The Cardinal of Mazarin (1602-1661) was the chief minister of the regent Anne of Austria during the first years of the reign of Louis XIV . When Louis XIII died in 1643, he became the guardian of the young monarch, who was then five years old. With the regent Anne of Austria, who appointed him principal minister, he directed the affairs of the kingdom during the king's minority. He had to face several revolts, the most dangerous being the Fronde led by the princes of the kingdom, between 1648 and 1653. Strengthened in his power, he remained the main adviser to Louis XIV after his coronation in 1654, and organized his marriage. with the Infanta of Spain, Maria Theresa of Austria. Mazarin died in 1661, leaving behind him an immense fortune.
Mazarin, Diplomat to the Pope
Fascinating character this cardinal-deacon, whose real name is Giulio Mazarini. Born in Abruzzo on July 14, 1602 from a family of recent rise, he was the son of Pietro Mazarini, the steward of the Constable of the Kingdom of Naples. Suffice to say that from his earliest childhood the future cardinal was immersed in an environment where service to the state was an ideal. A promising student, he studied at the prestigious Roman Jesuit college, then after a short detour to Spain returned to Rome to become a doctor of law.
A time captain in the armies of Pope Urban VIII, he quickly stood out for his subtlety and taste for intrigue which earned him to become a diplomat. The Europe of the time (we are in 1630) is agitated by the eternal rivalry between Spain and France which is expressed around the affair of the succession of Mantua. The Pope, worried about a possible conflict between the two great Catholic powers, instructed Mazarin to temper the warlike ardor of Louis XIII and Richelieu.
The ambitious diplomat will make his entry into history in front of Casal Square where the French and Spanish armies were preparing to clash. Mazarin galloping up between the two lines and shouting “Pace, Pace” (Peace, Peace) with a crucifix in his hand, will prevent confrontation and will be one of the main architects of the Treaty of Cherasco (1631) which will settle the affair.
This is the start of a meteoric rise. Endowed with a formidable intelligence, the handsome Giulio knows how to seduce the right people to succeed. 4 years after the Treaty of Cherasco, here he is already Apostolic Nuncio in Paris representing the Holy See to the King of France. Mazarin, who has taken on the ecclesiastical habit, is soon sponsored by the person who will be his mentor:Cardinal de Richelieu. The latter will make him his eminence grise in matters of diplomacy and will grant him naturalization.
Mazarin, Richelieu's "creature"
Mazarin was therefore originally a "creature" of Richelieu, his client. He owes him in particular his cardinal's hat obtained in 1641. Nevertheless the cunning Jules who knows how to spare himself several options maintains excellent relations with Queen Anne of Austria. Between the supporters of the war against Spain (i.e. the party gravitating around Richelieu) and those of peace (of which the Queen was for a time a figure), Mazarin acted as an intermediary. And then beyond the political maneuvers there is a certain attraction between Anne and Jules...
Were the Cardinal and the Queen lovers? Most recent works answer in the negative. Despite their fiery correspondence, it's highly likely that their relationship remained platonic. We should not neglect the weight of the moral code of the queen, whose very Spanish piety had already protected her from the advances of the handsome Buckingham.
Be that as it may on the political level, Mazarin and Anne of Austria will form an exemplary political coupe, complementing each other wonderfully. To the will and the impetuosity of the queen, Mazarin brings his subtlety and his talents as a diplomat.
The Minister of Anne of Austria
When King Louis XIII died in May 1643, Anne of Austria, who had become regent, chose Mazarin as chief minister to everyone's amazement. Those who thought that with the death of Louis XIII, the time of the "Great" would return, were at their expense. Mazarin trained in the particularities of French politics by Richelieu, generally shares the same political vision as the latter. The King's authority will therefore come first, even if the King is still only a four-year-old child...
Anne of Austria and Mazarin made it their mission to protect the authority of the young Louis XIV, despite the torments of the Fronde (1648-1653). In his diplomatic and tortuous way, Mazarin prolongs Richelieu's policy of asserting the monarchy in the face of the Great, the Parliaments and other intermediary bodies. Acquired by the idea of a powerful French monarchy, he continued the war initiated by his mentor against the Spaniards.
Mazarin inherited a delicate external situation, France having been engaged since 1635 in the Thirty Years' War against the Habsburgs, present in both Austria and Spain. After the French victory at the Battle of Rocroi (May 1643), Cardinal Mazarin led the offensive towards Bavaria. France recorded the victories at Freiburg im Breisgau (August 1644), then Nördlingen (August 1645) and Lens (August 1648).
Concluded in October 1648, the treaties of Westphalia were perceived by the minister as a personal success:on the one hand, they brought upper and lower Alsace to the kingdom of France and, on the other hand, they sanctioned the weakening of the Habsburgs , main rivals of France.
The sling and the "mazarinades"
However, France cannot sustainably enjoy the benefits of peace; discontent has been brewing for a long time. The continuation of the war forced the government to levy new taxes, provoking popular revolts in the provinces. For their part, the Parliaments and the nobility, holders of their offices (justice and finance), felt threatened by the power of the intendants, invested by the King's Council to levy taxes and create exceptional courts. Born of a conjunction of factors, the Fronde in fact manifests a global refusal of the progress of absolutism and monarchical centralization.
August 26, 1648, while the Parliament of Paris refused for several months the registration of seven new tax edicts , the cardinal decides with a bang:he has three leaders of the revolt arrested, in particular the very popular adviser Pierre Broussel. An insurrection of the bourgeoisie and the Parisian working classes immediately broke out - known as the Barricades Days - which ended three days later with the liberation of Broussel. However, the Fronde continues in people's minds.
