National and Private Ambitions in the Patronage of French Cardinals at the Papal Court (Fifteenth to Sixteenth centuries)

: Few French cardinals left important traces in the form of architectural patronage in Rome during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a period characterised by the alternation of times of strong tension between the French kings and the Papacy, and phases of political harmony. French cardinals’ relations with Rome reflected such a changeable contingent political situation: their position was extremely delicate because they owed obedience to the pope, as princes of the church, and to their king, as French nobles and bishops. Generally, their engagement was projected more towards France, typically in the areas of family influence, than towards Rome. Nevertheless, some French cardinals, such as Guillaume d’Estouteville, Jean Jouffroy, Jean de Bilhères, and Jean Du Bellay, were well-established in Rome, participating in cultural life and artistic production. Analysing their architectural patronage helps to evaluate if they were agents of the King of France aiming to promote, in part by supporting art and architecture, royal policy at the papal court, or if they were driven by personal ambitions. Comparing these men with the patronage of Thomas Leroy—not a cardinal, but a Breton-prelate established in Rome where he undertook a brilliant career in the Curia—permits us to place the conduct of cardinals in a more general context, and to verify if it was different from that of other French resident prelates.

kind of economic engagement was normally done in the private estates in the cardinals's home country, where it could be useful to their families. Some French cardinals, however, were well-established in the political and administrative machinery of the Eternal City, participating in Roman cultural life and artistic production. The cases of Guillaume d'Estouteville, Jean Jouffroy, Jean Bilhères Lagraulas, and Jean du Bellay in particular offer opportunities for reflection.
The aim of this study is to evaluate the extent, nature, and purposes of their commissions. Were they agents of the King of France, aiming to promote-in part by supporting art and architecture-royal policy and the so-called 'French party' at the papal court, or were they driven by personal ambitions? Was their conduct different from that of other French resident prelates? To answer these questions, we will also briefly examine the case of Thomas Leroy, a Breton prelate who settled in Rome and undertook a brilliant curial career and who, until his death in 1524, kept close relationships with Brittany and France.

Guillaume d'Estouteville
The patronage of Guillaume d'Estouteville is the richest and the most various. 7 Estouteville, a member of the high aristocracy of Normandy, settled in Rome after he was appointed cardinal of San Martino ai Monti in 1439, and he remained in the city until his death in 1483. 8 He returned to his home country on only two occasions: as papal legate, between 1451 and 1455. Although he was officially expected to work on a treatise of peace with England, on University reform, and on the rehabilitation trial of Joan of Arc, the real task of his legation in France was to obtain the abolition of the Pragmatic Sanction. 9 He then moved definitively to the papal court, though he continued to maintain profound ties to Normandy, where he distinguished himself for his magnanimous patronage. In addition to routine maintenance work in the diocese of Rouen, where he was archbishop from 1453, he commissioned funerary monuments for his mother and sister at Valmont, and for himself in the Cathedral of Rouen. He funded the reconstruction of the choir in the abbey of Mont Saint-Michel, 10 the completion of some parts of Rouen cathedral and of the abbey of Saint-Ouen, the construction of new apartments in the castle of Gaillon, and in the archbishops' palaces at Rouen and Pontoise. 11 7 Meredith J. Gill, A French Maecenas in the Roman Quattrocento: the Patronage of Cardinal Guillaume d'Estouteville (1439-1483, (Princeton University, D.Phil. thesis, 1992); Meredith J. Gill, "Guillaume d'Estouteville's Italian journey", in The Possessions of a Cardinal: Politics, Piety, and Art 1450-1700, eds. Mary Hollingsworth and Carol M. Richardson (University Park, 2009 Anna Esposito, "Estouteville, Guillaume d'", Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 43 (1993) 456-60; Anna Esposito, "Tra legami politici e legami clientelari. Il caso esemplare del cardinale Guillaume d'Estouteville, camerlengo di S.R.E. nel tardo '400", in Die Kardinäle des Mittelalters und der frühen Renaissance, ed. Jürgen Dendorfer (Florence: SISMEL Ed. del Galluzzo, 2013), 111-126. 9 Gill, "Estouteville's Italian journey", 25-26. 