Guillaume d'Estouteville (c. 1412–1483) was a French aristocrat of royal blood who became a leading Catholic bishop and cardinal. He held a number of Church offices simultaneously, conducted the reexamination of the case of Jeanne d'Arc and exonerated her of the charges against her, and reformed the Statutes of the University of Paris. In Rome he became one of the most influential members of the Curia, as the official Protector of France in church business. Pope Sixtus IV appointed him Chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church (Camerlengo). His great wealth allowed him to be a generous patron of the arts, especially in the building and adornment of churches.
Life D'Estouteville was born c. 1412<ref>Esposito, Anna (1993). [http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/guillaume-d-estouteville_(Dizionario-Biografico)/ Estouteville, Guillaume d'''], Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 43. Retrieved: 2016-11-25.</ref> in either Valmont or Estouteville-Écalles in the Duchy of Normandy, a member of the most powerful family in the region. His father, Jean d'Estouteville, Sieur de Vallemont and Grand Chamberlain of France, had fought at Agincourt, was captured, and spent twenty years as a prisoner of war. His mother was Marguerite d'Harcourt, the daughter of Catherine de Bourbon, the sister of Jeanne de Bourbon who was the wifeDenifle (1897), p. xxii. The Cardinal's arms were supercharged with a shield portraying the Arms of France differenced by a gold band (Bourbon, in honor of his grandmother). Barbier de Montault, p. 22. See: Gill (1996), p. 501, fig. 3, where the arms of d'Estouteville are quartered with those of Haricourt, with the arms of Bourbon superimposed; this stemma was placed on the central boss of the chapel vault by the Cardinal in his lifetime. of King Charles V of France.Mollier, p. 3. Guillaume had an elder brother Louis, who became Grand Bouteiller of France.Gallia christiana, XI, p. 90. As the custom was, the younger brother was destined for a career in the Church. The family lost a great deal of property and income as a result of the English occupation of Normandy after the Battle of Agincourt.Henri Denifle collected materials bearing on the destruction suffered by monasteries and churches because of the English. A collateral ancestor (uncle?), cf. p. 96. also called Guillaume d'Estouteville, had been Bishop of Évreux (1375–1376) at the age of twenty, Bishop of Auxerre (1376–1382), and Bishop of Lisieux (1382–1415).Eubel, I, pp. 120, 234, 304. H. Fisquet, La France pontificale: Metropole de Rouen: Evreux (Paris: E. Repos 1864), pp. 36-37.
It was first said by Alfonso Chacón, He was misled by an inscription of 1637 placed as a memorial in the church of S. Agostino by Benedictine monks, of whose Order d'Estouteville had been Protector. See Barbier de Montault, p. 7 note 13. and often repeated thereafter, that Guillaume became a Benedictine monk at the Saint-Martin-des-Champs Priory in Paris, where he soon became prior.He actually became Prior Commendatarius in 1471. Denifle, p. xxii. Both of these statements, however, have been shown to be mistaken. Documentary evidence written at Saint-Martin in 1500 shows that he was a secular priest, and that he was Administrator of Saint-Martin.Denifle (1897), xx-xxi: monasterium Sancti Martini per spatium centum annorum et amplius per seculares rectum fuerat, administratum et gubernatum, videlicet per dominos cardinals Laudunensem, Rothomagensem, Lugdunensem, patriarchum Antiochenum, et episcopum Nannetensem... Chacon also states that d'Estouteville was Doctor Decretorum (Doctor of Canon Law), but various papal documents of Pope Eugenius IV, in particular one of 1435, call him a Papal Notary, a relative of the Kings of France, a Master of Arts, and of Canon Law, as a result of having passed rigorous examinations.Denifle, p. xxi. He is never, however, called a monk or Frater. Henri Denifle states that d'Estouteville's degree in Canon Law did not come from the University of Paris.Denifle (1897), xxiv: certe talem gradum non Parisiis obtinuerat. Guillaume did possess a Canonry in the Church of Évreux, and in 1432 he was Canon in Lyon as well. In 1433 he became Canon in Angers.
He later became commendatory abbot simultaneously of the Abbeys of Mont Saint-Michel (1444–1483), of Saint-Ouen at Rouen and of Montebourg.
Bishop
The Bishop of Angers, Hardouin du Brueil, died on 18 January 1439.Eubel, II, p. 87 note 1. Guillaume D'Estouteville, who was ambitious for the post, immediately rushed to Rome and obtained bulls from Pope Eugene IV on 20 FebruaryEubel, II, p. 87. naming him to the bishopric. On 28 February the Canons of the Cathedral Chapter met and duly elected Jean Michel of Beauvais, a Councillor of Rene of Anjou and Canon of Rouen and of Angers, though d'Estouteville received several votes in the election. The election of Jean Michel was confirmed by the Vicars-General of the Archbishop of Tours. The bulls which d'Estouteville had obtained in Rome were presented to the Chapter of Angers on 24 April by d'Estouteville's procurator, but the majority of the Chapter rejected his bid. In the meantime Bishop Jean Michel was sitting as Bishop of Angers in the Council of Basel. King Charles VII of France was angered at the interference of the Pope in French church affairs and threatened, in support of the Gallican church, to apply the Pragmatic Sanction and exclude the Pope's bulls.B. Haureau, Gallia christiana Tomus XIV, p. 580. Mollier, p. 7. Pope Eugene escaped from the danger by giving d'Estouteville the bishopric of Digne in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, a suffragan of Embrun.Eubel, II, p. 144. D'Estouteville retained the diocese when he became a Cardinal on 18 December of the same year. He renounced his claim on Angers on 27 October 1447.Denifle, p. xxiv.
