Cardinal Richelieu

Cardinal Richelieu (born September 9, 1585, Poitou or Paris, France—died December 4, 1642, Paris) was the chief minister to King Louis XIII of France from 1624 to 1642. His major goals, which he largely accomplished, were the establishment of royal absolutism in France and the end of Spanish-Habsburg hegemony in Europe.

Heritage, birth, and youth

The family du Plessis de Richelieu was of insignificant feudal origins but, by intermarriage with the legal and administrative classes, rose to some prominence and acquired the seigneury of Richelieu in the region known as Poitou. Armand-Jean’s father, François du Plessis, seigneur de Richelieu, was grand provost (chief magistrate) to Henry III, and his mother, Suzanne de la Porte, was the daughter of a councillor of the Parlement of Paris (the supreme judicial assembly).

There is much debate regarding the birthplace of the man who became Cardinal Richelieu, Paris and Poitou—specifically, the town today called Richelieu—being the two locations cited. The primary cause is Richelieu’s baptismal certificate, which states that he was born on September 9, 1585, and baptized in Paris on May 5, 1586. It does not specify where he was born, only where he was baptized. Throughout his lifetime, Richelieu mainly described himself as a Parisian. He once declared to the aldermen of Paris, in an incident often cited as his attempt to clarify his origins, that he was “parisien comme vous” (“Parisian like you”).

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In 1935, during a celebration of the French Academy’s 300th anniversary, its director noted that Richelieu gave different answers about his birthplace depending on who was asking him—and that this was the sort of game any politician would be expected to play (“Ce sont les jeux de la politique”). But he also acknowledged that although Richelieu’s birthplace is ultimately unknown, Richelieu’s clear desire was to be known as a Parisian.

He was five years old when his father died, leaving estates that had been ruined by inflation and mismanagement during the Wars of Religion (1562–98), and he was conscious from his earliest years of the threat of penury. This inspired in him the ambition to restore the honor of his house and evoked in him the sense of grandeur he was to attribute vicariously to France. His mother, with three boys and two girls, set about reorganizing the family’s precarious resources.

The principal of these resources was the benefice of the bishopric of Luçon near La Rochelle, which had been granted by Henry III to the Richelieus under the Concordat of 1516. Unrest of the cathedral chapter threatened a revocation of the grant, and it became necessary for a member of the family to be consecrated bishop as soon as possible. Henri, the eldest son, was heir to the seigneury of Richelieu; and Alphonse, the second son, had become a Carthusian monk; so the obligation fell on Armand-Jean, who was a student.

Early career in the church

The prospect of a career in the church was not displeasing to the thin, pale, and at times sickly boy, for he had an inclination toward learning, a facility for debate, and a relish for the prospect of governing the lives of others. Because he was below the canonical age for consecration upon the completion of his studies, he needed a papal dispensation. To gain it he went to Rome, where Paul V fell victim to the young man’s skill as a charmer.

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On April 17, 1607, at the age of 22, he was ordained a priest and was consecrated to the see of Luçon. He found on his arrival a diocese ruined by the Wars of Religion, a hostile chapter, and a demoralized clergy, but his opponents quickly succumbed to the unaccustomed authority that radiated from the episcopal palace.

Richelieu was the first bishop in France to implement in his diocese the reforms decreed by the Council of Trent, and he was also the first theologian to write in French and to establish the conventions of vernacular theological exposition. He was a hardworking, conscience-stricken man, combatting forces dedicated to divisive political and social ends—a man obsessed with order as a superior moral end.

Rise to power

The France on which the bishop of Luçon pondered gave every indication of falling again into the disorder of the Wars of Religion. The assassination of Henry IV in 1610 released separative forces that were endemic in the administrative system. The government of the queen mother, Marie de Médicis, as regent for Louis XIII, was corrupt, and the magnates of the realm, motivated by personal self-interest, struggled to control it. Their disobedience was accompanied by predatory expeditions of armed men and complex negotiations with the court, and on one of these occasions Richelieu found himself an intermediary, which led to his being elected one of the representatives of the clergy of Poitou to the Estates-General of 1614.

Richelieu put all his energy into persuading the assembly of his talents and the court of his support for royal authority. In a clash between the clergy and the Third Estate (the middle classes, artisans, and peasants) on the subject of the relationship between the crown and the papacy, he played a conciliatory role, and he was prominent in moves of the clergy to persuade the Third Estate that the decrees of the Council of Trent should be promulgated.

Some months later he was appointed chaplain to the new queen, Anne of Austria, which held the promise of eventual entry into the royal council, which, Richelieu had argued at the Estates-General, should accord first place to prelates of distinction. Clever negotiations with another disobedient faction led to his appointment as a secretary of state in 1616.

Up to this time Richelieu had had no insight into international relations, and the regard for Spain with which he was credited was probably genuine because he had had no occasion to question Spain’s ambitions. His year of office, however, coincided with war between Spain (ruled by a Habsburg dynasty) and Venice, which invoked its alliance with France. The resultant involvement persuaded Richelieu of the vulnerability of France to Habsburg political and economic encirclement, the domestic ramifications of various European movements in the religious controversy between Catholics and Protestants, and the dependence of the small states in France’s borderlands upon an equilibrium of power between France and Spain.

Richelieu’s tenure of office was terminated in April 1617 when a palace revolution overthrew the regency of Marie de Médicis. Richelieu was banished to Luçon and then exiled to the papal city of Avignon, where he sought distraction from his melancholy in writing.

A rebellion of the princes, gravitating this time to Marie de Médicis as the focus of opposition to the royal council, led in 1619 to the king recalling Richelieu to his mother’s entourage on the assumption that he would exercise a moderating influence. The ascendency that he gained over her, however, did not lead to her submission. There followed four years of intricate negotiation and even overt hostilities during which the king’s nomination of Richelieu for a cardinal’s hat became one of the issues involved in a settlement. A revolt of the Huguenots and the death of the king’s favorite brought about Marie de Médicis’s recall to the council and Richelieu’s promotion.