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RICHELIEU, ARMAND JEAN DU PLESSIS
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See also:RICHELIEU, ARMAND See also:JEAN DU PLESSIS . DE, See also:CARDINAL
(1585-1642), See also:French statesman, was See also:born of an See also:ancient See also:family of the lesser See also:nobility of See also:Poitou. The See also:original name of the family was Du Plessis, but in the 15th See also:century a 'younger See also:branch obtained by See also:marriage the See also:estate of Richelieu with its strong See also:castle surrounded by the See also:waters of the Mable, and took the name of Du Plessis de Richelieu. The family produced not a few turbulent warriors during the See also:Hundred Years' See also:War, and the cardinal's See also:father, See also:Francois du Plessis, seigneur de Richelieu, began his career by killing the murderer of his See also:elder See also:brother and then fighting through the See also:wars of See also:religion, first as a favourite of See also: He defeated this See also:scheme, however, by becoming a See also: He had, however, already shown his ability, his firmness, and his See also:diplomatic skill, and conducted the negotiations on the See also:part of the queen-mother with See also:Luynes, the king's representative. Then, as he had incurred too much of the odium of a creature of Concini to See also:hope for royal favour, he resigned himself to the See also:post of See also:chief adviser to Marie de' Medici in her exile at See also:Blois. Here he sought to ingratiate himself with Luynes and the king by See also:reporting minutely. the actions of Marie and by protestations of See also:loyalty. As this ungrateful See also:work brought no reward, Richelieu, in spite of the See also:earnest entreaties of the queen-mother, retired once more to his bishopric: But the king, while approving his conduct, was still suspicious of him, and he was exiled to See also:Avignon, along with his brother and brother-in-See also:law, on. the 7th of April 1618. There he lived in discreet, if See also:melancholy retirement, See also:writing " A See also:Defence of, the See also:Main Principles of the See also:Catholic Faith," and had apparently little hope of a further See also:political career when the See also:escape of Marie de' Medici from Blois, on the 22nd of See also:February 2619, again opened paths for his ambition. Luynes and the king recalled him to the post at See also:Angouleme with the queen-mother, who received him ungraciously but who soon yielded. to his See also:judgment and allowed him to sign the treaty of Angouleme with the Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld, acting for the king. By this treaty Marie was given See also:liberty to live wherever she wished, and the See also:government of See also:Anjou and of See also:Normandy with several castles was entrusted to her. The bishop of Lucon was led to believe that the king would recommend him for a cardinalate, but, if we may See also:trust the See also:evidence, Luynes secretly opposed the See also:request, and it was not until after his death that Richelieu was made a cardinal by See also:Pope See also:Gregory XV., on the 5th of September 1622. His rank in the church was due to his skill in intrigue with Marie de' Medici. Luynes's death on the 15th of See also:December 1621 made possible a reconciliation a See also:month later between the king and his mother. Although Louis still distrusted her at See also:heart, and disliked her dominating See also:minister more, he allowed her to take up her See also:residence in the Luxembourg See also:palace in Paris, thus ;rendering intercourse possible. Richelieu seized his opportunity. He furnished Marie de' Medici with political ideas and acute criticisms of the king's See also:ministry, especially of the Brularts. Marie zealously pushed her favourite towards office, and had gone so far as to absent herself from court for three months on See also:account of the king's persistent refusal,, when See also: The See also:local authorities proceeded to carry this out with a zeal due to See also:long suffering, and the ruined See also:medieval chateaus of France still See also:bear See also:witness to the See also:action of Richelieu. Still there was no serious opposition to the new minister. The first serious See also:conspiracy took See also:place in 1626, the king's brother, Gaston of See also: When Marie had recovered breath from such audacity she proceeded to attack him in the strongest terms, declaring that the king must choose between him or her. Richelieu left the presence feeling that all was lost. The king gave a sign of yielding, appointing the brother of See also:Marillac, Marie's counsellor, to the command of the See also:army in See also:Italy. But before taking further steps he retired to See also:Versailles, then a See also:hunting See