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MAZARIN, JULES (1602-1661)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 941 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MAZARIN, JULES (1602-1661) , See also:French See also:cardinal and states-See also:man, See also:elder son of a Sicilian, Pietro Mazarini, the See also:intendant of the See also:household of See also:Philip See also:Colonna, and of his wife Ortensia Buffalini, a connexion of the Colonnas, was See also:born at See also:Piscina in the Abruzzi on the 14th of See also:July 1602. He was educated by the See also:Jesuits at See also:Rome till his seventeenth See also:year, when he accompanied See also:Jerome Colonna as See also:chamberlain to the university of See also:Alcala in See also:Spain. There he distinguished himself more by his love of gambling and his gallant adventures than by study, but made himself a thorough See also:master, not only of the See also:Spanish See also:language and See also:character, but also of that romantic See also:fashion of Spanish love-making which was to help him greatly in after See also:life, when he became the servant of a Spanish See also:queen. On his return to Rome, about 1622, he took his degree as See also:Doctor ulriusque See also:juris, and then became See also:captain of See also:infantry in the See also:regiment of Colonna, which took See also:part in the See also:war in the Valtelline. During this war he gave proofs of much See also:diplomatic ability, and See also:Pope See also:Urban VIII. entrusted him, in 1629, with the difficult task of putting an end to the war of the Mantuan See also:succession. His success marked him out for further distinction. He was presented to two canonries in the churches of St See also:John Lateran and Sta Maria See also:Maggiore, although he had only taken the See also:minor orders, and had never been consecrated See also:priest; he negotiated the treaty of See also:Turin between See also:France and See also:Savoy in 1632, became See also:vice-See also:legate at See also:Avignon in 1634, and See also:nuncio at the See also:court of France from 1634 to 1636. But he began to wish for a wider shpere than papal negotiations, and, seeing that he had no See also:chance of becoming a cardinal except by the aid of some See also:great See also:power, he accepted See also:Richelieu's offer of entering the service of the See also:king of France, and in 1639 became a naturalized Frenchman. In 164o Richelieu sent him to Savoy, where the regency of Christine, the duchess of Savoy, and See also:sister of See also:Louis XIII., was disputed by her See also:brothers-in-See also:law, the princes See also:Maurice and See also:Thomas of Savoy, and he succeeded not only in firmly establishing Christine but in winning over the princes to France. This great service was rewarded by his promotion to the See also:rank of cardinalon the presentation of the king of France in See also:December 1641. On the 4th of December 1642 Cardinal Richelieu died, and on the very next See also:day the king sent a circular See also:letter to all officials ordering them to send in their reports to Cardinal Mazarin, as they had formerly done to Cardinal Richelieu. Mazarin was thus acknowledged supreme See also:minister, but he still had a difficult part to See also:play.

The king evidently could not live See also:

long, and to preserve power he must make himself necessary to the queen, who would then be See also:regent, and do this without arousing the suspicions of the king or the distrust of the queen. His See also:measures were ably taken, and when the king died, on the 14th of May 1643, to everyone's surprise her See also:husband's minister remained the queen's. The king had by a royal See also:edict cumbered the queen-regent with a See also:council and other restrictions, and it was necessary to get the See also:parlement of See also:Paris to overrule the edict and make the queen See also:absolute regent, which was done with the greatest complaisance. Now that the queen was all-powerful, it was expected she would at once dismiss Mazarin and summon her own See also:friends to power. One of them, Potier, See also:bishop of See also:Beauvais, already gave himself airs as See also:prime minister, but Mazarin had had the address to See also:touch both the queen's See also:heart by his Spanish gallantry and her See also:desire for her son's See also:glory by his skilful policy abroad, and he found himself able easily to overthrow the clique of Importants, as they were called. That skilful policy was shown in every See also:arena on which the great See also:Thirty Years' War was being fought out. Mazarin had inherited the policy of France during the Thirty Years' War from Richelieu. He had inherited his desire for the humiliation of the See also:house of See also:Austria in both its branches, his desire to push the French frontier to the See also:Rhine and maintain a counterpoise of See also:German states against Austria, his alliances with the See also:Netherlands and with See also:Sweden, and his four theatres of war—on the Rhine, in See also:Flanders, in See also:Italy and in See also:Catalonia. During the last five years of the great war it was Mazarin alone who directed the French See also:diplomacy of the See also:period. He it was who made the See also:peace of Bromsebro between the Danes and the Swedes, and turned the latter once again against the See also:empire; he it was who sent See also:Lionne to make the peace of See also:Castro, and combine the princes of See also:North Italy against the Spaniards, and who made the peace of See also:Ulm between France and See also:Bavaria, thus detaching the See also:emperor's best ally. He made one fatal See also:mistake—he dreamt of the French frontier being the Rhine and the See also:Scheldt, and that a Spanish princess might bring the Spanish Netherlands as See also:dowry to Louis XIV. This roused the See also:jealousy of the See also:United Provinces, and they made a See also:separate peace with Spain in See also:January 1648; but the valour of the French generals made the skill of the Spanish diplomatists of no avail, for See also:Turenne's victory at Zusmarshausen, and See also:Conde's at See also:Lens, caused the peace of See also:Westphalia to be definitely signed in See also:October 1648.

