Armand Jean Of Plessis, cardinal of Richelieu. Prelate and French statesman. The personality of the cardinal of Richelieu a long time left in the shade the role of Louis XIII; however, the king had a determining role, and power between the two men divides it was particularly effective. Richelieu was a skilful and decided politician; imposing modern designs, it continued the task of construction of an absolutist royal State, which Henri IV and Sully had started.

As a Louis XIII, it met a sovereign willing to follow a policy of firmness. Richelieu made France the first power in Europe, not without causing the many dissatisfied ones, as well among the hostile catholics with the Protestants as in the nobility, and especially among the people.

From Plessis had received the bishopric of Luçon of Henri III. François of Plessis, the father of the future cardinal, became provost of the Hotel and large provost of France in 1578, two loads which enabled him to hold between its hands the direction of the police force and justice at the court of Henri III; there remained faithful to the king who, in thanks, did it knight about the Holy Spirit in 1585. After the death of the Valois last, assassinated in August 1589, it had joined without hesitation in its successor, Henri IV, and had become first captain of its guards.

First years

In 1566, François Of Plessis married Suzanne of the Door, resulting from a rich family of lawyers firmly established in the high Parisian magistrature. From their union were born five children, including three son: Henri, marquis de Richelieu, who died in duel in 1619; Alphonse, for which the bishopric of Luçon was intended; finally, Armand Jean. The future cardinal was born on on September 9th, 1585, in Paris - according to its own assertion, but certain historians think that it was born in Richelieu, in Indre-et-Loire. With the death of his father, in 1590, it was initially raised by his mother. It accepted with the family castle some rudiments of Greek and Latin until the twelve years age. In 1597, his/her uncle Amador of the Door, commander about Malta, led it to Paris; the young man consequently accepted a thorough teaching with the college of Navarre. As many other gentlemen, it was dedicated to the military career.

In 1605, his/her Alphonse brother refused to become bishop of Luçon and decided to enter in the Carthusian monks. To keep in the family inheritance the benefit of this modest episcopal see, Armand Jean had to give up the way of the weapons, and he embraced an ecclesiastical career. He precipitately began studies of theology in the Sorbonne, of which he became doctor in 1606; the same year, it was named bishop of Luçon by the king. In spite of his young age, the pope granted the canonical nomination in 1607 to him.

Religion with the policy (1614-1616)

In spite of his lack of religious vocation, Richelieu was very quickly regarded as one of the most dedicated prelates of France, because it observed with the letter the decrees of the council of Thirty, which placed the success of the catholic Reform between the hands of the bishops. This gifted young man had more political objectives however. In 1614, he was elected appointed clergy from Poitou with the general states, which were held in Paris of October 27th, 1614 on February 23rd, 1615. Within this assembly, whose rules over it Marie de Médicis wished to obtain the support vis-a-vis the large aristocrats, Richelieu was designated to be the spokesperson of his kind. For this reason, he made the final address, on on February 23rd, 1615, during which he made a supported praise of the government. Undoubtedly allured by her honesty, Marie de Médicis named it, in November 1615, at the post of chaplain of the future wife of Louis XIII, Anne of Austria. From now on introduced well into the mysteries of the power, Richelieu managed to sit at the Council of the king, where it entered in November 1616 as Secretary of State.

Rise with the cardinalat (1617-1624)

The government was then directed by Concino Concini, an Italian who had become the favorite of the regent. Hated by the nobility and the Parisian population, Concini had to face strong oppositions which caused finally its loss. On April 24th, 1617, the young person Louis XIII, who had been kept away from the business by his mother, granted his assassination. Marie de Médicis and all the men of the ministry, regarded as her creatures, were isolated. Richelieu had to exile himself in his diocese on the order of the king (October 26th, 1617), then in Avignon (April 16th, 1618). This short passage within the Council nevertheless had enabled him to be made some invaluable relations and to be initiated with the business of the kingdom.

