Philippe Canaye

Philippe de La Canaye, sieur de Fresnes (1551–27 February 1610)[1][2] was a French jurist and diplomat.

Life

He was born in Paris, son of an advocate of the Parlement; he was brought up liberally and allowed to choose his beliefs, which became Calvinist. He travelled aged 15 in Germany and Italy and to Istanbul. He then took up the law and became prominent at the bar of the Parlement.

Under Henry III of France he purchased a position as councillor. Henry IV sent him as ambassador to England (1586), Switzerland (1588) and to Germany.

He was président de la chambre at Castres in 1595; and in 1600 Henry IV made him arbiter at the Fontainebleau conferences between Cardinal Jacques Du Perron for the Catholics, and Philippe Duplessis-Mornay for the Protestants. He became a Catholic convert in 1601.

From 1602 he was ambassador at Venice; at the time of the Venetian Interdict he skilfully resolved differences of the Republic with Pope Paul V, who showed gratitude. He died in Paris.

Works

He left an account of his embassies, memoirs (1635), and a work on the Organon of Aristotle (1589).

References

  1. Jean-Chrétien-Ferdinand Hoefer (1855), Nouvelle Biographie Générale, 8, Paris: Firmin Didot frères, pp. 442–3
  2. François-Alexandre Aubert de La Chesnaye-Desbois (1864), Dictionnaire de la Noblesse, 4 (3 ed.), Paris: Schlesinger frères, pp. 649–50
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