Eustace Chapuys, the son of Louis and Guigonne Dupuys, was a Savoyard diplomat who served Charles V as Imperial ambassador to England from 1529 until 1545 and is best known for his extensive and detailed correspondence.
15 Facts About Eustace Chapuys
2.
Eustace Chapuys was a humanist and acted as both friend, correspondent and patron to men of similar interests.
3.
Eustace Chapuys enjoyed the friendship of the Annecy humanists Claude Blancherose and Claude Dieudonne, the German Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, and the English Thomas More and John Fisher.
4.
Eustace Chapuys corresponded with Erasmus, with whom he shared a deep mutual respect and admiration, although they never met.
5.
Eustace Chapuys was to remain in the post from 1529 until 1545, except for brief absences from 1539 to 1540, and in 1542.
6.
Apart from Cromwell, whom he came to consider a friend, Eustace Chapuys cultivated religiously conservative noblemen in the king's court as his informants.
7.
Eustace Chapuys' legal background made him an ideal candidate to defend the king's wife Catherine of Aragon, who was an aunt of Emperor Charles V, against the legal proceedings, known at the time as the "King's Great Matter", which led eventually to the English rejection of papal authority and break from the Roman Catholic Church.
8.
Eustace Chapuys was a faithful servant to Charles V, an astute observer of men, and although he spoke and wrote fluently in French, he was a staunch opponent of France and the French, whom he loathed because of their designs on his homeland, Savoy.
9.
Eustace Chapuys, who had been devoted to Catherine, strongly disapproved of the king's treatment of his daughter.
10.
Eustace Chapuys developed an affection for Mary, who trusted him and relied on him during some of the most difficult years of her life.
11.
Eustace Chapuys's health had continued to worsen in 1544 and he asked to be relieved of his post, but the Emperor allowed him to leave only after introducing his successor, Francois van der Delft, to the post.
12.
Eustace Chapuys's income was derived from his ambassadorial pensions, the inheritance of an estate at Annecy, and various ecclesiastical sinecures, which included the deanery at Vuillonnex, canonries at Toledo, Osma and Malaga, ecclesiastical posts in Flanders and the profitable abbacy of Sant'Angelo di Brolo in Sicily, which he acquired in 1545.
13.
Eustace Chapuys had increased his wealth over the years through prudent investments in Antwerp.
14.
Eustace Chapuys was asked to recall his negotiations, and the previous attitude of the regime of Henry VIII, on the issue of the betrothal of Mary I In his reply, he wrote he was uncertain of the possibility of convincing John Dudley to agree to any proposed marriage.
15.
Eustace Chapuys had a son, Cesare, who was made legitimate in 1545, and who died in 1549.