ABSTRACT
Charles Paschal’s biography gives an unequivocally laudatory account of Guy du Faur de Pibrac as a moderate Catholic and a conservative royalist who successfully pursued a career in three royal administrations over more than two decades of brutal religious wars. Pibrac's appointment as Marguerite de Valois's chancellor receives only a parenthetical mention in Paschal's biography. On Pibrac's death, then, Paschal needed to act quickly to secure an alternative source of support. In between 1589 and his Swiss appointment in 1604, Paschal continued to rise in the royal administration. In creating a portrait of Pibrac as so entirely blameless, Paschal reveals his gratitude to his patron. Treatises on the ideal ambassador, along with Paschal's own Legatus, thus constitute an intriguing interpretative key to the portrait of Pibrac. Like that of Gentili before him, Paschal's definition of the ambassador cites eloquence and intellect as central to the diplomatic role.
