvinist favorite, St. Augustine of Hippo.

During the disorders following the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (August 23–24, 1572, in Paris, and a month later in Normandy), the family fled to the Island of Jersey, which was under Protestant English control.

Returning to Normandy, du Perron's existence and his talents were drawn to the attention of a courtier who was visiting General Jacques of Matignon, the Governor of Normandy. This courtier, named Lancosme, took du Perron along with him when he returned to Blois, where the new King, Henri III, was residing. He was presented to the King one evening during dinner, where he acquitted himself well both in speaking and in answering questions posed by the King's attendants.

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