For four years, unstructured claims and pamphlets, songs, satirical libels against Mazarin (the mazarinades) animate the capital. In a popular - sometimes even trivial - tone, these songs, circulating under the cloak to the court, call, from time to time, on the scholarly pens of Scarron, Cyrano de Bergerac, or Cardinal de Retz.
As chronicles of a turbulent time when the monarchy wavered several times on its foundations — to the point that Louis XIV would eventually settle outside of this Paris he never knew. hardly likes and where he does not feel safe — the mazarinades present a historical interest of the first importance, going far beyond their literary or musical qualities, insofar as, for the sake of convenience, they are often written on melodies repeated many times and supposedly known to all. This facilitates memorization and allows a rapid circulation of new songs, within a society which, as a whole, is illiterate but does not hesitate to sing.
The return to order
Determined to restore order, Cardinal Mazarin, the queen and the young king clandestinely left the capital for Saint-Germain on the night of January 5 to 6, 1649, during that the Prince of Condé begins the siege of the capital. Parliament and bourgeois try to resist and entrust the command of a militia to nobles; the Prince of Conti and the Duchess of Longueville (brother and sister of Condé), allied to the Cardinal de Retz, are the soul of this Parisian resistance. By granting concessions to parliaments, the peace of Rueil signed on March 30 paves the way for a return to calm by defusing the parliamentary Fronde.
However, the peace of Rueil left the people and the bourgeois dissatisfied with the maintenance of Mazarin and the fiscal pressure. When in January 1650, Mazarin had Condé, Conti and Longueville arrested, a new rebellion ignited Normandy, Poitou, Burgundy and Aquitaine:the parliamentary Fronde was succeeded by the Fronde des princes. In January 1651, the rallying to the party of the princes of Gaston d'Orléans, until then remained faithful, forced Mazarin to flee for the first time to Brühl, near Cologne, from where he continued to take care of the affairs of the country in maintaining a permanent correspondence with the Queen.
Returning to France in December 1651, Cardinal Mazarin had the skill to go away a second time, playing on the appeasement of public opinion which was beginning to get tired of the ruinous rebellion of the princes. A refugee in Bouillon for almost a year (April 1652-February 1653), he made a triumphal entry into Paris shortly after the king.
Cardinal Mazarin, minister of Louis XIV
Declared of age in September 1651, consecrated in June 1654, King Louis XIV did not separate himself from his minister, and let him exercise power until his death. dead. More powerful than ever, Mazarin now devoted himself to the education of the king.
Relying on directors of great merit — in particular Hugues de Lionne, Michel Le Tellier, Nicolas Fouquet and his personal steward Jean-Baptiste Colbert —, Mazarin was able to straighten out the finances of the kingdom while working to ensure its security. If he failed to have Louis XIV elected to the imperial throne (Leopold I was preferred to him), he organized, in 1658, with the German princes of the Protestant faith, the League of the Rhine, aimed at isolating the German emperor in Europe.
The crowning achievement of his career was the Treaty of the Pyrenees (November 7, 1659), which ended the war with Spain, gave France Artois and Roussillon , and decides on the marriage of Louis XIV with a Spanish princess, Marie-Thérèse - which must later open the way to French claims to the Spanish crown. Shortly before his death, Mazarin married Prince Philippe of Orléans (brother of the king) with Henrietta of England (sister of Charles II) with the aim of strengthening France's alliance with this powerful neighbour.
A career in the service of the monarchy... and its fortune
However, if Mazarin serves the monarchy, he also serves its interests. Always at the mercy of disgrace and various conspiracies, the cardinal shows a certain eagerness to enrich himself in order to protect himself. Having built up a solid clientele of devoted servants (like a certain Jean Baptiste Colbert who quickly became his steward), he set out to acquire an immense fortune, certainly the largest of the time. Mazarin appreciates luxury and works of art, but also grabs hold of numerous seigneuries and lands. Engaging in various operations of financial speculation, accepting many bribes, he accumulated charges, titles and offices generously distributing prebends to his followers. Nevertheless, it should be kept in mind that the cardinal does not hesitate to put his fortune at the service of the State.
Anyway this rapacity, this avarice, mixed with his policy of authority will earn him his living a detestable reputation. Criticized in many pamphlets as a "Sicilian thief", slandered for his so-called status as Queen Anne's lover, he will have to uncover several plots and go as far as going into exile in Germany twice at the height of the war. Fronde (1651 and 1652).
At his death on March 9, 1661, the one who was one of the greatest servants of the French monarchy, was certainly the most hated character in France. He will nonetheless have left behind him a considerable ministerial work, a precious political legacy, which Louis XIV (whose education he was responsible for) will make good use of.
Cardinal Mazarin was also an enlightened art collector and a great patron:founder of the Collège des Quatre-Nations (which today houses the Institut de France), he opened his personal library to the public (the current Mazarine library) and protected many artists, including the man of letters Gilles Ménage and the composer Jean-Baptiste Lully. We also owe him the introduction of Italian opera in France.
Bibliography
- Mazarin, by Claude Dulong. Editions Perrin, April 2010.
- Mazarin the Italian, by Olivier Poncet. Tallandier, 2018.
- For the love of the child king:Anne of Austria-Jules Mazarin by Alain-Gilles Minella. Perrin, 2008.