10 Estouteville was appointed abbot of Saint-Michel in 1444. The abbey was an important place for his family, because there his brother Louis resisted the English siege from 1525 to 1528, before regaining Normandy back to France in the battle of Formigny (Luce Siméon, "Louis d'Estouteville, le bâtard d'Orléans et la défense du Mont-Saint-Michel", Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, XXXIV, vol. 4 (1890), 314-315. 11 Bernard Beck, "Le mécénat des d'Estouteville", in L'architecture de la Renaissance  Aside from the works commissioned in his abbeys of north Italy, 12 his patronage in Rome and Lazio was copious and mainly covered four areas: the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, of which he was archpriest from 1443; buildings connected to the Augustinian order, of which he was protector from 1449; the properties in the cardinal's seat of Ostia and Velletri, to which he was appointed in 1461; the private estates accumulated towards the south, between the Castelli and the Lepini mountains, and towards the north, between the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Sabina. 13 The works in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore concerned the opening of two doors into the west façade, the completion of the bell tower, the construction of the chapel of St. Michael the Archangel, and the reorganization of the relics in the presbytery area. 14 Estouteville rouennais, (1992-1993), 63-75. 12 Such as the cathedral of San Giusto in Val di Susa (Carlo Tosco, "Architettura gotica in San Giusto", in La basilica di San Giusto di Susa, eds. Centro Culturale Diocesano Susa (Susa: Centro Culturale Diocesano Susa, 2002), 73-87. 13 Esposito, "Estouteville, Guillaume", 456-460. 14 Gill, "A French Maecenas"; Anna Delle Foglie, Francesca Manzari, L'inventario dei beni della basilica conservato nell'archivio di Santa Maria Maggiore, in Humanis Divina Iunguntur: un percorso museale della Basilica Liberiana, ed. Michał Jagosz (Rome: Lisanti, 2001), 51-71 (60)(61)(62). The interior of the church was completely altered by subsequent transformations; most of the sculptures are relocated to the apse or the Museum of Palazzo Venezia. entrusted to Isaia da Pisa the sculptures for the altar of the Holy Sacrament, and to Mino da Fiesole those in the tomb of St. Jerome and the Ciborio della neve (Figure 1), where the donor also appears. 15 Critics are divided in attributing the frescoes in the chapel of St. Michael to Piero della Francesca (and his workshop) or Benozzo Gozzoli. 16 Accessed directly from the right-hand aisle, the chapel comprised a large apsidal room, a sacristy, and an oratory ( Figure  2). The iconographical programme has been connected to the support given by Estouteville to Pius II for his planned crusade against the Turks, 17 while the chapel's size and lavish decorations suggest a funerary purpose. 18 However, the cardinal was not buried in Santa Maria Maggiore, but in the church of Sant'Agostino.  The work for the Augustinian church had been proceeding slowly since 1296, but in 1453, on the return of his first French legation, Estouteville decided to relaunch it, partially modifying the structure of the nave and the transept to host the large cross-vaults inspired by ancient bath complexes, and entrusting the large marble façade to Jacopo da Pietrasanta in 1479. The construction of the monastery began in 1469, on the area of the ancient church of San Trifone. 21 The works at Sant'Agostino marked the beginning of his munificent patronage in the Augustinian monasteries of Rome and Lazio, where Estouteville was always assisted by Ambrogio Massari. 22 As protector of the order, he also took an interest in the worksites of Santa Maria del Popolo, the monasteries at Anagni (reconstructed in the eighteenth century), and Cori, begun in around 1467 next to the medieval church of Sant'Oliva. Here, adjoining the monastery, a small cardinal's residence was also built. The cardinal's coat of arms, sculpted in three capitals on the first floor, marks the axes of the cloister (Figure 4), while he is recorded as the donor in the fresco in the chapel of the Crucifix. 23  Between 1472 and 1479, following a project recommended by Pius II to ensure and repopulate the stronghold of Ostia, he restored the village's defensive walls and built three rows of terraced houses and the bishop's palace, later altered by Giuliano della Rovere. 24 In Velletri, he built a small palace near the cathedral with Guelph windows on the first floor. 