Guillaume d'Estouteville

Guillaume d'Estouteville (1403 – 1483) was a French ecclesiastic,

He was bishop of Angers, then bishop of Digne, archbishop of Rouen, prior of Saint Martin des Champs, abbot of Mont St Michel, of St Ouen at Rouen, and of Montebourg. He was made a Cardinal in the consistory of December 18, 1439 by Pope Eugene IV, and later became Cardinal Bishop of Porto-Santa Rufina (1454), then Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia (1461) and Dean of the College of Cardinals (November 1472); he was a cardinal elector during the conclaves that elected Pope Nicholas V, Pope Paul II, and Pope Sixtus IV, but was absent from Rome during the "sede vacante" prior to the election of Pope Calixtus III. Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church from 1477 until his death.

He was sent to France as legate by Pope Nicholas V to make peace between Charles VII and England (1451), and undertook at the instigation of the inquisitor general Jean Brehal an "ex officio" revision of the trial of Joan of Arc; he afterwards reformed the statutes of the University of Paris. He then went to preside over the assembly of clergy which met at Bourges to discuss the observation of the Pragmatic Sanction, finally returning to Rome, where he passed almost all the rest of his life.

D'Estouteville was a candidate for the papacy after the death of Pope Calixtus, but he was defeated by Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, who became Pope Pius II.

He was a great builder: Rouen, Mont St Michel, Pontoise and Gaillon owing many noble buildings to his initiative. The cardinal also underwrote artistic commissions for the church of Sant'Agostino in Rome.

References

*1911
* [http://www.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios1439.htm#Estouteville Biography]