Guillaume Dubois

His Eminence Guillaume Dubois OSB
Cardinal, Archbishop of Cambrai
Cardinal Guillaume Dubois by Hyacinthe Rigaud (1723)
Church	Catholic
Archdiocese	Cambrai
Province	Lille
Metropolis	Lille
Appointed	Armand de Rohan
In office	9 June 1720 – 1723
Predecessor	Joseph-Emmanuel de La Trémoille
Successor	Charles de Saint-Albin
Orders
Ordination	1669
Consecration	1720 by Armand de Rohan
Created Cardinal	16 July 1721 by Pope Innocent XIII
Personal details
Born	(1656-09-06)6 September 1656 Brive-la-Gaillarde, Limousin, France
Died	Versailles, France
Buried	Saint-Roch, Paris
Nationality	French
Denomination	Roman Catholicism
Profession	Clergyman, politician
Education	Christian Doctrine Fathers
Member of the Académie française
In office 20 September 1722 – 10 August 1723
Preceded by	André Dacier
Succeeded by	Charles-Jean-François Hénault
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
In office 24 September 1718 – 10 August 1723
Monarch	Louis XV Philippe II of Orléans (as Regent)
Preceded by	Nicolas Chalon du Blé
Succeeded by	Charles Jean-Baptiste Fleuriau
Chief Minister of the French Monarch
In office 2 September 1715 – 10 August 1723
Monarch	Louis XV Philippe II of Orléans (as Regent)
Preceded by	Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1661–1683)
Succeeded by	Louis Henri of Bourbon
Signature	Guillaume Dubois's signature

Guillaume Dubois (6 September 1656 – 10 August 1723) was a French cardinal and statesman. He was the Chief Minister of State under the regency of Philippe of Orléans.

Biography

Early life and education

Dubois, the third of the four great Cardinal-Ministers (Richelieu, Mazarin, Dubois, and Fleury), was born in Brive-la-Gaillarde, in Limousin. He was, according to his enemies, the son of an apothecary, his father being in fact a doctor of medicine of respectable family, who kept a small drug store as part of the necessary outfit of a country practitioner.

He was the household's second child. His elder brother is Joseph Dubois, born 1650, died 1740, perpetual mayor of Brive and director general of bridges and roads in France between 1723 and 1736. Another brother, Jean Dubois (1665–1727), was Abbé of Caunes. A sister, Jeanne, married Guillaume de Vielbans d'Aurussac on March 1, 1685 at Saint-Martin de Brive.

Very little is known about Cardinal Dubois' youth, in the absence of substantial archives, and it has been the subject of innumerable and generally malicious anecdotes. He was educated at the school of the Brothers of the Christian Doctrine at Brive, where he received the tonsure and the "small colar" at the age of thirteen. In 1672, at the age of 16, he obtained a scholarship and left, no doubt under the protection of the Lieutenant-General of Limousin, the Marquis Jean de Pompadour, for Paris, to continue his education at the Collège Saint-Michel, which has now disappeared, but of which a few vestiges remain in Bièvre street (5th arrondissement). He was soon noticed by Abbé Antoine Faure, the school's director, who obtained for his compatriot the coveted position of tutor to the king's nephew, the young Philippe, Duke of Chartres, future Duke of Orléans, born in 1674. Today, at the Musée Carnavalet, a full-length portrait, probably apocryphal, shows him at his pupil's side. Along with Fleury and, later, Bernis, he belonged to that "Occitan line of great semi-liberal prelates" typical of the time. He became known as Abbé Dubois, a title of pure courtesy.

Career overview

In 1692, at the insistence of Louis XIV, but in the face of unyielding opposition from his mother, the Princess of the Palatinate, the Duke of Chartres married Mademoiselle de Blois, the legitimized natural daughter of Madame de Montespan. Dubois was called in to overcome the young duke's hesitations, and was subsequently granted the abbey of Saint Just in Picardy. He was present with his pupil at the Battle of Steenkerque, and "faced fire," says Marshal Luxembourg, "like a grenadier." Sent to join the French embassy in London, he made himself so active that he was recalled by the request of the ambassador, who feared his intrigues. This, however, tended to raise his credit with the king.

In 1698, in the service of the House of Orléans along with the Abbé de Saint-Pierre, theorist of universal peace, Dubois undertook a diplomatic mission to England. There, he discovered a booming capitalist and liberal nation, visited Oxford, met French exiles such as Saint-Évremond and undoubtedly made useful contacts in the entourage of the Court of Saint-James.

Back at the Palais-Royal, Dubois became a specialist in secret diplomacy within the Orléans entourage. The start of the Regency in 1715 marked the beginning of the apogee in Dubois' career.

As advisor to the Regent, his influence grew. He steered France towards the British alliance, aided by information from his mistress, Madame de Tencin, who, through her famous literary and political salon, was well acquainted with the underbelly of English politics. With the Orléans and Hanover families facing fierce internal opposition, he strove to maintain the peace that would ensure the stability of the regime and the French economy, so badly shaken by the long War of the Spanish Succession, which had only just ended. The reversal of alliances in favor of the Hanoverians in England resulted in the estrangement of the descendants of the Catholic Stuart dynasty. Thus, James Francis Edward Stuart took refuge in Avignon, papal territory, on his return from the disastrous expedition to Scotland in 1715 ("The Fifteen" in English terminology).

Faced with Cardinal Alberoni's plans for Spain, he negotiated the Triple Alliance (1717) with George I. That same year, he joined the Council of Foreign Affairs. When, on September 24, 1718, the Regent put an end to polysynodality, Guillaume Dubois became Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Dubois was instrumental during the Cellamare conspiracy of 1718.

