William de Croÿ (archbishop)

William de Croÿ (known as Guillaume de Croÿ in French and Guillermo de Croÿ in Spanish); (1497 – 7 January 1521) was Archbishop of Toledo from 1517–21. He was born in the Burgundian Netherlands and died in Worms, Germany.

William de Croÿ was the nephew of the powerful William de Croÿ, one of the most important advisers to Charles of Ghent, the future Holy Roman Emperor. Thanks to this connection, he was granted the lucrative bishopric of Soria. As an absentee bishop, this entailed no duties or work, and merely gave him an income source.Pope Leo X appointed William the additional office of cardinal on 1 April 1517.

On 8 November 1517, the Archbishop of Toledo, Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, died. The Archbishopric of Toledo was the richest and most powerful in Spain. The main other claimant to succeed Cisneros was Alonso de Aragón, Archbishop of Saragossa and King Ferdinand II of Aragon's illegitimate son and young King Charles's half-uncle. However, the seventeen-year-old Charles's biggest influence was still William de Croÿ, who maneuvered his twenty-year-old nephew into the Archbishopric. The decision was made on 9 November, although complications meant he was only appointed in the first week of 1518. Most notably, Queen Isabella I of Castile's will had specifically prohibited the granting of ecclesiastical offices to foreigners. Charles resolved this problem by issuing a writ of naturalization on 14 November to William decreeing him a Castilian. Pope Leo X had granted an indult on 12 October freeing William from any current or future residency requirement to an office. It had been originally meant to legitimize his holding of the Bishopric of Soria, and was now used to justify the Archbishopric of Toledo.

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