BEAUFORT, brefrt or b'O'fert, HENRY ( ? 1447). An English cardinal. He was an illegiti mate son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and was educated and spent most of his youth at Aix-la-Chapelle. After holding various offices in England, he became Bishop of Lincoln in 139S, and chancellor of the University of Oxford in 1399. After his half-brother, Henry IV., became King, Beaufort was made Chancellor of England, in 1403. But he resigned this office when lie re moved to Winchester, of which he was made bishop in 1405. For the next forty years he was prominent in every political movement in England. He was twice again chancellor, and as such depended for his strength upon the support of Parliament. He amassed enormous wealth, and lent it freely to the King when the royal treasury was empty. On two occasions his loans to the State amounted to over £20,000, an extremely large sum for any individual at that time. Ile was present at the Council of
Constance, and voted for the election of Pope Martin V., by whom lie was subsequently made a cardinal and sent as legate to Germany, Hun gary, and Bohemia, to organize a crusade against the Hussites. This undertaking failed. The Cardinal soon after fell under the displeasure of the Pope, because he used in France an Eng lish army raised for the Crusades. In 1431 Beaufort conducted the young King, Henry VI., to France, and crowned him in Paris as King of France and England. Here he also endeavored, but vainly, to reconcile the Duke of Bedford, Regent of France, with the offended Duke of Burgundy. Cardinal Beaufort died at Win chester, April 11, 1447. Consult Stubbs, Con stitutional History of England, Vol. III. (Ox ford, 1891).