25 The quantity and quality of works commissioned certainly make Estouteville one of the protagonists of Roman architecture in the second half of the fifteenth century. The synergy with contemporary papal projects, evidenced both by the decorative programmes and the recourse to the same stonemasons, 26 is an indication of a desire to support the papal policy and, at the same time, to construct an image of a munificent prince of the church. By contrast, the image of the French monarchy does not seem to be his main concern. His commissions postdate the return of the legation of 1453, which marks a break with Charles VII and with the French clergy, and intensify from 1461, the date corresponding to the accession of Louis XI, with whom Estouteville did not manage to establish a collaboration, and to the arrival in Rome of three French cardinals: Richard Olivier de Longueil, Jean Jouffroy, and Jean Balue. After 1453 the likelihood of playing a leading political role in France faded away, and Estouteville turned his interests towards Rome, where he consolidated his career. He obtained first the seat of Porto, and then in 1461 that of Ostia. Most importantly, he became Dean of the Sacred College in 1472, and then camerlengo in 1477. This focus on promotion at Rome, certainly dictated by the impossibility of playing a front line role with Charles VII and Louis XI, was later reinforced by dynastic aims, linked to his numerous children with Girolama Tosti, to whom Estouteville became attached in the late 1460s. The vast wealth he accumulated allowed him to create a network of properties destined for his two sons, Girolamo 27 and Ambrogio, and to give large dowries to his daughters Caterina (married to Saba Mattei, son of Estouteville's administrator), Margherita (married to Mario Massimi, son of the Estouteville's banker), and Giulia (married to Giorgio Beninbeni, son of Estouteville's notary). 28

Jean Jouffroy
In comparison, the architectural patronage of Jean Jouffroy is 'microscopic', but it is very interesting considered in its context. Jean Jouffroy gravitated for years around the court of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and was therefore very distant from France. 29 After the council of Ferrara (1438), he entered the 'cardinal family' of Francesco Condulmer, and had the opportunity to live in Rome for some years. On his return to Burgundy, he undertook a 24  number of diplomatic missions to Portugal, Saxony, France, England, and Hungary. In the late 1450s, taking advantage of the conflict between Charles VII and his son Louis, he became close to the latter, laying the foundations for his future in France and Rome. Already as a bishop, in 1461 his 'double belonging' and the consequent conflicts of interest were evident: after Louis XI's consecration in Reims, he entered the Royal Council, but at the same time Pius II named him legate in France. According to the ambassadors of Francesco Sforza, in this circumstance Jouffroy's attitude was ambiguous. In his dispatches to the pope, Jouffroy wrote that Louis XI was ready to abolish the Pragmatic Sanction, while Francesco Coppini, bishop of Terrani, another papal emissary in France, presented a completely opposite situation: Nam per lettere del reverendo vescuo Attrabatense 30 Sua Santità non haveva queste cose per cossì dure come scriveva il vescuo de Terrani. Primo circa la pragmatica, quantunque il vescuo de Terrani scrivesse che la Maestà del re non la voleva tore, se non con le conditione et capituli che sa Vostra Excellentia, tamen Attrabatense scrive come il re liberamente la vole levare. 31 In December 1461, in the hope that his influence over Louis XI would serve to have the Pragmatic Sanction definitively abolished, Pius II appointed him cardinal. Jouffroy entered Rome as part of a French embassy in March 1462 and immediately tried to join the group of cardinals close to the pontiff. In May, he followed Pius II to Viterbo with cardinals Todeschini, Forteguerri, Eroli, Ammannati, Gonzaga, Borgia, and Estouteville, and during the journey he took part at the banquets and the divertissements of the group. 32 To please the pontiff, Jouffroy supported the project to turn the village of Corsignano into the town of Pienza early. 33 He was one of very few cardinals who actually bought property at Pienza and built a palace there, behind that of Rodrigo Borgia on the Corso Rossellino. 34 The façade ( Figure 5) and courtyard of his palace were in the same style of the palaces commissioned by the Italian prelates, almost all from Pius's family, revealing Jouffroy's desire to show his relationship with the same group. Probably, he partially succeeded in this 30 Referring to Jouffroy, bishop of Arras, whose dioceses in the lands anciently inhabited by the Atrabates, was commonly called 'Atrabatense'. 31 "Indeed, through the Arras's Bishop letters, His Holiness did not consider the subject matter as serious as  Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, vol. 39 (1976), 21-58 (48,50). objective, because even if Jouffroy's behaviour was deeply criticized in Pius's Commentarii, the pope never punished him. 35 Actually, despite the violent invective pronounced in Rome by Iacopo Ammannati in September 1464, in which he criticized Jouffroy's greed and French partisanship, and the deep tensions that obviously ensued, 36 the two cardinals re-established a good relationship during Paul II's pontificate, and even spent time together in Pienza. 37 On the part of a cardinal who did not plan to live long in Rome and who ended his days in France, the adherence to a short-term project like Pienza can only be explained with a desire to flatter the Pope in the hope of boosting his own ecclesiastical career. 39