also:lodge, and there, listening to two of Richelieu's See also:friends, See also:Claude de See also:Saint-See also:Simon, father of the memoir writer, and Cardinal La Valette, sent for Richelieu in the evening, and while the salons of the Luxembourg were full of expectant courtiers the king was reassuring the cardinal of his continued favour and support. The " See also:Day of Dupes," as this famous day was called, was the only time that Louis took so much as a step toward the dismissal of a minister who was personally distasteful to him but who was indispensable. The queen-mother followed the king and cardinal to See also:Compiegne, but as she refused to be reconciled with Richelieu she was left there alone and forbidden to return to Paris. The next summer she fled across the frontiers into the See also:Netherlands, and Richelieu was made a See also:duke. Then Gaston 'of Orleans, who had fled to See also:Lorraine, came back with a small See also:troop to head a See also:rebellion to See also:free the king and See also:country from "the See also:tyrant." The only See also:great See also:noble who See also:rose was Henri, duc de Montmorenci, governor of See also:Languedoc, and his defeat at See also:Castelnaudary on the 1st of September 1632 was followed by his speedy trial by the parlement of See also:Toulouse, and by his See also:execution. Richelieu had sent to the See also:block the first noble of France, the last of a family illustrious for seven centuries, the feudal head of the nobility of Languedoc; then, unmoved by threats or entreaties, inexorable as See also:fate itself, he cowed all opposition by his relentless vengeance. He knew no See also:mercy. The only other conspiracy against him which amounted to more than intrigue was that of Cinq See also:Mars in 1642, at the close of his life. This vain See also:young favourite of the king was treated as though he were really a formidable traitor, and his friend, De See also:Thou, son of the historian, whose See also:sole. See also:guilt was not to have revealed the See also:plot, was placed in a See also:boat behind the stately See also:barge of the cardinal and thus conveyed up the See also:Rhone to his trial and death at Lyons. The voyage was symbolical of Richelieu's whole pitiless career.
Richelieu's foreign policy was as inflexible as his home policy. To humble the Habsburgs he aided the See also:Protestant princes of See also:Germany against. the See also:emperor, in spite of the strong opposition of the disappointed Catholic party in France, which had looked to ` the cardinal as a See also:champion of the faith. The year of Richelieu's See also:triumph over the Huguenots (1629) was also that of the Emperor See also: Thus obliged to assume the unpleasant role of See also:tutor when delicate flattery was often most needful, the minister lectured and cajoled his See also:master, always, until towards the last, giving credit to the king for his own successes, and over-awing opposition by his imperious presence even when Louis was dabbling in plots against him (as in the case of Cinq Mars) behind his back. The king's consciousness of his weakness was combined with a sense of See also:duty, and it was upon these two chords that Richelieu played. Besides, he was eternally on the alert. Spies in every See also:salon in Paris and every court in Europe kept the grim courtier informed of every See also:change in his master's disposition and every intrigue against himself. The piquant comments of his platonic friend, - Mademoiselle de Hautefort, upon Richelieu were relished by the king until he was informed of others said to have been made by her upon himself. Then it was easy to supplant her with another favourite, Mademoiselle de See also:Lafayette. When this devout See also:maiden began to denounce the ungodly cardinal who was allied with heretics, her See also:confessor—in Richelieu's service—succeeded in inducing her to become a See also:nun. Father Caussin, the king's confessor, ventured the same comments, and Louis plotted like a schoolboy to turn his devotions into See also:secret criticisms of state policies. Caussin was sent into See also:Brittany, and the judicious and learned Jesuit, Jacques See also:Sirmond, who succeeded him, kept clear of politics. Such was the See also:atmosphere of the court in which Richelieu had to maintain his authority. His own See also:personality was his strongest ally.