Its distance was of short duration. At the time of the first war of the Mother and the Son, recalled by the king on the council of Luynes, Richelieu played a decisive part to reconcile Louis XIII and Marie de Médicis, who made peace in Angouleme, in 1619. However, having obtained of the king only the oral promise to be high with the cardinalat, Richelieu united in Marie de Médicis at the time of the second war of the Mother and of the Son it even encouraged to rebel; peace was signed on on August 10th, 1620 in Angers: its efforts made it possible Richelieu to be essential like a listened negotiator, and it obtained from the king the promise written to ask to the pope his rise with the cardinalat, which granted Gregoire XV on on September 5th, 1622. Marie de Médicis could reappear with the Council of the king in 1623, and she managed to convince her son to also make there return Richelieu (April 29th, 1624); she hoped to make of the cardinal the principal relay of her influence within the government. As of on on August 13th, 1624, the king replaced Vieuville, chief of the Council, by Richelieu.

The royal State, under Louis XIII, as Henri IV, was divided into the Councils: The Council of finances; Council of State; The Council of the parts, qualified out of legal matter; The Council of the seal; finally, the Council of the king or the Council of in top. Louis XIII attended only seldom the meetings, except with that of the Council of in top; Richelieu presented the broad outlines on which could engage the royal policy, the king always deciding in last spring - even if the reports presented by Richelieu were learnedly directed. The cardinal was pressed on some collaborators, of which the Joseph father. For Richelieu, the royal authority was an intangible principle; the “reason of State” was to determine all the acts of the sovereign it was in particular thus when the king had to make contrary decisions with his own feelings, for example to condemn to dead the duke of Morello cherry. On November 21st, 1629, Richelieu officially accepted from the king the title of “advising in our known as councils and principal minister of our State”.

In 1630, Richelieu took a big part with French forwardings in Italy and Savoy. However, it was soon constrained to negotiate to devote itself to the interior matters; indeed, the opposition to its policy antiespagnole was with its roof, and the devout party, joined together around Marie de Médicis, operated to obtain its reference.

The Day of Dupes (November 11th, 1630)

The devout party opposed the royal foreign policy more and more openly; indeed, Richelieu tried to counter Habsbourg, whereas its adversaries regarded them as the principal defenders of the Church vis-a-vis in England, the United Provinces and the Protestant princes of Germany. After Marie de Médicis had meant to him her reference of the load of superintendent, that he exerted near her, Richelieu feared to be disgraced by the king. He even planned to withdraw himself, but the king sliced in his favor during the Day of Dupes (November 11th, 1630). Richelieu definitively found “principal Minister for the king”.

Vis-a-vis the plots

The rebellion of noble at each period of weakness of the power was traditional in France; the royal minorities supported the catches of weapons of the industrial barons, jealous of their independence, and that of Louis XIII did not make exception. However, the disorders due to the nobility continued under the government of Richelieu. Indeed, the royal power then completed the change which made it lead to the absolutism of the Sun king; the choice offered to noble was only between rebellion and tender. It was not then any more a question for them of claiming “public property”, as under Louis XI or Henri III, and of claiming the convocation of the general states, but of defending their only size, a code of honor and the prerogatives which were attached to their row. The rebels, however, drew argument from the misery which the policy of Richelieu imposed to the people to require the reference of the minister.

Conspiracy of Chalais (1626)

In 1626, a conspiracy carried out by Marie de Rohan-Montbazon, duchess of Chevreuse and intimate friend of Anne of Austria, sought to prevent the marriage of Mister - Gaston, brother of the king - with allied of the house of Own way, Marie de Montpensier. The count de Chalais, who was plot, projected to assassinate Richelieu and to replace Louis XIII per Gaston; denounced, it was carried out on on August 19th, 1626, while the duchess of Chevreuse was to exile herself. Richelieu, for its part, obtained from the king a guard of fifty arquebusiers for his personal safety.

The time of the capital executions

Following the murder of two duellists by Morello cherry-Bouteville and the Vaults, Richelieu made prepare an edict prohibiting with noble to fight in duel, because he saw in this expeditious justice a way of placing himself above the laws - Bouteville and Of the Vaults were carried out in place of Strike on on June 22nd, 1627. In 1632, the duke of Morello cherry, which had revolted in Languedoc, was decapitated after a lawsuit of most expeditious. In 1637, Richelieu accepted the consents of the queen in the business of the Spanish letters: Anne of Austria, lasting more than four years, had corresponded with the power against which the cardinal followed his foreign policy; he intervened however with Louis XIII so that this one forgave the queen.