In 1719 he sent armies into Spain as part of the Quadruple Alliance which forced Philip V to dismiss Alberoni. Otherwise, his policy remained that of peace. Dubois' success strengthened him against the bitter opposition of a large section of the court. After hastily receiving major and minor orders on February 24, 1720, Dubois obtained the archbishopric of Cambrai (June 9, 1720), one of the richest in the country, which also provided him with the prestigious title of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire. On July 16, 1721, following the election of Pope Innocent XIII, he received the cardinal's purple, even though he was unable to celebrate mass. He never went back to his diocese, his main preoccupation being politics. He also became commendatory abbot of Cercamp Abbey on July 29, 1721.

His enemies, disregarding his qualities as a diplomat and his overall positive record in the government of France, attributed most of his ascendancy over the Regent to his ability to find him mistresses to his liking, hence Roger Peyrefitte's aphorism about his elevation to the cardinalate: "le pape est un fin cuisinier qui sait faire d'un maquereau un rouget" ("the pope is a fine cook who knows how to turn a mackerel into a red mullet").

His rise to prominence was crowned by his appointment to the post of Chief Minister (1722), which Mazarin had been the last to obtain, as well as to the French Academy and the presidency of the clergy assembly.

During his brief ministry, through hard work, he attempted to revive the economy by reducing duties, restore the financial situation after the errors of Law's System, and slow down the persecution of Protestants.

Endowed with seven abbeys, he amassed, like most cardinals of the time, a certain fortune (ten million pounds) and tried to promote his family. He is said to have led a dissolute life — perhaps because of an alleged mistress, Mme de Tencin — and in any case, he never exercised any function related to his ecclesiastical state.

He died in Versailles on August 10, 1723, closely followed three months later by his former pupil, the Duke of Orléans. He was buried in the collegiate church of Saint-Honoré in Paris, but this was destroyed in 1792 during the French Revolution. Some time later, Cardinal Dubois' tomb was moved to the church of Saint-Roch in Paris, where it remains to this day.

In popular culture

• He appears in Crébillon's novel Tanzaï et Néadarné, histoire japonaise (1734), which contained thinly veiled attacks on the Papal bull Unigenitus, the cardinal de Rohan and others.

• Dubois appears prominently in Jean Vatout's novel La conspiration de Cellamare (1832).

• Dubois is a major character in the 1843 novel The Conspirators, written by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet.

• In Bertrand Tavernier's film Let Joy Reign Supreme (1975), Cardinal Dubois is played by Jean Rochefort, alongside Philippe Noiret.

• In Antoine Rault's play Le système (2015), Cardinal Dubois is played by Stéphane Guillon.

References

Bliard, Pierre (1901). Dubois, cardinal et premier ministre, 1656-1723. Paris: P. Lethielleux.

Bourgeois, Émile (1907). La diplomatie secrete au XVIIIe siecle, Vol. 1. Paris: Armand Colin.

Capefigue, Jean-Baptiste (1861). Le Cardinal Dubois et la Régence de Philippe d'Orléans. Paris: Amyot.

Carné, Louis de (1858). "La Monarchie de Louis XV. — II. — L’Europe et la Diplomatie française pendant la Régence," Revue des Deux Mondes, Vol. XV, pp. 839–70.

Carreyre, Jean (1929). Le Jansénisme durant la Régence. Tome I: La politique janséniste du Régent, 1715-1717. Louvain: Bureaux de la Revue d'Histoire ecclésiastique.

Carreyre, Jean (1932–1933). Le Jansénisme durant la Régence. Tomes II: La politique antijanséniste du Régent, 1718–1723. Louvain: Bureaux de la Revue d'Histoire ecclésiastique.

Cessac, Catherine (2016). La Duchesse du Maine (1676-1753). Entre rêve politique et réalité poétique. Paris: Classiques Garnier.

Chaussinand-Nogaret, Guy (2000). Le cardinal Dubois, 1656-1723 ou Une certaine idée de l'Europe. Paris: Le Grand livre du mois.

Chéruel, Adolphe (1876). "Saint-Simon et l'abbé Dubois," Revue Historique, Vol. I, No. 1, pp. 140–53.

Dhondt, Frederik (2015). Balance of Power and Norm Hierarchy: Franco-British Diplomacy after the Peace of Utrecht. Leiden: Brill.

Dupilet, Alexandre (2015). Le cardinal Dubois: Le génie politique de la Régence. Paris: Tallandier.

Erlanger, Philippe (1985). Le Régent. Paris: Gallimard.

Launay, Marguerite de (1970). Mémoires de Mme de Staal-Delaunay. Paris: Mercure de France.

Maurepas, Arnaud de; Antoine Boulant (1996). Les Ministres et les ministères du siècle des Lumières (1715-1789). Paris: Christian-JAS.

Valin, Gérard (2019). Les Jacobites, la papauté et la Provence. Paris: L'Harmattan.

Saint-Simon (1983–1988). Mémoires. Paris: Éditions Gallimard.

Seilhac, Victor de (1862). L'Abbé Dubois, premier ministre de Louis XV. Paris: Amyot.

Wade, Ira O. (1930). "The Abbé de Saint-Pierre and Dubois," The Journal of Modern History, Vol. II, No. 3, pp. 430–47.

Weinbrot, Howard D. (1999). "Alexander Pope and Madame Dacier's Homer: Conjectures concerning Cardinal Dubois, Sir Luke Schaub, and Samuel Buckley," Huntington Library Quarterly, Vol. LXII, No. 1/2, pp. 1–23.

Wiesener, Louis (1891–1899). Le régent, l'abbé Dubois et les Anglais: d'après les sources britanniques. Paris: Hachette.

Works

• Works by Guillaume Dubois at Gallica