Bentivoglio Guido

Bentivoglio Guido an eminent Italian ecclesiastical statesman and historian, was born at Ferrara in 1579. He was educated at Padua, and then went to reside at Rome, where he was favorably received by pope Clement VIII, who made him a prelate. He was sent as nuncio into Flanders, and afterwards to France; aid when he returned to Rome he was intrusted by Louis XIII with the management of French affairs at that court. In 1621 he was made a cardinal, and in 1641 bishop of Terracina. He was the intimate friend of pope Urban VIII, and on the death of that pontiff public opinion was directed to Bentivoglio as his successor; but before the election took place, he died suddenly in 1644. He wrote, an Account of the War in Flanders (1632-39): — a volume of Memoirs (1648):and a collection of Letters (1631). See Chalmers, Biog. Dict. s.v.; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.; Encyclop. Brit. (9th ed.), s.v.