Francesco Uguccione

Who was Francesco Uguccione?

Francesco Uguccione was the Archbishop of Bordeaux from 1384 until his death. He was a lawyer from Urbino and a staunch supporter of the King of England in the Hundred Years' War.

In his early years Uguccione was a legate at Barcelona before he was appointed to the vacant see of Bordeaux.

In 1400, Uguccione, along with John Bowet, Bishop of Bath and Wells, and Hugh Despenser, was appointed proctor for Gascony. By 1406, the French had gained a strong upper hand in the region. Uguccione was by then a cardinal. In spring and summer of that year he began a long string of desperate letters to the English king, Henry Bolingbroke. He implored His Majesty for aid and assured him of the gravity of the situation, including the death of the lord of Mussidan, a Gascon loyal to the English, who had been commanding the fortress at Blaye and had left only a daughter. On 30 June, he wrote: "I have written to you so many times and so lengthily concerning the state of your land, and I have cried so much that my voice has become hoarse."

As an influential diplomat and cardinal, Uguccione travelled extensively in the early 15th century. In Autumn 1408 he went to England, where he sought to persuade the English as per the summons of the College of Cardinals to send a delegation to the Council of Pisa then struggling to put an end to the Western Schism. He convinced the English, but the council did nothing but exacerbate the schism.