Jean de Bilhères Lagraulas
The case of Jean de Bilhères Lagraulas is more delicate. Originally from the south of France, Lagraulas became a favourite of Louis XI, for whom he undertook several embassies, especially to Spain. 40 In 1474, on the death of Jean Jouffroy, thanks to the king's support, he obtained the prestigious abbey of Saint-Denis, in place of Guillaume d'Estouteville, a candidate for the papacy. As the king's right hand, he was appointed councillor of the Parliament of Paris in 1475, and delegate of the Parisian clergy at the Estates-General of Tours in 1484. He made a ceremonial entry to Rome on 11 November 1491 as the orator of the king of France, 41 and immediately succeeded in winning over Innocent VIII. On the pope's death, during the sede vacante, the Sacred College appointed him governor of the city of Rome. In 1493 he became a cardinal and, according to the diary of the Papal master of ceremonies Johannes Burckard, from then on he was very often present at the pope's side on public occasions and at Mass in Saint Peter's or in the capella majori, following the pope to Viterbo during the plague of October 1493. 42 However, the charms of the papal court do not seem to have distracted him from his role as royal emissary during the delicate period of the Italian campaigns. He was not present at the pope's side on only a few occasions, not coincidentally related to the alliance of Alexander VI with Aragon in Naples, or to the presence of the French army in Rome in 1495. In these circumstances, his bipolar attitude toward both the king and the pope was particularly difficult to manage. Lagraulas position was very delicate, and his behaviour could risk being ambiguous. His principal diplomatic actions were aimed at having Charles VIII recognized as King of Naples, and his way of pressuring the pope was as always the mirage of the abolition of the Pragmatic Sanction. But at the same time, his close relationship with the pope represented a way of exerting pressure on the king to maintain a primary role in the French political balance. In fact, his influence was in danger because of the rise of the ambitious councillor of Charles VIII, Guillaume Briçonnet, who strongly supported the War of Naples and then was created cardinal during Charles's stay in Rome. 43 Vaticanae, vol. 11 (2004) 41 Burckardus, "Johannis Burckardi liber notarum", vol. 1, 324-325. 42 Burckardus, "Johannis Burckardi liber notarum", vol. 1 (1483-1496): 448, 452, 454, 460, 462, 463, 468, 580, 581, 590, 592, 593, 597, 600, 602, 604, 613, 648, 651; vol. 2 (1497-1502): 8, 13, 15, 18, 20-22, 24, 41, 46-47, 49-50, 55, 59-60, 63, 68, 71, 74-76, 79, 91, 100, 123, 126, 128, 130, 132, 134-135, 137, 140, 142. 43   The ambivalence of Lagraulas's position is reflected in his patronage. As the king's emissary in Rome, Lagraulas was actively involved in the foundation of the monastery of the Minims at Trinità dei Monti, and of the church of San Luigi, donating huge sums of money for their constructions. 44 But the focal point of his interest was his tomb in the chapel of Santa Petronilla in Saint Peter's ( Figure 6) the late antique mausoleum on the left-hand side of the Constantinian basilica. 45 The tomb was to be overlooked by the statue of the Pietà, commissioned of Michelangelo in 1497, but still unfinished when Lagraulas died on 6 August 1499. 46 The location of this monument is of enormous importance. The chapel was also known as the chapel of the King of France, and its establishment dated back to Pepin the Short, who in 758, with Pope Paul I, decided to have the relics of Santa Petronilla moved into the mausoleum. 47 This was a way of underlining the links between France and the papacy, later renewed by Charlemagne in the Vatican basilica, and this link saw the role of Defender of the Church of Rome be transferred from the eastern emperor to the King of France. It is not by chance that Charles VIII went to attend mass in the chapel of Santa Petronilla during his stay in Rome. 48 So, his obedience to his king and the image of the French monarchy seem to have motivated Lagraulas's choice of burial place. The northern iconography of the Pietà-with the dead Christ in the arms of his seated mother-requested by the cardinal may also go in this direction. However, Voci sees in this iconographic choice the desire to flatter Alexander VI, through an allusion to the pope's heartfelt grief at the death of his son Giovanni, Duke of Candia, probably murdered on the orders of his brother, Cesare. If we accept this interpretation, Lagraulas was caught between two sovereigns in his patronage as well.

