Editing Jean Balue (section)

====Imprisoned====
[[File:Jean-Leon Gerome - Louis XI of France visiting Cardinal Balue in his iron cage.jpg|thumb|''Louis XI of France visiting Cardinal Balue in his iron cage'', painting by [[Jean-Léon Gérôme]], 1883]]
But Balue shortly became compromised in the king’s humiliation by [[Charles I, Duke of Burgundy|Charles the Bold]] at [[Péronne, Somme|Péronne]], as more and more important persons expressed disapproval of the treaty. Even people in the streets began to mock the King and his treaty.<ref>Forgeot, pp. 66-67.</ref> Louis decided to place all of the blame on Balue, who found himself excluded from the Council.<ref>Forgeot, p. 70.</ref> He then intrigued with Charles against the King, revealing details of the King's secret plans. Their secret correspondence was intercepted by accident when, in April 1469, a suspicious priest was fortuitously arrested.<ref>Breguet, p. 159.</ref> On 23 April 1469 Balue was arrested at Amboise, and then transferred to Montbazon. The King was intent on putting Balue on trial for treason before royal judges, and Louis appointed a commission of eight men to find out the truth and mete out the punishment; but that raised the old issue of the exemption of clerics from civil jurisdiction; a cleric could only be tried in an ecclesiastical forum in accordance with Canon Law, and that was the position of Pope Sixtus IV. There was an impasse, which neither party wanted to take the responsibility for solving. King Louis sent an agent to Rome, Pierre Gruel, a President of the Parlement of Grenoble to explain the situation to the Pope. He was joined in November by Guillaume Cousinot, Sieur de Montreuil, and a lawyer Guillaume Lefranc. The ambassadors were received by the Pope on 1 December 1469, and a long series of discussions and debates ensued, which finally ended in an agreement to disagree as to who had the right and obligation to proceed against Balue.<ref>{{cite book|author=Simon H. Cuttler|title=The Law of Treason and Treason Trials in Later Medieval France|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rVHPC_QVLB0C&pg=PA75|year=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-52643-2|pages=74–77}} Forgeot, pp. 70-86. The lengthy and detailed report of Cousinot to King Louis is published by {{cite book|author=Charles Pinot- Duclos|title=Œuvres complètes de Duclos|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gw1AAAAAYAAJ|volume=Tome IV|year=1806|publisher=Colnet|location=Paris|language=French|pages=268–311}}</ref> At the end of January 1470 Cardinal Balue was removed to Onzain on orders of Louis XI, but by 2 July 1472 he was being kept at Chinon.<ref>Forgeot, p. 99. On that date the Cardinal signed a document naming a prebend of the Cathedral of Angers; he signed at Chinon.</ref> In May 1472 Cardinal Bessarion was sent as Legate to France, and he held discussions with Louis XI about the release of Balue, but without success.<ref>Forgeot, p. 101. Louis and Sixtus IV exchanged letters in the summer of 1472, without effect.</ref> He remained a prisoner for eleven years, but not, as has been alleged, in an iron cage.<ref>Forgeot, pp. 96-97.</ref> His accomplice, the Bishop of Verdun, Guillaume d'Harancourt, was kept in the Bastile.<ref>Forgeot, p. 37 note 1.</ref> The charge was ''lèse-majesté''.

In Angers the Vicars of Cardinal Balue remained loyal and resisted the pressures from the Cathedral Chapter and the King until 1472, when they renounced the exercise of their functions under threat of royal fines. In March 1476 Pope Sixtus IV took the extraordinary step of relieving Bishop Jean de Beauvau of the various ecclesiastical censures which he had incurred, and returning his former benefices; his various acts were ratified. He was then named Apostolic Administrator of the diocese of Angers, superseding the Cardinal and his officers. Beauvau exercised this office until his death on 23 April 1479.<ref>Breguet, p. 160.</ref> The Chapter immediately elected as his successor a royal favorite, Auger de Brie (1479–1480).<ref>Léon Guilloreau, "Auger de Brie, administrateur de l'évêché d'Angers, correspondence relative à son élection (1479–1480)," in: {{cite book|title=L'Anjou historique|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=McwGQKPfMWQC|volume=Deuxième année|year=1901|publisher=J.Siraudeau|location=Angers|language=French|pages=596–611}}</ref> With Auger's appointment, a schism developed in the Chapter of the Cathedral of Angers, some Canons supporting the King's man, others supporting Cardinal Balue. The King wrote to the Pope about the situation, but the most that the Pope was prepared to do was to appoint a Coadjutor for Cardinal Balue.<ref>Forgeot, p. 108.</ref>

In June 1480, [[Julius II|Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere]] was sent to France as Legate to make peace between Louis XI and Maximilian of Austria, as well as to negotiate the release of Balue and Harancourt. He reached Paris in September, and finally, on 20 December 1480, King Louis gave orders that Balue be handed over to the Archpriest of Loudun, who had been commissioned by the Legate to receive him in the name of the Pope.