Guillaume Dubois, a French cardinal and statesman, born in Brive-la-Gaillarde, Limousin, Sept. 6, 1656, died in Versailles, Aug. 10, 1723. He was the son of an apothecary, went at an early age to Paris, studied in one of the colleges, and became a private teacher, and eventually tutor to the duke de Chartres, afterward duke of Orleans. He flattered his young pupil, persuaded him to marry Mlle, de Blois, a natural but legitimized daughter of Louis XIV., and was rewarded with a rich abbey in Picardy, and sent on a mission to England. On his return to Paris he acted as private secretary to the duke; and when on the death of Louis XIV. in 1715 the latter was invested with the regency, Dubois became a member of the council, and exerted a prominent influence on foreign affairs. He concluded in 1717, in concert with Lord Stanhope, the famous triple alliance of France, England, and Holland against Spain, subsequently made a quadruple alliance by the adhesion of Austria. After becoming minister of foreign affairs, he baffled the conspiracy of the Spanish ambassador Cellamare, instigated by the Spanish prime minister Al-beroni, to make Philip V. of Spain regent of France in place of the duke of Orleans. A war with Spain ensued, which resulted in the fall of Alberoni and the submission of Philip to the stipulations of the quadruple alliance.

Dubois was appointed archbishop of Cambrai, and eventually cardinal, prime minister, and member of the French academy. His administration was marked by a certain degree of vigor, and he unquestionably had great ability; but his life on the whole presents a hideous array of selfishness and shameless vices. When the operations of the Scotch financier Law brought the country to the verge of bankruptcy, and while the regent was spending his time in debauchery, Dubois availed himself of the opportunity to amass an immense private fortune, derived from regular revenues, an English pension, and the benefits accruing from the six abbeys of which he was the incumbent, independent of the see of Cambrai. A record of his private life appeared in 1789, and his memoirs in 1817. Those published in 1829 are not authentic.