Pierre de La Baume

Who was Pierre de La Baume?

Pierre de La Baume was a grand seigneur of Savoy and a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was a councillor of Charles III, Duke of Savoy, whom he represented at the Fifth Lateran Council. He was born at the château de Montrevel, in Bresse, Savoy, the second son of Gui de La Baume, seigneur of la Roche-du-Vanel, Mont-Saint-Sorlin, and Attalens, in Switzerland, and later count of Montrevel, a chevalier of the Order of the Golden Fleece and chevalier d'honneur to Margaret of Habsburg, dowager Duchess of Savoy, and Jeanne de Longuy. Pierre matriculated at the University of Dole, where he received his doctorate in theology, 1502.

Worldly, highly connected and cultivated, a courtier abbot, he held several abbacies in commendam, of which he received the benefices but was not expected to be in residence: among them was the one he most favoured, the abbey of Saint-Oyend at Condat, which was in the gift of Margaret of Austria, whom his father served and who nominated him abbot in 1511. With the abbey came the château de la Tour-du-May, with its little village of Saint-Christophe. It became the favoured seat of Pierre de La Baume. There he entertained in great splendour Charles, Connétable de Bourbon, in 1524, who was fleeing the anger of François I, en route for Italy with a grand escort of gentlemen and cavalry. He was godfather to the bell that he hung in the abbey church in 1529 which commemorated his name, as Pierrotte la Joyeuse. There eventually he was buried.