This celebrated treaty belongs rather to the See also:

history of See also:Germany than to a life of Mazarin; but two questions have been often asked, whether Mazarin did not delay the peace as long as possible in See also:order to more completely ruin Germany, and whether Richelieu would have made a similar peace. To the first question Mazarin's letters, published by M. See also:Cheruel, prove a See also:complete negative, for in them appears the zeal of Mazarin for the peace. On the second point, Richelieu's letters in many places indicate that his treatment of the great question of frontier would have been more thorough, but then he would not have been hampered in France itself. At See also:home Mazarin's policy lacked the strength of Richelieu's. The Frondes were largely due to his own See also:fault. The See also:arrest of Broussel threw the See also:people on the See also:side of the parlement. His avarice and unscrupulous plundering of the revenues of the See also:realm, the enormous See also:fortune which he thus amassed, his supple ways, his nepotism, and the See also:general lack of public See also:interest in the great See also:foreign policy of Richelieu, made Mazarin the especial See also:object of hatred both by See also:bourgeois and nobles. The irritation of the latter was greatly Mazarin's own fault; he had tried consistently to play off the king's See also:brother Gaston of See also:Orleans against Conde, and their respective followers against each other, and had also, as his carnets prove, jealously kept any courtier from getting into the See also:good See also:graces of the queen-regent except by his means, so that it was not unnatural that the See also:nobility should hate him, while the queen found herself surrounded by his creatures alone. Events followed each other quickly; the day of the barricades was followed by the peace of Ruel, the peace of Ruel by the arrest of the princes, by the See also:battle of See also:Rethel, and Mazarin's See also:exile to Briihl before the See also:union of the two Frondes. It was while in exile at Briihl that Mazarin saw the mistake he had- made in isolating himself and the queen, and that his policy of balancing every party in the See also:state against each other had made every party distrust him. So by his counsel the queen, while nominally in See also:league with De See also:Retz and the See also:parliamentary See also:Fronde, laboured to See also:form a purely royal party, wearied by See also:civil dissensions, who should See also:act for her and her son's interest alone, under the See also:leader-See also:ship of Mathieu See also:Mole, the famous premier See also:president of the parlement of Paris.

The new party See also:

grew in strength, and in January 1652, after exactly a year's See also:absence, Mazarin returned to the court. Turenne had now become the royal general, and out-manoeuvred Conde, while the royal party at last grew to such strength in Paris that Conde had to leave the See also:capital and France. In order to promote a reconciliation with the parlement of Paris Mazarin had again retired from court, this See also:time to See also:Sedan, in See also:August 1652, but he returned finally in See also:February 1653. Long See also:bad been the trial, and greatly had Mazarin been to blame in allowing the Frondes to come into existence, but he had retrieved his position by See also:founding that great royal party which steadily grew until Louis XIV. could fairly have said "L'Etat, c'est rnoi." As the war had progressed, Mazarin had steadily followed Riche-lieu's policy of weakening the nobles on their See also:country estates. Whenever he had an opportunity he destroyed a feudal See also:castle, and by destroying the towers which commanded nearly every See also:town in France, he freed such towns as See also:Bourges, for instance, from their long See also:practical subjection to the neighbouring great See also:lord. The Fronde over, Mazarin had to build up afresh the power of France at home and abroad. It is to his shame that he did so little at home. Beyond destroying the See also:brick-and-See also:mortar remains of See also:feudalism, he did nothing for the people. But abroad his policy was everywhere successful, and opened the way for the policy of Louis XIV. He at first, by means of an See also:alliance with See also:Cromwell, recovered the north-western cities of France, though at the See also:price of yielding See also:Dunkirk to the See also:Protector. On the Baltic, France guaranteed the Treaty of See also:Oliva between her old See also:allies Sweden, See also:Poland and See also:Brandenburg, which preserved her See also:influence in that See also:quarter. In Germany he, through See also:Hugues de Lionne, formed the league of the Rhine, by which the states along the Rhine See also:bound themselves under the headship of France to be on their guard against the house of Austria.