Thomas Leroy (Regis)
Thomas Leroy's early career at the Curia overlapped with Lagraulas's stay in Rome, and chronologically links the cardinals of the fifteenth century with Jean Du Bellay. When he arrived in Rome, probably in the early 1490s, 49 Leroy was neither the king's official ambassador nor a member of the high aristocracy, but a young prelate, devoted to Anne of Brittany, embarking on a career in the papal administration from the bottom ranks. 50 From 1508, he appears as a guarantor in all the deeds concerning the community of Sant'Ivo dei Bretoni, 51 and while his relations with San Luigi remain very superficial, his position there allowed him to keep the favour of Julius II during his numerous conflicts with Louis XII, and to be one of the procurators at the Lateran Council of 1512. 52 With the accession of François I and Leo X, his position changed drastically. Taking advantage of the position he had acquired in the curia, 53 and the considerable wealth amassed and astutely invested in properties in Rome and in bonds at the Monte di San Giorgio in Genoa, 54 Leroy entered the service of the king, who appointed him Maître de requestes ordinaires du Conseil et Chancelerie de Bretagne. 55 In 1521, he obtained the charge of Clericus Camerae Apostolicae, which made him a powerful exponent of the papal organization; the Clerici were to help the camerlengo in the temporal administration of the State, and to participate in the works of the Piena Camera Court, with deliberative vote. 56 In 1522, François I conferred upon him the lettres de noblesse, granting him the use of the fleur-de-lys on his coat of arms. 57 Strengthened by his flourishing economic position, Leroy was not an ambassador but a resident prelate, who now enjoyed both the trust of the king and of the pope and in this guise he began to deal with the community of San Luigi.
Since 1513, he had been acquiring houses and properties in the rione Parione between the Cancelleria, the palace of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, and the via Papalis. 58 In 1523, he started the construction of a palace in front of the Cancelleria, 59 attributed both to Antonio da Sangallo the Younger (especially the windows and the organisation of the façades in brick), and to Baldassarre Peruzzi (especially the courtyard with superimposed loggias in the form of serliana), reflecting the architectural research of architects acting in Rome in the early sixteenth century (Figure 7). 60 His recent elevation to the nobility was advertised by the use of the fleurde-lys of France in the decorations, always accompanied by the ermines of Brittany; on the façade, a sequence ermine-lily-ermine in the axe of the portal, a motif made by the alternation of lilies and couples of ermines in the fascia separating the first and the second floors, with the alternation of lilies and couples of ermines in the squares between the modillions beneath the corona of the upper cornice. Lilies and couples of ermines were also sculptured on the metopes of the Doric frieze in the courtyard, and on the anditus, while lilies and ermines adorned the ceramic tiles of the loggias floors and the ceiling beams of Leroy's apartment. The display of ermines after 1514 was clearly an allusion to his Breton origins, underlined also on the epigraph laid in the foundation of the building in 1523, and discovered during archaeological excavations of 1900: the text of the epigraph is ended by the ducal crown of Brittany instead of the Royal one (Figure 8). 61 Thomas Leroy built up a social and economic position for himself and his nephew Raoul, his universal heir, and both the construction of the palace and the ostentation of the fleur-de-lys served as a form of self-representation and not as an indication of national identity.

