Guillaume du Bellay facts for kids
Guillaume du Bellay, seigneur de Langey (born 1491 – died 9 January 1543) was an important French diplomat and general. He came from a well-known family called the du Bellays and served King Francis I of France.
Contents
Early Life and Family
Guillaume du Bellay was born in 1491 at a castle called Glatigny, near Souday. His family, the du Bellays, had served the rulers of Anjou and then the kings of France for a long time.
Guillaume's father, Louis du Bellay-Langey, had six sons. All of them became loyal servants to King Francis I. Guillaume was the oldest of these brothers.
He was known as a brave soldier and a very skilled diplomat. A diplomat is someone who represents their country in talks with other countries. Guillaume was also a historian and a humanist, meaning he loved learning and new ideas.
A Life of Service
Guillaume started his military career when he was young. In 1525, he was captured during the Battle of Pavia. He even shared a prison with King Francis I for a while.
His great skills and loyalty made him very important to the king. He traveled a lot for his missions. He went to Spain, Italy, England, and Germany many times.
Important Missions
Between 1529 and 1530, Guillaume went to England three times. He worked on carrying out the Treaty of Cambrai, which was a peace agreement. He also helped with the question of King Henry VIII’s divorce.
With help from his brother Jean, who was a bishop, Guillaume got a special decision. A university in Paris, the Sorbonne University, agreed with Henry VIII on July 2, 1530. In 1526, the king paid him for some "articules" he sent from Rome. These might have been artworks for the king's growing collection.
From 1532 to 1536, Guillaume visited England three more times. His main job was to unite German princes against Charles V, who was a powerful emperor. In May 1532, he signed a treaty with leaders from Bavaria, Hesse, and Saxony. In January 1534, he signed another important agreement, the Treaty of Augsburg.
Governor of Turin
During a war in 1537, King Francis I sent Guillaume to Piedmont in Italy. He became the governor of Turin from December 1537 to the end of 1539. Later, he became the governor of all of Piedmont.
He was very good at organizing things and managing the region. However, by the end of 1542, he was very tired from all his hard work. He had to return to France.
Death and Legacy
Guillaume du Bellay died on January 9, 1543, in Saint-Symphorien-de-Lay, near Lyon. A famous writer named Rabelais, who knew Guillaume, wrote a touching story about his death.
Guillaume was buried in the cathedral of Le Mans. A monument was built there to remember him. It has an inscription that says he was better than famous Roman figures like Cicero and Pompey. Emperor Charles V reportedly said that Guillaume, by himself, caused more trouble for him than all the French together.
Supporting New Ideas
Guillaume du Bellay was a strong supporter of new ideas and ways of thinking. He did not join the reformers, but he defended people who had new ideas against those who were strongly against them.
For example, in 1534–1535, he tried to arrange a meeting between King Francis I and a reformer named Melanchthon. In 1541, he helped a group called the Vaudois.
The famous writer Rabelais was one of the people Guillaume helped the most. Rabelais even followed Guillaume to Piedmont from 1540 to 1542.
As a Historian
Guillaume was also a talented historian and a clear writer. He wrote a history called Ogdoades. It was about the rivalry between King Francis I and the emperor starting from 1521.
He did not have time to finish it, but important parts of his work survived. His brother Martin du Bellay (who died in 1559) included these parts in his own book, Mémoires, published in 1569.
