Louis de Bourbon (bishop of Liège)
Roman Catholic bishop (1438-1482)
Louis de Bourbon (1438 – 30 August 1482 in Liège) was Prince-Bishop of Liège from 1456 until his death.
Family
He was the son of Charles I, Duke of Bourbon, and Agnes of Burgundy. His own sister Isabella was the second wife of Charles the Bold.
He was brought up and educated by his uncle Philip, Duke of Burgundy, who let him study for ten years at the University of Leuven.
It has been said that Louis married, in secret in 1464, Catherine, daughter of Arnold, Duke of Gelderland; these claims date only from the seventeenth century and are now believed to be false.
Louis' three children (all likely to have been born from a mistress) were:
Pierre de Bourbon, bâtard de Liège (1464–1529)
Louis de Bourbon, bâtard de Liège (1465–1500)
Jacques de Bourbon, bâtard de Liège (1466–1537)
Louis' eldest son, Pierre, founded the Bourbon-Busset family.
Conflict over the bishopric
In 1456, Louis was given, through the efforts of Philip, Duke of Burgundy, the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, by influencing Pope Callixtus III and removing the 69-year-old John of Heinsberg. Given the strategic position of Liège almost enclosed by Burgundian possessions, Louis was a poor choice because his behavior quickly led to troubles, permitting French meddling.
The citizens rejected the new bishop and the Burgundian influence, which led to the Liège Wars. Louis was exiled to Maastricht.
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This entry incorporates text from “Louis de Bourbon (bishop of Liège)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.