François de Joyeuse

Who was François de Joyeuse?

François de Joyeuse was a French churchman and politician.

Born at Carcassonne, François de Joyeuse was the second son of Guillaume de Joyeuse and Marie Eléanor de Batarnay. As the younger son of a seigneur in an intensely religious family of bishops and soldiers, he was destined for a career in the church. He studied in Toulouse, then at the Collège de Navarre, Paris, and received his doctorate degrees in canon and civil law at the University of Orléans. Thanks to the influence of his elder brother Anne de Joyeuse, a favourite of King Henry III of France who created him duke and peer in 1581, he became a privy councillor to the King and rose rapidly in the church. He was made Archbishop of Narbonne on 20 October 1581, a cardinal on 12 December 1583, Archbishop of Toulouse on 4 November 1588, and Archbishop of Rouen on 1 December 1604. He was a Knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit.

His brothers Anne and Claude were captured in 1587 after the Battle of Coutras and killed in the general massacre that followed. As a result, François became Duke of Joyeuse.