- The king himself quailed before that stern, august presence. His See also:pale, See also:drawn See also:face was set with his See also:iron will. His See also:frame was sickly and wasted with disease, yet when clad in his red cardinal's See also:robes, his stately See also:carriage and confident bearing gave him the See also:air of a See also:prince. His courage was mingled with a mean sort of cunning, and his ambition loved the outward trappings of power as well as its reality; yet he never swerved from. his policy in See also:order to win approbation, and the king knew that his one See also:motive in public affairs was the welfare of the See also:realm —that his religion, in short, was " See also:reason of state." A dear See also:conscience, not less than a sense of his own superiority to others at the court of Louis XIII., made the cardinal haughtily assert his ascendancy, and the king shared his belief in both. No courtier was ever more assertive of his prerogatives. He claimed See also:precedence over even princes of the See also:blood, and one like See also:Conde was content to draw aside the curtains for him to pass, and to See also:sue for the See also:hand of Richelieu's niece for his son, the " Great Conde. His See also:pride and ambition were gratified by the See also:foundation of a sort of See also:dynasty of his nephews and nieces, whose hands were sought by the noblest in the realm. Like all statesmen of his time, Richelieu made See also:money out of politics. He came to court in 1617 with an income of 25,000 livres from his ecclesiastical benefices. In the later years of his life it exceeded 3,000,000 livres. He lived in imperial state, See also:building himself the great Palais Cardinal, now the Palais Royal, in Paris, another at See also:Rueil near Paris, and 're-building his ancestral See also:chateau in Poitou. His table cost him a thousand crowns a day, although he himself lived simply. He celebrated his triumphs to the full with gorgeous-fetes in his palace, especially with lavish theatrical representations. In January 1641 the tragedy of Mirame, said to have been his own, was produced with great magnificence. Richelieu was anxious for See also:literary fame, and his writings are not unworthy of him. But more important than his own efforts as an author were his See also:protection ,and patronage of literary men, especially of See also:Corneille, and his creation of the French Academy in 1635. His See also:influence upon French literature was considerable and lasting. Hardly less important was his rebuilding of the See also:Sorbonne and his endowments there. When he died, on the 4th of December 1642, he was buried in the chapel of the Sorbonne, which still stands as he built it. His See also:tomb, erected in 1694, though rifled at the Revolution, still exists. Many writings are attributed to Richelieu, although owing to his See also:habit of working with substitutes and assistants it is difficult to See also:settle how much of what passes under his name is See also:authentic. See also:Les Thuileries, La Grande Pastorale, Mirame, and the other plays, over whose fate he trembled as over the result of an See also:embassy or a campaign, have long been forgotten; but a permanent See also:interest attaches to his Memoires and See also:correspondence: Memoire d'Armand du Plessis de Richelieu, eveque de Lugon, ecrit de sa main, l'annee 1607 ou iOzo, aloes qu'il meditait de paraitre a la tour, edited by Armand Baschet (188o); Histoire de la See also:mere et du fils (i.e. of Marie de Medici and Louis XIIL), sometimes attributed to See also:Mezeray, published at See also:Amsterdam in 1730 and, under the See also:title Histoire de la regence de reine Marie de Medicis, femme de Henry IV., at the See also:Hague in 1743; Memoires sur la regne de Louis XIII., extending from 1610 to 1638, and of which the earlier portion is a reprint of the Histoire de la mere et du fits, published in See also:Petitot's collection (Paris, 1823 seq.) ; Testament politique d'Armand du Plessis, cardinal de Richelieu (Amsterdam, 1687 seq.) ; See also:Journal de 1630-,31 (Paris, 1645) ; " Lettres, instructions diplomatiques, et papiers d'etat," published by G. d'Avenel in the See also:Coll. de dot. fined. (Paris, 1853–77); and " Maximes d'etat et fragments politiques," published by G. See also:Hanotaux in Melanges historiques: Choix de dot. iii., in the same collection. See G. Hanotaux, Cardinal Richelieu (1893), one See also:volume of the four then promised, an exhaustive history of the period down to 1614; and G. d'Avenel, Richelieu et la monarchie absolue (4 vols., 1895). The most important See also:sources for Richelieu's statesmanship are the " Lettres, instructions diplomatiques, et papiers d'etat," mentioned above, and Richelieu's Memoires (1610–38) may be consulted in Petitot's and J. F. See also:Michaud and J. Poujoulat's collections. Innumerable See also:memoirs of the time also bear upon his life, e.g. those of Madame de See also:Motteville, Mathieu See also:Mole, De Brienne, and See also:Bassompierre. In See also:English there are short See also:biographies by See also:Richard Lodge (in the Foreign Statesmen See also:series, 1896) and by J. B. See also:Perkins (in Heroes of the Nations series, 1900). (J. T. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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