Jean Du Bellay
With Jean Du Bellay we move into the mid-sixteenth century, in the changed political conditions after the Battle of Pavia and the Sack of Rome, and the luxurious and cosmopolitan atmosphere of the European courts from the 1530s onwards. French diplomatic policy had also changed, with an increase of the number of French Cardinals in the Sacred College, and their more constant presence in Rome alongside the ordinary ambassadors. 62 A learned man of letters and profound connoisseur of antiquity, Du Bellay had close ties to François I, for whom he undertook embassies to England and Rome. 63 Here, he established an extensive network based on his membership of literary circles and his antiquarian research, including cardinals, aristocrats, men of letters, scholars, and artists. However, this network, as Du Bellay himself admitted, functioned in parallel to the political network, so that even the gift of an ancient artefact took on a diplomatic purpose, and the most secret information could be revealed in a learned gathering. 64 As an expert on Italian politics and the Roman balance of power, Du Bellay was a member of the Conseil du roi, and was very close to Anne de Montmorency and François I. 65 Until the death of the king in 1547, Du Bellay's architectural patronage was focused on the castle of Saint-Maur, near Fontainebleau, 66 but with the accession of Henri II and the new balance of power in the court and the Conseil du roi, his Roman missions intensified and concealed what was in effect an exile from the court. So from 1547, Du Bellay's career and patronage were concentrated in Rome. He passed from one titular church to another, moving up the hierarchy until he obtained Ostia, and was made Dean of the Sacred College. Caterina de' Medici donated to him the area of the Pontine marshes with the towns of Sezze, Priverno, and Terracina, where he intended to create a French stronghold on the border between the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples. Such a project was a utopian plan that betrays his hope of once again playing a strategic role at the court of Henri II, in the same way as the party organized in Rome in 1549 for the birth of the Duke of Orléans and described in great detail by Rabelais: a display of luxury and money to please the king, and to show off his standing with the Roman aristocracy and the Farnese family. 67 During this period, he financed many excavation campaigns, often in the properties belonging to his titular churches, 68 and rented various palaces, settling in 1554 in the Palazzo Della Rovere, in the rione Borgo. At the same time, he purchased lands in the area of the Baths of Diocletian to build a villa, known as Horti Bellaiani. 69 These were located near some famous cardinals' villas on the Quirinal hill (such as those of Ippolito d'Este and Rodolfo Pio), and exploited the hemicycle of the southern enclosure of the baths, with the Casino at its centre and a chapel in the north-west tower (Figure 9). The façade of the Casino presented superimposed loggias and a temple pediment reminiscent, thanks in part to the side wings ending in turrets, of Palladian prototypes. A geometrical garden was carved out among the massive ancient walls and the monumental gateway to the baths, while an uncultivated park extended towards the south. Part of the cardinal's famous collection of ancient sculptures was displayed on the two levels of the walkway. 70 In his official residence in the Borgo, already richly adorned with paintings by Pinturicchio and Salviati, Du Bellay had a loggia closed to make a frescoed gallery, in the French style, with a view of the Horti Bellaiani painted in the fourth bay ( Figure 10). In a classical perspective, the palace and the villa embodied the two types of renaissance residences: the first one consecrated to the negotium, the second one to the otium. Both these buildings, with their ornaments, gardens, and collections, formed part of a strategy of self-representation, celebrating the position he attained in Rome, despite his exile from the French court.

Conclusion
From the arrival of Guillaume d'Estouteville in Rome in 1439, to the death of Jean Du Bellay in 1560-which coincided with several transformations in the European political balancenumerous factors modified the political context in which the actions of each of the cardinals examined should be read. To consider these cardinals as a homogeneous group might overlook idiosyncratic factors, such as the process of the restoration of the papal monarchy, the relationships between the Papacy and the cardinals, and the relative status and political power of the Sacred College. 71 From this perspective, in all the cases examined, the prestige acquired in Rome served as a tool that could be used for political purposes back home, just as the favour of the king and the potential to influence his decisions were exploited in Rome to advance the pope's plans, and hope for the bestowal of rents and benefits.