Conspiracy of Five-March

In 1642, Henri d' Effiat, marquis of Five-March, were the new favorite of the king; he made profitable the bad health of Richelieu, who prevented it from following the king at the time of the countryside of Roussillon, to organize the disappearance of the minister: at least its reference, and undoubtedly its assassination. Five-March was involuntarily encouraged in its intention by the king himself, which had acknowledged to him to be wearied absolute power of its minister. Five-March accepted the support of François de Thou and of the duke of Bubble, which offered Sedan like places safety at entreated; those were helped by Spain, which thus hoped to erase the military setbacks undergone vis-a-vis in France. Entreated informed Mister of their project, which in its turn spoke to the queen about it; it was undoubtedly it which denounced the plot with Richelieu in June 1642, unless it was not its Pujols spy. De Thou and Five-March were stopped on on June 12th, were condemned to died and were carried out the next on on September 12th in Lyon.

Spies of the cardinal

To fight against the plots, Richelieu was used for spies, of which some are famous. Thus, Riolant, doctor of Marie de Médicis, did not cease informing the cardinal about the intrigues of the queen, and it enabled him to counter the plot of Five-March effectively. The baron de Pujols spied on the court of Madrid, which enabled him to discover the bonds that maintained Spain with entreated which, in France, had joined to the count de Soissons or Five-March.

Richelieu was concerned with fights between religious factions, and often took the party of repression. For him, it was not tolerable that catholics or Protestants criticize the royal policy in the name of religious designs.

Against the Protestants

The keen fight carried out against the Huguenot ones, before even having religious goals, seems another slope of this policy of firmness with regard to the rebels. No doubt Richelieu planned in the long run to convert the Protestant minority, but, in the immediate future, it perceived especially the latter as an independent force which could become dangerous for the State. La Rochelle was the symbol, not only because of its defenses, considered invulnerable, but also because it maintained the privileged relations with England. It organized the seat of the La Rochelle, which began on on September 10th, 1627, and directed military operations until the capitulation of the city (October 28th, 1628). It also took share with the ultimate operations against the Protestants, and directed the seat of Deprived, which was completed on on May 26th by the catch of the city and the massacre of many its inhabitants. Finally, the Protestants were constrained to accept the edict of Grace, or peace of Went, on on June 27th, 1629, per which they gave up their places of safety while preserving their freedom of worship.

The catholic revival

The time of Richelieu was marked by a revival of the catholic spirituality, which appeared at the same time in the new missions assigned with the priests, and by the creation of new institutions. Richelieu, as a bishop of Luçon, stuck to the formation of the clergy to make Catholic church an exemplary body. Arrived in charge of the State, it attacked the Jansenists; the publication by Jansen of the Mars Gallicus (1635) was interpreted by the cardinal like a violent criticism of the policy antiespagnole of France. In May 1638 , the father Séguenot, a Jansenist, was stopped for his Traité work of Holy-Virginity, that Richelieu judged infâmant for the king; a few days later the cardinal made stop Saint-Cyran, the main thing propagating of the puritanism in France. This last left prison only in 1643, after the death of the cardinal.

Criticisms of the catholics against the foreign politics of the cardinal were also expressed through lampoons, whose Admonitio AD regem is one of most famous. He showed the cardinal, occupied fighting the house of Habsbourg, to thus support the enemies of Catholicism, in particular the Protestants. The business of had of Loudun illustrates the religious policy of the cardinal. In 1632, whereas the governor of Loudun tried to delay if not prevent the destruction of the keep of the city, Richelieu seizes business of the possession of the Ursulines, whose the priest Urbain Grandier was marked, in order to restore the order. Richelieu sent to Loudun an adviser of the king, Laubardemont, which made stop Grandier, then made it condemn to roughing-hew, while the city was submitted to the king.

