AMBOISE, GEORGES D' (1460-1510), French cardinal and minister of State, was the son of Pierre d'Amboise, seigneur de Chamont, chamberlain to Charles VII. and Louis XI. Georges d'Amboise was bishop of Montauban, then archbishop of Nar bonne, and then (1493) of Rouen. On the accession of Louis XII., to whose party he had belonged before Louis was king, D'Amboise became a cardinal and first minister of the crown. His domestic policy was wise and prudent. In foreign affairs he was animated by two aims—to increase the French power in Italy and to seat him self on the papal throne; and these aims he sought to achieve by diplomacy, not by force. He, however, sympathized with, and took part in, the campaign which was begun in 1499 for the conquest of Milan. In 1500 he was named lieutenant-general in Italy and charged with the organization of the conquest. On the death of Alexander VI. he aspired to the papacy. He had French troops at the gates of Rome, by means of which he could easily have fright ened the conclave and induced them to elect him ; but he was persuaded to trust to his influence ; the troops were dismissed, and an Italian was appointed as Pius III.; and again, on the death of Pius within the month, another Italian, Julius II., was chosen (1503) . D'Amboise received in compensation the title of legate for life in France and in the Comtat Venaissin. He was one of the negotiators of the disastrous treaties of Blois (15o4), and in 1508 of the League of Cambrai against Venice. In 1509 he again accompanied Louis XII. into Italy, but on his way home he died at Lyons on May 25, 1510. His body was removed to Rouen, and a magnificent tomb, on which he is represented kneeling in the attitude of prayer, was erected to his memory in the cathedral.
See Lettres du roi Louis X11. et du cardinal d'Amboise (1712) ; L. Legendre, Vie du cardinal d'Amboise (Rouen, 1726) ; J. A. Deville, Tombeaux de la cathedrale de Rouen (3rd ed., 1881) ; E. Lavisse, Histoire de France (vol. v. by H. Lemonnier, 1903) . For a biblio graphy of the printed sources, see H. Hauser, Les Sources de l'histoire de France, X V I siecle, vol. i. (1906) .