Eustace Chapuys (1490-21 January 1556) was the Holy Roman Empire's ambassador to England from 1529 to 1545, succeeding Íñigo López de Mendoza y Zúñiga and preceding Francois van der Delft.
Biography[]
Eustace Chapuys was born in Annecy, Savoy, Holy Roman Empire in 1490, and he studied at Turin, Valence, and the Sapienza University of Rome. Chapuys became a humanist, and he made good friends with Thomas More and Desiderius Erasmus (the latter through writing only). In 1517, he became an ordained priest of the Catholic Church, and he became a Canon of the Cathedral of Geneva and Dean of Viry. After being appointed to several other church offices, Chapuys became ambassador to England in 1529, succeeding Íñigo López de Mendoza y Zúñiga.
Ambassadorship[]
Chapuys and Mary
Chapuys, a devout Catholic, defended Catherine of Aragon against King Henry VIII of England's divorce proceedings, as Chapuys had legal expertise and was fluent in Latin; he also conspired with William Brereton to assassinate Anne Boleyn in order to prevent King Henry from breaking with the Catholic Church. Eustace Chapuys was a good friend and confidant of Prinecss Mary of England during his 16-year stay in England as ambassador, as Mary was a devout Catholic in a very anti-Catholic family, and Eustace shared her disdain for the king's womanizing, mistreatment of Catholics, and his initial disinheritance of Mary. On 31 December 1540, during New Year's celebrations, Lady Mary told Chapuys, "You are, and always have been, my most faithful and truest friend in all this world. I could not bear it if you were ever to leave here." In 1539, Chapuys began to suffer from gout, and he was relieved in 1545 after telling Emperor Charles V of his health issues. He died in Louvain, Duchy of Brabant in 1556 at the age of 66.