FOIX, PAUL DE (1528–1584), French prelate and diplomatist. He studied Greek and Roman literature at Paris, and jurisprudence at Toulouse, where shortly after finishing his curriculum he delivered a course of lectures on civil law, which gained him great reputation. At the age of nineteen he was named councillor of the parlement of Paris. Having in this capacity expressed himself favourable to the adoption of mild measures in regard to certain persons accused of Lutheranism, he was arrested, but escaped punishment, and subsequently regained the favour of the French court. At the end of 1561 he was sent ambassador to England, where he remained four years. He was then sent to Venice, and returned a short time afterwards to England to negotiate a marriage between Queen Elizabeth and the duke of Anjou. He again fulfilled several important missions during the reign of Henry III. of France. In 1577 he was made archbishop of Toulouse, and in 1579 was appointed ambassador to Rome, where he remained till his death in 1584.
Les Lettres de Messire de Paul de Foix, archevesque de Toloze et ambassadeur pour le roy auprès du pape Grégoire XIII, au roi Henry III, were published in 1628, but there are some doubts as to their authenticity. See Gallia Christiana (1715 seq.); M. A. Muret, Oraison funèbre de Paul de Foix (Paris, 1584); “Lettres de Catherine de Médicis,” edited by Hector de la Ferrière (Paris, 1880 seq.) in the Collection de documents inédits sur l’histoire de France.