The institutionalization of the relays of the power

From the years 1630, most political initiatives of Richelieu were marked by constant worry to register them in the duration. Royal police chiefs were sent in the provinces to restore the order at the time of the disorders due to tax excesses; little by little, the cardinal conceived the idea to maintain these police chiefs on the spot. The “intendants of justice, police force and finances” were thus instructed to relay its orders in the provinces and to provide him information. Certain intendants were equipped with considerable powers if the situation required it; thus, in Burgundy, following the revolt of Lanturlus, directed against the taxes (1630), the intendant Paul Hay of Châtelet was charged to restore the order.

Propaganda

Vis-a-vis the proliferation of the lampoons - four approximately thousand during the whole of the reign of Louis XIII -, Richelieu put a care particular to develop propaganda in favor of the government. He is at the origin of the creation of a new tool, the press, with the Gazette of France, founded in 1631 by Théophraste Renaudot. On the occasion, Richelieu did not hesitate to write for the Gazette, signing even certain articles. The Gazette was to serve the power, and it was subjected to the censure, exerted by the Joseph father. Moreover, it called upon the talent of many writers, charged to compose of the works to glory with the sovereign. The foundation of the French Academy by Richelieu, in 1635, thus made it possible to gather men of letters which honesty was maintained by pensions. These initiatives widened the room for maneuver of Richelieu vis-a-vis the opposition to the moment when France entered in war.

Since the beginning of the XVI ^E century, the foreign politics of the French sovereigns was dominated by their competition with Habsbourg, of which the possessions, in Spain, in Italy, in the Empire and in the Netherlands, threatened the kingdom of surrounding. It returned in Richelieu to pose the bases of the victory of France, which was acquired the shortly after its death, by the victory of Rocroi (May 19th, 1643), that followed the treaties of Wetsphalie (1648) and the Pyrenees (1659).

The reorganization of the army and the marine

At the time when France engaged militarily in the Thirty Year old war (1635), the armies of the king were strong of approximately a hundred and fifty thousand men, quantifies considerable if one it compared to forty thousand men which gathered, to the maximum, armies of François I, Henri II, or of Henri IV in 1610. They were however relatively poor troops; the command, moreover, was undermined by the competitions, and Richelieu could count only on a handful of able war leaders, in particular the Sourdis cardinal and the Guébriant generals and of Harcourt.

The navy was the object of all the care of the cardinal, named in 1626 large Master and general superintendent of the trade and navigation. The following year, it launched a program aiming at increasing the port of Le Havre. Richelieu endeavoured to create an embryo of shipyards, but, to mitigate the lack of experience of the French, it had to call upon English, and bought vessels in the United Provinces, including, in 1627, the vessel of the king, important building of 1000 barrels.

The fight against Habsbourg

While knowing that a new conflict was inevitable, Richelieu took care, in the first ten years of his ministry, not to engage there prematurely, because the cohesion of the country and the financial statement were not sufficient to carry out a fight which was announced still long. However, the situation was more critical since the beginning of the Thirty Year old war, in 1618; it still worsened in 1621 with the resumption of the war between Spain and the United Provinces. Also Richelieu led it initially a power struggle against Habsbourg: he financed the effort of war of Gustave II Adolphe of Sweden and the German Protestant princes, then he obtained the alliance of the United Provinces.

He could thus consolidate the accesses of the borders, in particular thanks to the citadel of Pignerol, in Piedmont, which he took to the Spanishs (March 29th, 1630), with Lorraine, that he made occupy in 1633, and Alsace (1634), in order to extend more to the east the glaze of territories protecting the c.ur from the kingdom of a possible invasion. In 1634, after the Imperial ones had gained a bright victory with Nördlingen, it appeared obvious that this strategy could not be enough any more. Richelieu thus negotiated in person an alliance with Sweden and the Protestant princes of Germany (November 1st, 1634), and convainquit Louis XIII to enter in war against Spain on on May 19th, 1635.

