BEAU FORT, Cardinal, and bishop of Winchester (b. about 1370), was a natural son of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, and was half-brother to king Henry IV. Ile win' educated in England and Germany, and in 1404 became bishop of Winchester. lie repeatedly filled the otlice of had chancellor, and was involved in all the most important political movements of his times. He was present at the council of Constance, and voted for the election of pope Martin V., by whom he was subsequently made a cardinal. When the cardinal's nephew, Henry V. of England, proposed to levy a new impost on the clergy, in order to raise money for carrying on the war against France, B. was the chief opponent of the measure; but nevertheless he lent the monarch, out of his own private purse, £23,000—an almost incredibly large sum in those days, and one which justifies the belief that he was the wealthiest subject of his time in all England. Ilis ser vice in this affair was soon recognized by the pope, who sent him as legate into Ger many, there to organize a crusade against the followers of John (fuss. This undertaking
failed; and thecardinal, having expended, in levying an English army against France, the moneys granted from Rome for other purposes. now fell under papal-displeasure. In 1431, B. conducted the young king, henry VI., to France, to be crowned in Paris as king-of Franceand England. Ilere he also endeavored, but vainly, to reconcile the duke of Bedford, of France. with the offended duke of Bur; udy. Cardinal B. died at Winchester in 1447. His memory is stained by his suspected participation in the mur der of his great political rival, the duke of Gloucester, who headed the lay opposition to the despotism of ecclesiastical statesmen; and by the fact that he presided over the tribunal which sentenced the maid of Orleans to perish at the stake.