François Bonivard

He was educated by various monks under the jurisdiction of his uncle, Jean-Aimé de Bonivard, who was prior of St.-Victor, a monastery just outside the walls of Geneva.

At the age of seven, Bonivard was sent to study at Pinerolo, Italy; for most of his youth, he reportedly preferred amusements to learning.

He was cozened by friends, the Lord of Varuz and Brisset, the Abbot of Montheron of the Pays de Vaud, who betrayed him.

He was made bourgeois of Geneva in 1537, a position he felt compelled to renounce due to his precarious finances.

Mazure's fortune, however, was left to her son; though Bonivard's first wife seems to have been a good manager of his estate, he was dedicated to spending money and hosting dinners for his friends, and reportedly scandalized the neighborhood with his parties.

His fourth wife, therefore, was an unfrocked nun, Catherine de Courtaronel or Courtavonne; he was sixty-nine, and there is no evidence that they wished to marry except to quiet the neighbors.

[7] A few years later, Catherine was arrested in their house for immorality and infidelity; Bonivard sought to exonerate her, but she was executed by drowning in the Rhone River, and her lover was beheaded.