The Thirty Year old war

The first years, the royal troops wiped bitter defeats. The loss of Corbie, on on August 16th, 1636, started a true panic in the capital. Even if the city could be begun again as of on on November 10th, the military situation developed in fact only as from 1640. This year, indeed, the troops of Louis XIII took Arras on on August 10th and profited from two major events, which threatened the crown of Spain: the simultaneous revolt of Catalonia and Portugal. The beginning of the year 1640 was thus at the origin of a geopolitical upheaval of first order in Europe, with the end of the Spanish preponderance and the beginning of a French domination, which was going to continue until the end of the XVII ^E century. France could make profitable the rising of Catalonia and seized Roussillon in September 1642, a few weeks before the death of Richelieu.

Following the reorganization of the navy carried out by the cardinal, France gained important naval victories: on August 22nd, 1638, under the direction of the cardinal-admiral Sourdis, the French fleet destroyed a Spanish fleet with Guétary (Pays Basque); the next on September 1st, the French still destroyed Spanish ships in Genoa. But Rose, overcoming in broad Catalonia, was disgraced in 1641.

The expansion overseas

The cardinal supported the installation of the French in Canada. After several failures, it created in 1628 the Company of News-France, entrusted to Isaac de Razilly, who, with Samuel Champlain, founded Three-Rivers and explored Acadie. Richelieu still created several companies intended to support the colonization of the Antilles or the trade with the Ports of the Levant, but these efforts were compromised fault of financial means, the war and the administration absorbing most resources of the kingdom.

Richelieu died on on December 4th, 1642, of a pleurisy. The news of its death was accommodated with relief, so much was large its unpopularity. However, the work of the cardinal was rather early recognized by the posterity, which saw there a big step in the construction of the apparatus of State and in the rise of an international radiation that all the modes tried to perpetuate. The assessment of its ministry deserves to be moderate in the light of economic realities and social kingdom.

Political designs of Richelieu

Richelieu is author of several works political, of which more important is its Legacy political - which was published only in 1688, which made a long time doubt its authenticity, which was shown in 1947 by the historian Louis André. Does Richelieu reveal there political ideas marked by an unquestionable cynicism - “? if the people were too with their ease, it would be impossible to contain them in the rules owe them”. Richelieu justified his action in his Memories like in his Brief narration of the great actions of the king, who precedes his Will.

The economic policy

After the relative prosperity of the first quarter of the XVII ^E century, France knew times definitely more difficult: the agricultural production decreased; misery settled in the peasants, which watch the fall of the consumption of salt, precisely known thanks to the gabelle one; as for the product of the tithe - which is equal to a tenth of harvest -, it regressed as from 1630. Richelieu solicited the clergy, which had to be subjected in 1640 and to agree to help royal finances. In 1641, the cardinal forced the Parliament of Paris to record an edict which restricted its capacity considerably to present remonstrances to the king.

The royal budget

Between 1630 and 1642, the royal budget increased in a spectacular way: it passed from 20 million books approximately in the last years of the reign of Henri IV to approximately 35 million books in 1630-1631, and up to 116 million in 1641, to total 87 million in 1642. Richelieu also had to face the devaluation of the book, and tried to put at it a brake by the creation of the louis of gold (March 31st, 1640) and of the ecu of money. During the years of war against Spain, the military expenditure absorbed up to 60 % of the budget, and the effort of war could be constant only at the cost of one terrible increase in taxation.

Country revolts

Many popular revolts against the taxes proceeded in all South-west (Saintonge, Quercy, Angoumois, Périgord between 1636 and 1638). Crunching raised on on June 6th, 1636, starting from Blanzac, in Charente. In Normandy, the rising of the Tramps burst in Rouen on on August 20th, 1639; the peasants were crushed in Avranches as of on on November 30th, but repression did not stop there: she was entrusted to the Séguier chancellor. Revolts against the taxes marked the year 1640: Burgundy, Brittany, Of Bordeaux? Moreover, the troops charged to defend the borders of the East were often forced to live on the countries which they crossed, in spite of the efforts of the Secretary of State to the War to find shelters and supply to them during the winter; contrast was all the more striking that, lasting the last years of the reign of Henri IV, the troops had always been supplied by the State. The wars of years 1635-1642 were at the origin of a deep crisis of the rural world, which resulted in the retreat of the surface cultivateds, the propagation of epidemics of plague and the escape of the inhabitants into less ravaged areas. Lastly, Richelieu had enormously evil to implement a sufficiently effective policy to develop the economic activity.

