Antoine Duprat, a French cardinal and statesman, born at Issoire, Jan. 17, 1463, died July 8, 1535. He was successively bailiff of Montferrand, government advocate at Toulouse, member of the council of state, and president of the parliament of Paris. On the accession of Francis I., in 1515, he became chancellor and prime minister. In a conference with the pope at Bologna he conceded the abolition of the pragmatic sanction, and secured for the king the power of appointing the French bishops. His wife dying in 1516, he took orders, and was made archbishop of Sens, and finally a cardinal. The great object of his administration was to centralize all power in the hands of the king, To this end he sought to lessen the consequence of the constable duke de Bourbon by setting up the adverse claim of the queen mother Louise of Savoy to his great inheritance, thus driving him into an alliance with Charles V., and securing at his death in 1527 the confiscation of all his possessions in favor of Francis I. For the same purpose Duprat attacked the powers and privileges of the parliament, and succeeded in reducing it to a mere judicial body, and freeing the king from all control.

Duprat was noted for his subservience to the king, his cupidity, and his intolerance.