Fleury Andre Herculede

Fleury, Andre Hercule de (1653-1743), a French cardinal and prime minister, was born in Languedoc, and was educated at the Jesuit College of Clermont. He then went to Paris to study philosophy, and such was his progress that he became successively a canon of Montpellier, a doctor of the Sorbonne, and almoner to the queen and then to the king. Louis XIV. made him Bishop of Frgjus and tutor of the prince afterwards Louis XV. After the death of the king he managed to retain the favour of the regent, and in 1726 he became chief minister, and was made cardinal. He piloted France safely through a war with Germany, which resulted in the acquisition of Lorraine by France. A later war, which he did not live through, was unsuccessful.