By such measures Spain was induced to See also:

sue for peace, which was finally signed in the Isle of Pheasants on the Bidassoa, and is known as the Treaty of the See also:Pyrenees. By it Spain recovered Franche See also:Comte, but ceded to France See also:Roussillon, and much of French Flanders; and, what was of greater ultimate importance to See also:Europe, Louis XIV. was to marry a Spanish princess, who was to renounce her claims to the Spanish succession if her dowry was paid, which Mazarin knew could not happen at See also:present from the emptiness of the Spanish See also:exchequer. He returned to Paris in declining See also:health, and did not long survive the unhealthy sojourn on the Bidassoa; after some See also:political instruction to his See also:young master he passed away at See also:Vincennes on the 9th of See also:March 1661, leaving a fortune estimated at from 18 to 40 million livres behind him, and his nieces married into the greatest families of France and Italy. The man who could have had such success, who could have made the See also:Treaties of Westphalia and the Pyrenees, who could have weathered the See also:storm of the Fronde, and See also:left France at peace with itself and with Europe to Louis XIV., must have been a great man; and historians, relying too much on the brilliant See also:memoirs of his adversaries, like De Retz, are See also:apt to rank him too See also:low. That he had many a See also:petty fault there can be no doubt; that he was avaricious and See also:double-dealing was also undoubted; and his carnets show to what unworthy means he had recourse to maintain his influence over the queen. What that influence was will be always debated, but both his carnets and the Briihl letters show that a real See also:personal See also:affection, amounting to See also:passion on the queen's part, existed. Whether they were ever married may be doubted; but that hypo-thesis is made more possible by M. Cheruel's having been able to prove from Mazarin's letters that the cardinal himself had never taken more than the minor orders, which could always be thrown off. With regard to France he played a more patriotic part than Conde or Turenne, for he never treated with the Spaniards, and his letters show that in the midst of his difficulties he followed with intense eagerness every See also:movement on the frontiers. It is that immense See also:mass of letters that prove the real greatness of the states-man, and disprove De Retz's portrait, which is carefully arranged to show off his enemy against the might of Richelieu. To concede that the master was the greater man and the greater statesman does not imply that Mazarin was but a See also:foil to his predecessor. It is true that we find none of those deep plans for the See also:internal prosperity of France which shine through Richelieu's policy.

Mazarin was not a Frenchman, but a See also:

citizen of the See also:world, and always paid most See also:attention to foreign affairs; in his letters all that could See also:teach a diplomatist is to be found, broad general views of policy, See also:minute details carefully elaborated, keen insight into men's characters, cunning directions when to dissimulate or when to be See also:frank. See also:Italian though he was by See also:birth, See also:education and nature, France owed him a great See also:debt for his skilful management during the See also:early years of Louis XIV., and the king owed him yet more, for he had not only transmitted to him a nation at peace, but had educated for him his great servants Le Tellier, Lionne and See also:Colbert. See also:Literary men owed him also much; not only did he throw his famous library open to them, but he pensioned all their leaders, including See also:Descartes, See also:Vincent Voiture (1598-1648), See also:Jean Louis Guez de See also:Balzac (1597-1654) and See also:Pierre See also:Corneille. The last-named applied, with an adroit allusion to his birthplace, in the See also:dedication of his Pompee, the See also:line of See also:Virgil: " Tu regere imperio populps, Romane, memento." (H. M. S.) MAZAR-I-SHARIF, a town of See also:Afghanistan, the capital of the See also:province of Afghan See also:Turkestan. Owing to the importance of the military See also:cantonment of Takhtapul, and its religious sanctity, it has long ago supplanted the more See also:ancient capital of See also:Balkh. It is situated in a malarious, almost See also:desert See also:plain, 9 M. E. of Balkh, and 30 M. S. of the Pata Kesar See also:ferry on the See also:Oxus See also:river. In this neighbourhood is concentrated most of the Afghan See also:army north of the See also:Hindu Kush mountains, the fortified cantonment of Dehdadi having been completed by See also:Sirdar Ghulam See also:Ali See also:Khan and incorporated with Mazar. Mazar-i-Sharif also contains a celebrated See also:mosque, from which the town takes its name.

It is a huge ornate See also:

building with minarets and a lofty See also:cupola faced with shining See also:blue tiles. It was built by See also:Sultan Ali Mirza about A.D. 1420, and is held in great veneration by all Mussulmans, and especially by See also:Shiites, because it is supposed to be the See also:tomb of Ali, the son-in-law of See also:Mahomet.

End of Article: MAZARIN, JULES (1602-1661)

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