Chartres, Renaud

Chartres, Renaud (Lat. Reginaldzus) DE, a French prelate and politician, was born about 1380. After having obtained the university degree of a licentiate of law, he first became canon, then deacon of St. Pierre de Beaulvais :in 1406. In September, 1404, he was condemned, with his brother Pierre de Chartres, " for some insult against the bailiff of the bishop of Beauvais." Some time afterwards pope John XXIII made him his private referendary, and the chapter of Beauvais elected him their bishop. He did not take possession of that see, however, but was elevated in ,January, 1414, to the archbishopric of Rheims. In 1415 he went to the Council of Constance, and received in the same year, at Beauvais, the emperor Sigismund on his coming to France. After being president of the chamber of the counts before 1415, and member of the privy council, he was appointed, Aug. 15, 1418, lieutenant of the king in Dauphiny, Languedoc, and the districts adjoining Lyons and Macon. He was next appointed (March 28, 1424) chancellor of France, but a few months after he resigned in favor of Martin Gouge, his predecessor. In 1425 Charles VII sent him as "orateur d'obedience" to pope Martin V. On Nov. 8, 1428, Renaud received ,a' second time the seals of France as chancellor. When Joan of Arc offered her services to Charles VII, Renaud recommended her examination by a special court. He was present during the remarkable siege of Orleans in 1429, and was largely concerned in the stirring events of that period, in all of which he showed himself a shrewd, but equivocal and unscrupulous, diplomat. He received many other ecclesiastical favors, including the cardinalate (Dec. 29,1439), and died April 4, 1444.: See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.