On 18 April 1440, he was named the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Mirepoix; his commission was revoked upon the appointment of a new bishop on 17 May 1441. He never visited Mirepoix, but he did collect a year's income.Eubel, II, p. 193. Cf. Gallia christiana XIII (Paris 1785), p. 272, where the Administratorship is placed in the wrong interregnum.
Cardinal A few months after the affair of Angers, Guillaume d'Estouteville was named a cardinal priest in the consistory of 18 December 1439 by Pope Eugene IV,Eubel, II, p. 8 no. 18. and assigned the titular church of San Martino ai Monti. The Cardinal's hat probably softened the disappointment of losing the bishopric of Angers. Pope Eugene probably derived a bit of satisfaction at granting a red hat to a member of the French royalty without the request or consent of the King.
He was consecrated a bishop in January 1440. In 1440 he was briefly administrator of the diocese of Conserans (St. Lizier)Eubel, II, p. 134 and n. 2. The following year he was additionally appointed Administrator of the Dioceses of Béziers and Nîmes.
In 1443, Cardinal d'Estouteville was appointed Archpriest of the Basilica Liberiana (Santa Maria Maggiore) by Pope Eugene IV,Gill (1996), p. 498. in succession to Cardinal Niccolò Albergati, who had died on 9 May 1443.G. Ferri, "Le carte dell archivio Liberiano del secolo X al XV," Archivio della Società romana di storia patria 30 (1907) 161-163. Eubel, II, p. 6 no. 37. He held the position for life. In March 1451 Pope Nicholas V granted a new set of Statutes to the Canons of the Basilica, which emphasized the decisive power that the Archpriest had over the physical structure of the church and its property. In his Testament d'Estouteville left funds for the refurbishment and redecoration of the Chapel of S. Michele e S. Pietro in Vincoli, and for the building of the Chapel of S. Antonio.Gill (1996), p. 500, note 4.
On 7 January 1450 D'Estouteville was appointed Administrator of the Diocese of Lodève.Eubel, II, p. 179 with note 1. He served in this office for three years, before being appointed bishop of the Diocese of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne in Savoy. He was Bishop of Maurienne from 26 January 1453 to 20 April 1453, though he continued to act as Administrator of the diocese for the rest of his life.He took possession of his diocese by Procurator, and never visited the diocese in the next thirty years. He remembered the diocese, however, in his Testament. B. Hauréau, Gallia christiana, XVI (Paris 1865), p. 643. Eubel, II, p. 188. In April 1453 he was released from his obligation as Bishop of Maurienne and appointed Archbishop of Rouen by Nicholas V.Eubel, II, p. 225, with note 2. The Canons of Rouen protested the violation of their rights, and Pope Nicholas granted them an Indult on 16 November promising them that, on the death of Guillaume d'Estouteville, they could elect whomever they wished. D'Estouteville took possession of the diocese of Rouen on 30 April 1453 through a Procurator, Bishop Louis d'Harcourt of Narbonne.Gallia christiana XI, p. 90. Louis d'Harcourt was the son of Catherine de Bourbon, Guillaume's grandmother. Gallia christiana VI (Paris 1739), p. 103.
Diplomat On 13 August 1451 Cardinal d'Estouteville was sent to France as legate by Pope Nicholas V, at the instigation of the Duc de Bourbon, to make peace between King Charles VII of France and England; at the same time Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa was sent to England on the same mission. Both failed.Eubel, II, p. 30, no. 143 (and cf. no. 146). Hefele, Histoire des conciles VII, ii, pp. 1220-1221.
At the behest of the Inquisitor General Jean Brehal, Estouteville undertook an ex officio revision of the trial of Joan of Arc. He afterwards reformed the statutes of the University of Paris, issuing his decree on 1 June 1452. He shortened the course leading to the Doctorate in theology from fifteen to fourteen years, and he removed the requirement that Doctors of Medicine be in holy orders.Denifle (1897), Chartularium IV, no. 2690, pp. 713-734. He then presided over the Assembly of the French clergy which met at Bourges in July and August 1452 to discuss the implementation of the Pragmatic Sanction. He finally returned to Rome on 3 January 1453,Eubel, II, p. 31 no. 154. where he passed almost all the rest of his life.
D'Estouteville, appointed Legate to the King of France, set out from Rome for France on 16 May 1454, with permission to be outside the Curia for six months; he returned to Rome on 12 September 1455 after sixteen months absence.Eubel, II, p. 31, nos. 159 and 165. His official mission was to attempt to persuade Charles VII to join in yet another crusade, the one that Nicholas V had tried to launch on 30 September 1453, following the Fall of Constantinople.
Rome On his return, he built as his residence the Palazzo Apollinare to the west of the Church of S. Agostino and adjacent to the Church of S. Apollinare.
Conclaves D'Estouteville participated in the papal conclave of 4–10 March 1447Eubel II, p. 10 note .2. that elected Pope Nicholas V.J.P. Adams, Sede Vacante 1447, retrieved: 2016-11-27. He was absent from Rome, however, during the sede vacante of 24 March–8 April 1455, prior to the election of Pope Calixtus III.J.P. Adams, Sede Vacante 1455, retrieved: 2016-11-27. On 20 February 1456 he was one of the cardinals who subscribed the bull of Pope Calixtus III which created Rodrigo Borgia a cardinal.Ludwig Pastor (1906), History of the Popes, third edition Volume II (London: Kegan Paul), p. 544.
D'Estouteville took part in the Conclave of 6–19 August 1458Eubel, II, p. 13 note 2. and was a candidate for the papacy in the Conclave. He was able to command six votes out of the nineteen participants, but he was defeated by Cardinal Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini of Siena, who chose the name Pope Pius II.J.P. Adams, Sede Vacante 1458, retrieved: 2016-11-27.