Bonivard
FRANÇOIS DE (bō-nëvär'), a younger son of a family which held large possessions under the House of Savoy, was born about 1496 at Seyssel, BONN on the Rhone, and in 1513 became prior of St.
Victor at Geneva. Falling under the suspicion of the Duke of Savoy, he was taken prisoner by him in 1519. After 20 months' imprisonment he was set free, but i 1530 he was again seized, and taken to the castle of Chillon, Lake of Geneva, where he was imprisoned for six years, the last four in that subterranean vault which the genius of Byron has made famous by his poem. He died in 1570. His chief works are his "Chro- Genève" (1551; new ed., 2 vols., 1831), and "De l'Ancienne et Nouvelle Police de Genève" (1555).