L'Hôpital, Michel de (1507–1573)

French lawyer and political figure. As chancellor (1560–68) he sought to reach a compromise in the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in France. With the resumption of the Wars of Religion in 1567, however, Catherine de' Medici lost confidence in him and his policy of religious toleration, and he retired to his estates.

L'Hôpital had a distinguished career in French political life. He became councillor of the parlement of Paris in 1537, and in 1547 was Henry II's envoy to the Council of Trent. In 1553 he became Master of Requests (responsible for petitions to the king), and in 1555 president of the finance ministry, the chambre des comptes. As chancellor (1560–68) he worked for judicial reform and joined the moderate Catholics (the politiques) in their search for a compromise to end religious conflict. His most important work on this issue was the Edict of Orléans (1566).

His Epistolarum seu sermonum libri VI appeared posthumously in 1585.