Jacques Davy Duperron (15 November 1556 – 6 December 1618) was a French politician and Roman Catholic cardinal. Family and Education Jacques Davy du Perron was born in Saint-Lô in Normandy, into the Davy family, of the Norman minor nobility, in the branch "Davy du Perron" after a property near St. Lô (in French his name is spelled Jacques Davy du Perron). He is never referred to as "Davy", and he usually signs his documents "Du Perron". The spelling "Duperron" is almost certainly wrong. His father Julien was a physician, who, on embracing the doctrines of the Reformation, became a Protestant minister; his mother was Ursine Le Cointe, daughter of Guillaume Le Cointe, sieur de Tot et d' Héranville en Cotentin. During the siege of Rouen in 1562 by the troops of King Charles IX, Julien his father was arrested and imprisoned in Old Palais in Rouen. Ursine and her two children escaped through the royal lines and eventually was reunited with her husband in Bas Normandie. To escape persecution the family settled at Bern, in Switzerland. There Jacques received his education, being taught Latin and mathematics by his father, and learning Greek and Hebrew and the philosophy then in vogue, Aristotelianism, as well as that of Thomas Aquinas and that of the Calvinist favorite, St. Augustine of Hippo. During the disorders following the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (23–24 August 1572 in Paris; a month later in Normandy) the family fled to the Island of Jersey, which was under Protestant English control. Career under Henry III Returning to Normandy, du Perron's existence and his talents were drawn to the attention of a courtier who was visiting General Jacques of Matignon, the Governor of Normandy. This courtier, named Lancosme, took du Perron along with him when he returned to Blois, where the new King, Henry III of France, was residing. He was presented to the King one evening during dinner, where he acquitted himself well both in speaking and in answering questions posed by the King's attendants. After he had abjured Protestantism, by 1578 probably, he was again presented by Philippe Desportes, abbot of Tiron, as a young man without equal for knowledge and talent. He was appointed Reader to the King by Henry III [Lecteur de la chambre du Roy]. In 1578 he is also mentioned as Professeur du Roy aux langues, aux mathematiques, et en la philosophie. He was