The fortune of Richelieu

The cardinal succeeds in constituting one of largest fortunes of his time, because the various loads cumulated during its career were venal. In 1623, it thus yielded its title of large chaplain for 30' 000 pounds and, three years later, it bought that of governor of Le Havre for 300' 000 pounds. In 1624, it obtained the income of three abbeys, then the farm of the weights of Normandy. Henri de Montmorency which has had to dislocate his load of admiral following the conspiracy of Chalais, Richelieu was created large Master and general superintendent of the trade and navigation on on March 13th, 1626, by the edict of Saint-Germain; this new load enabled him to control the coasts of the English Channel and the Atlantic, and to perceive harbor taxation, confiscation of the ships and collection of the wrecks between 100 000 and 230 000 pounds each year. The king, by authorizing it to collect on his behalf the indirect taxes since 1626, allowed him to control the incomes drawn from gabelle in Anjou, Poitou, Saintonge and Aunis. In 1629, its ground of Richelieu was set up in duchy-peerage. In 1631, it accepted Brittany, that César de Vendôme had lost because of its rebellion.

All its functions enabled him to garner substantial incomes, which one can estimate between 400' 000 and 450' 000 pounds per annum. This money was invested mainly in the ground, which represented a stable placement, relatively lucrative and prestigious. The succession of Richelieu was evaluated to 22.4 million books, of which it is necessary to cut off 6.5 million books of debts; it was made up for a quarter of land goods.

Patronage

The principal project to which Richelieu stuck was the Sorbonne. He was elected headmaster of the house and company of Sorbonne on on August 29th, 1622, and started an important construction schedule, which was finished after its death, as stipulated it his will. He made gift with the library of the Sorbonne of his personal works, of which some came from the confiscation of the library of the La Rochelle following the seat of the city.

Richelieu is at the origin of the construction of the Palate-Cardinal - today Palais Royal -, in Paris; the installation of these buildings formed part of the important construction schedule of the enclosure of Louis XIII, known as of the Ditch-Yellows, built of 1633 to 1636. The cardinal made equip his palate with a theater, where it made play, in 1640, Mirame. He finally stuck to make build the new districts of the town of Richelieu, of which he had acquired the castle in 1621; however, in spite of the invested money, the city never reached the importance which the cardinal would have wished.

It attracted many artists in the large gallery of the Louvre, which was used as window of arts, with Poussin, Ours, the Boulle cabinetmaker, of the clock and watch makers or of the tapestry makers. The royal manufacture of tapestry of the Soap factory was created in 1631, in Chaillot, by Pierre of the Bridge and Simon Louvet. Royal Printing works founded in 1640, was entrusted to Sublet de Noyers, and was installed in Louvre. Lastly, Richelieu protected Corneille, who dedicated her Horace (1641) to him.

Richelieu is the author of several religious works, of which the Instruction of the Christian (1618); one allots to him the Perfection of the Christian (posthumous, 1646), taken again in 1651 pennies the title of Treaty which contains the easiest method and the most ensured to convert those which are separated from the Church. He also composed of the plays in collaboration with other authors; with Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin, it composed Roxane (1639), Mirame (1641) and Europe (1642).

Succession of Richelieu

The cardinal could surround himself by assistant on whom it could be pressed. The main thing of them was François Leclerc du Tremblay, initially capuchin under the name of Joseph father, but more known under its nickname of Power broker. It took a big part with the foreign politics of France, in particular at the time of the Thirty Year old war, and entered to the Council of the king in 1634.

Its death, in 1638, allowed another prelate noticed by Richelieu, the Italian Jules Mazarin, to pass from the service of the pope to that of the cardinal. Richelieu made it naturalize French in 1639, obtained to him the cardinal's hat in 1640, then made it enter to the Council of the king. Mazarin can thus be regarded as the true political successor of Richelieu.