René de Birague (French pronunciation: [ʁəne də biʁaɡ]; Italian: Renato da Birago; c. 1506–24 November 1583) was an Italian then French noble, lieutenant-general, chancellor and cardinal during the latter Italian Wars and the French Wars of Religion. Born to a prominent Milanese family in 1506, his family sided with the French, and as such when Milan was occupied by Emperor Charles V they were forced to flee to French controlled Piedmont. Declared a criminal in 1536, his Milanese estates would be seized. Birague entered French service in the 1540s, being elevated to premier président of the Parlement of Turin, which in combination with his service under the French governor Marshal Brissac from 1550, afforded him immense administrative power in the French occupied territories. In 1562 with the French withdrawal from the Piedmont, he departed his post in the Parlement, however the following year would see him elevated in one of the remaining French held towns, as leader of the Supreme Council of Pignerol.
Moving into French service in France, he served as a diplomat in securing Charles IX's marriage to Elisabeth de Hapsburg in 1563. In 1565 he secured the unusual appointment as lieutenant-general of the Lyonnais, granting him military powers over the province and administrative in the absence of the governor. He deftly mobilised the town to provide large funds for a mercenary force during the second war of religion. In 1568 he was replaced as lieutenant-general by François de Mandelot. In 1568, Michel de l'Hôpital lost the seals of the Chancellorship, which went to Morvillier, in 1570 he in turn ceded them to Birague. As chancellor Birague enjoyed a rocky relationship with the Parlement. Birague was among the council that decided on the plan to liquidate the Protestant leadership in a pre-emptive strike, which would spiral out of control into the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew in 1572.
That same year, on the death of his wife, Birague began to consider a career in the church, taking up the post of Bishop of Lodève in 1573. Birague urged first Charles and then Henri III to take a harsh line against the prince's who plotted with the Malcontents in 1574-5. During the interregnum between Charles' death and the return of Henri to the kingdom, Birague led the regency council for Catherine de Medici. His advice was however ignored by the kings, and after the flight from court of Alençon, brother to the king, he was accused by the renegade prince of having tried to poison him, though there is no evidence of this. Alençon was able to successfully pressure the crown into a generous peace, and during the Estates General of 1576 that was called as a consequence, Henri dispatched Birague to beg the estates for money, to little effect. In 1578 Birague was relieved of the seals of the Chancellorship in favour of Philippe Hurault de Cheverny, though he would remain chancellor in a technical capacity until his death. That same year the king compensated him through generous financial contributions, and an appointment as cardinal. Made a commander in Henri's new Ordre du Saint-Esprit in 1580, he would join the 'white penitents' in March 1583, shortly before his death that same year.
Birague came from a family of the Milanese nobility which had defected to French service during the reign of François I. His father, Giangiacomo was of the prominent Galeazzo family, while his mother Anna came from the prominent Trivulzio family and was thus a relation of the French Marshal Teodoro Trivulzio. Birague was born in 1506/7 in Milan.
With the occupation of Milan by Emperor Charles V, many of the Birago retreated to Piedmont safely away from the Emperor. On 5 May 1536 the emperor declared that the nobility who had fled from Milan would be charged as criminals unless they returned immediately. Birague refused to return and as such his share of the Ottobiano fief was forfeit.
He married Valentine Balbiani, from the town of Chieri, with whom he would stay until her death in June 1572. Together they would have a daughter, who was married several times.
In 1577 he threatened the students of Poitiers, who he suspected had kidnapped his dog. He had a reputation for immense wealth, and he kept much of it with Italian bankers. Indeed the king entered contract with him on occasion for funds. He maintained a luxurious residence in Paris, from which he could entertain the court, before selling it to Marguerite de Valois in 1582.
During the latter Italian Wars, Birague provided support to the French war effort in Italy from his base in Turin where he was the premier président in the Parlement, an office he would hold until the French vacation of Turin in 1562. He wrote to Cardinal Lorraine with the ambition of keeping the French court appraised of developments on the peninsula. He had since 1547 been maître des requêtes of Vizelle. In 1550, Marshal Brissac assumed authority as lieutenant-general of the Piedmont. To support him in this strategic office, Birague took charge of the civil administration of those areas under French control, while Vimercato provided local military leadership. The following year he was involved in the negotiations that saw the surrender of Chieri to the French, after a siege by Brissac.
Birague used his authority in Piedmont to suppress and persecute the Waldensians, this aroused the concern of the council of Bern, which wrote to Brissac to protest Birague's actions. Brissac did little in response, as Birague's actions were in agreement with the policy of the king.
As the crisis of the civil wars deepened with the fall of many major towns to the Protestant rebels, it was decided that it would serve the crowns interests well to secure the friendship of the duke of Savoy. To this end Catherine decided that several towns that the French had held onto in the Piedmont at the end of the Italian Wars would be ceded to the duke. Bourdillon lieutenant general of Piedmont, Morvillier, Alluye and Birague were entrusted with the commission to oversee the transfer of the settlements. Bourdillion refused his role, arguing that as the king was a minor such a transfer could not take place. Bourdillion was eventually bought off from his opposition by an offer of the marshalate, allowing the transfer to go ahead. One of the towns that France maintained authority over was Pignerol. A council was set up to govern this territory, with Birague at its head in June 1563. During that same year he travelled to Wien to secure the marriage negotiations between Charles IX and Elizabeth de Hapsburg.
In 1565, Birague was elevated to the position of lieutenant-general of the Lyonnais, giving him authority over the military situation in the province and the powers of governor in the absence of Jacques, Duke of Nemours. This was an unusual appointment for a member of the administrative nobility, but not unheard of. At the outbreak of the second war of religion, he mobilised the Catholic notables of Lyon to provide a forced loan to defend the town against an attempted Protestant seizure. He authorised the confiscation of Protestant property and the re-selling of it to raise more funds. By this means he raised 174,000 livres with which he raised four mercenary companies under the command of Chambery. Throughout his tenure in the Lyonnais Birague sought to repress Protestantism with the support of the commissars under his authority. He was replaced as lieutenant-general by François de Mandelot in 1568. During the 1560s Birague also entered the king's council, representing hardliner Catholic positions.
His policy of conciliation and tolerance of Protestantism increasingly falling out of favour, Michel de l'Hôpital surrendered the seals of the chancellorship in September 1568, unwilling to use them to renew the civil wars. In his place as keeper of the seals, the king turned to Morvillier a more reliable protégé of Catherine. That same year another fidèle of Catherine entered the royal council, Birague. Morvillier in turn returned the seals in 1570, disgusted at the king's willingness to release the duke of Lorraine from the fealty he owed the crown of France for the Duchy of Bar. Birague became garde des sceaux, giving him the de facto powers of chancellor, he was formerly appointed to the office of chancellor in 1573 upon the death of Hôpital. As chancellor he would not exert the same influence on the administration as his predecessor Hôpital had. Some commentators criticised his administration due to the poor relations it enjoyed with the Parlement of Paris.