BENTIVOGLIO, Guido, Cardinal, an eminent statesman and historian, was born at Ferrara in 1579. After studying at Padua, he went to reside at Rome, where he became universally esteemed. He was sent as nuncio into Flanders, and afterwards to France; and when he returned to Rome he was intrusted by Louis XIII. with the management of the French affairs at that court. He was the intimate friend of Pope Urban VIII., and on the death of Urban public opinion marked out Bentivoglio for his successor. But on
Bentley. entering the Conclave, the excessive heat of the weather threw him into a fever, of which he died on the 7th of September 1644. He has left several works, the most remarkable of which are, A History of the Civil Wars of Flanders; An Account of Flanders; Letters, and Memoirs.