Hugues de Lionne was a French statesman.
He was born in Grenoble, of an old family of Dauphiné. Early trained for diplomacy, he fell into disgrace under Cardinal Richelieu, but his remarkable abilities attracted the notice of Cardinal Mazarin, who sent him as secretary of the French embassy to the congress of Munster, and, in 1642, on a mission to the pope.
In 1646 he became secretary to the queen regent Anne of Austria; in 1653 obtained high office in the kings household; and in 1654 was ambassador extraordinary at the election of Pope Alexander VII.
On the death of Ferdinand III, Hugues co-led the French effort to select an Emperor outside the Habsburg family. He and the Cardinal cultivated relationships with German nobility, including Franz Egon of Fürstenberg, prime minister of Cologne, and his brother Wilhelm. With their help, Hugues was instrumental in forming the league of the Rhine, by which Austria was cut off from the Spanish Netherlands, and, as minister of state, was associated with Mazarin in the Treaty of the Pyrenees, which secured the marriage of Louis XIV to the infanta Maria Theresa of Spain.