Guillaume Dubois
|
His Eminence Guillaume Dubois OSB |
|
|---|---|
| Archbishop of Cambrai | |
Cardinal Guillaume Dubois by Hyacinthe Rigaud (1700s)
|
|
| Church | Catholic |
| Archdiocese | Cambrai |
| Province | Lille |
| Metropolis | Lille |
| Appointed | Armand de Rohan |
| In office | 9 June 1720 – 1723 |
| Predecessor | Joseph-Emmanuel de La Trémoille |
| Successor | Charles de Saint-Albin |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 1669 |
| Consecration | 1720 by Armand de Rohan |
| Created Cardinal | 16 July 1721 by Pope Innocent XIII |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
September 6, 1656 Brive-la-Gaillarde, Limousin, France |
| Died | August 10, 1723 (aged 66) Varsailles, France |
| Buried | Saint-Roch, Paris |
| Nationality | French |
| Denomination | Roman Catholicism |
| Profession | Clergyman, politician |
| Education | Christian Doctrine Fathers |
| Member of the Académie française | |
|
In office 20 September 1722 – 10 August 1723 |
|
| Preceded by | André Dacier |
| Succeeded by | Charles-Jean-François Hénault |
| Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs | |
|
In office 24 September 1718 – 10 August 1723 |
|
| Monarch |
Louis XV Philippe II of Orléans (as Regent) |
| Preceded by | Nicolas Chalon du Blé |
| Succeeded by | Charles Jean-Baptiste Fleuriau |
| Chief Minister of the French Monarch | |
|
In office 2 September 1715 – 10 August 1723 |
|
| Monarch |
Louis XV Philippe II of Orléans (as Regent) |
| Preceded by | Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1661–1683) |
| Succeeded by | Louis Henri of Bourbon |
Guillaume Dubois (6 September 1656 – 10 August 1723) was a French cardinal and statesman.
Dubois, the third of the four great Cardinal-Ministers (Richelieu, Mazarin, Dubois, and Fleury), was born in Brive-la-Gaillarde, in Limousin. He was, according to his enemies, the son of an apothecary, his father being in fact a doctor of medicine of respectable family, who kept a small drug store as part of the necessary outfit of a country practitioner. He was educated at the school of the Brothers of the Christian Doctrine at Brive, where he received the tonsure at the age of thirteen. In 1672, having finished his philosophy course, he was given a scholarship at the college of St. Michel in Paris by the lieutenant-general of the Limousin. The head of the college, the abbé Antoine Faure, who was from the same part of the country as himself, befriended the lad, and continued to do so for many years after he had finished his course, finding him pupils and ultimately obtaining for him the post of tutor to the young duke of Chartres, afterwards the regent Duke of Orléans.
Dubois gained the favour of Louis XIV by bringing about the marriage of his pupil with Françoise-Marie de Bourbon, Mlle de Blois, a natural but legitimized daughter of the king and Mme de Montespan; and for this service he was rewarded with the gift of the abbey of St. Just in Picardy. He was present with his pupil at the Battle of Steenkerque, and "faced fire," says Marshal Luxembourg, "like a grenadier." Sent to join the French embassy in London, he made himself so active that he was recalled by the request of the ambassador, who feared his intrigues. This, however, tended to raise his credit with the king. When the Duc D'Orléans became regent (1715) Dubois, who had for some years acted as his secretary, was made councillor of state, and the chief power passed gradually into his hands.
...
Wikipedia