Though the power and the influence of the French kings altered between the kingdoms of Charles V (1364-1380), Charles VII, and Henri II (1547-1559), the memory of Avignon was recent enough to make French cardinals in Rome perceived as a 'dangerous group' that, potentially, could renew the Great Schism. Furthermore, connoisseurship and integration in the Roman society and in the Vatican life-essential levers for diplomatic action-could produce some side effects.
Despite their long stays in Rome, none of these cardinals occupied the position of cardinal-protector of France: the first mention of the role is Jean Balue in 1485, 72 when d'Estouteville and Jouffroy were already dead. Lagraulas arrived in Rome as the orator of the king of France but he never had the role of cardinal-protector. Neither did Jean Du Bellay, even if on March 1548, with the imminent death of Agostino Trivulzio, cardinal-protector of France, he tried intensely but unsuccessfully to take his place. 73 In the cases of d'Estouteville and Du Bellay, who spent the major part of their life in Rome, this probably demonstrates that their position in the Sacred College, and their interactions with the pontiffs, were not always perceived as the more useful for the French king.
In the cases examined, the architectural patronage seems motivated above all by personal ambitions. Belonging to the French group, all the prelates examined had relationships with the French foundations in Rome: the Universitas curialium nationis Gallicana (the French community of curialists established in the area next to piazza Navona in the 1460s), the chapel of Santa Petronilla, and the churches of San Luigi and Trinità dei Monti. But their patronage is not more important than that of the other French prelates living in the eternal city, or that of the cardinals arriving just for the conclaves. 74 On the contrary, with the exception of Guillaume d'Estouteville, these cardinals distinguished themselves in Rome for their private patronage, concentrated in the construction of palaces, villas, and tombs. Cardinals' Roman palaces, as well as the buildings realised in their private estates in France, contributed in the autorepresentation of each cardinal, and played an important role in his family's strategies in the dynamics of the French court. 75 A case apart concerns the architectural patronage of d'Estouteville, which was not focused on the private sphere, but rather the restoration of Augustinian properties, the new works in Santa Maria Maggiore, and in the stronghold of Ostia -all of which show d'Estouteville's commitment to the projects of a renovatio urbis that characterized the papal policy toward the Eternal City in the second half of the fifteenth century. 76 This was the munificent attitude shared by the group of the rich cardinals, in whose category d'Estouteville belonged, both for his nobility and for his ecclesiastic benefits.
Economically, all the prelates examined in this study could be defined by avarice, some for family and dynastic reasons; others, like Jouffroy and Du Bellay, to satisfy their collector's thirst for manuscripts and ancient statues. However, these five individuals interpreted the relationship of French cardinals with Rome in different ways, as they did their position between the kingdom and the papacy and their use of patronage.
Jouffroy's main objective was his personal social advancement, both in manoeuvring between the various factions as a diplomat and in the use of architecture as a means of flattering Pius II: a sort of diplomatic 'mercenary'. 77 Lagraulas, by contrast, had close ties to the monarchy and resided in Rome as an instrument in the service of the national cause, underlining with his patronage the desire to boost the image of France in Rome, though without ever losing sight of the personal benefits that might accrue from papal favour.
Even if Estouteville was vastly richer than Du Bellay, they both shared their unbridled luxury and extensive networks of Roman and Italian relations. Both made Rome their residence of choice because they were marginalized from the French political scene, showing that the cardinalate and Rome might represent an alternative to a secular political career. For both, artistic patronage fulfilled a personal need for self-representation within the dynamics proper to the Roman elite, acting only occasionally and marginally as representatives of the King of France. Estouteville was also motivated by the desire to ensure a fitting future for his children, while the other cardinals had more wide-ranging and less specific family strategies: Jouffroy, Lagraulas, and Du Bellay had nephews as their 'ecclesiastical' heirs to succeed them in their bishops' seats.
Finally, the case of Thomas Leroy demonstrates that it was not only cardinals who took part in these dynamics. Although he did not reach the same heights of power, like the cardinals he exploited the position he attained in Rome allowed him to obtain benefits at home and vice versa, astutely moving between France and Brittany, depending on the contingent political situation, and supporting the pope or the king, as circumstances demanded. 76 Richardson, "Reclaiming Rome". 77 'Mercenarius' is one of the epithets pronounced by Ammannati in his invective of 1464 (Ammannati, "Letters", 537).