François Bonivard

Who was François Bonivard?

François Bonivard was a Swiss patriot, ecclesiastic and historian whose life was the inspiration for Lord Byron's 1816 poem The Prisoner of Chillon. He was a partisan of the Protestant Reformation, and by most accounts was a libertine, despite his vocation.

He was the son of Louis Bonivard, Seigneur de Lunes, and was born at Seyssel into an old family of Savoy. He was educated by various monks under the jurisdiction of his uncle, Jean-Aimé de Bonivard, who was prior of St.-Victor, a monastery just outside the walls of Geneva. At the age of seven, Bonivard was sent to study at Pinerolo, Italy; for most of his youth, he reportedly preferred amusements to learning. He attended the University of Turin and, on his uncle's death, succeeded him at St.-Victor in 1510.

After Charles III, Duke of Savoy seized the Bonivards' property except for the priory, Bonivard sided with the patriots of Geneva who opposed the Savoy efforts to control the region. In 1519 he fled Geneva, disguised as a monk, upon news that the Duke was approaching. He was cozened by friends, the Lord of Varuz and a monk named Brisset, the Abbot of Montheron of the Pays de Vaud, who betrayed him. They turned him over to the Duke, who imprisoned him at Grolée, one of his castles on the Rhone, from 1519 to 1521. The Abbot of Montheron was given the monastery St.-Victor, but he was evidently poisoned by friends of Bonivard, who also worked to release him from prison. Bonivard returned to the priory in 1527.