Guillaume d'Estouteville

Guillaume d'Estouteville, OSB (c. 1412–1483) was a French aristocrat of royal blood who became a leading bishop and cardinal. He held a number of Church offices simultaneously. He conducted the reexamination of the case of Jeanne d'Arc and exonerated her of the charges against her. He 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 wife of King Charles V of France. Guillaume had an elder brother Louis, who became Grand Bouteiller of France. 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. A collateral ancestor (uncle?), 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). It was first said by Alfonso Chacón, and often repeated thereafter, that Guillaume became a Benedictine monk at the Saint-Martin-des-Champs Priory in Paris, where he soon became prior. Both of these statements, however, have been shown to be mistaken.