Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu
, cardinal, duke and peer of France, minister of Louis XIII. Born in Paris on September 9, 1585, he died on December 4, 1642.He entered politics and became secretary of state in 1616 then cardinal in 1622 and principal minister of Louis XIII in 1624. He remained in office until his death in 1642; Cardinal Jules Mazarin succeeded him.
Cardinal de Richelieu has often been designated as Prime Minister. He is therefore sometimes considered the first prime minister the world has ever known. Its action encompasses cultural and religious dimensions as well as administrative, colonial, political and diplomatic ones.
Renowned for his skill and even his devious character, often criticized for his intransigent firmness, he made the modern concept of reason of state the keystone of his methods of government and of his diplomatic and political vision. Fighting internally against the nobility and the Protestants, and externally against the Habsburgs, severely repressing murderous duels or noble conspiracies as well as peasant anti-tax revolts, he is considered an essential founder of the state. modern in France.
Youth
Richelieu was the fourth in a family of five children and the second of three boys. His family, although it belonged only to the minor nobility of Poitou, possessed a certain brilliance:his father, François du Plessis, lord of Richelieu, was a soldier and a courtier who held the office of Grand Provost of France; his mother, Suzanne de La Porte, was the daughter of a famous jurist. When he was only five years old, his father, captain of Henry IV's guards, died in combat in the Wars of Religion, leaving a family in debt; the royal generosity, however, allowed the family not to experience financial difficulties. At the age of nine, the young Richelieu was sent to Paris, to the College of Navarre, to study philosophy. Then he began to receive training for a military career and follow in the footsteps of his father.
To reward his father for his participation in the Wars of Religion, King Henry III had given the bishopric of Luçon to his family, who thus received most of the income for their private use, which displeased the people of the Church who would have liked these funds to be used for the Church.
Canonical investiture
Destined for a military career, Richelieu found himself obliged in 1605 to turn to a religious career, his brother Alphonse-Louis du Plessis having refused the bishopric of Luçon to become a monk on returning to the Grande Chartreuse, his family refusing to lose what she considered a real source of profit. This prospect of becoming a bishop does not displease him at all because he is frail and sickly and university studies attract him more.
He began his theological studies in 1605, to be appointed bishop of Luçon on December 18, 1606 by King Henry IV. On April 14, 1607, he received the canonical investiture by the Pope in Rome, thus obtaining the dispensation of age allowing him to be a bishop at the age of 22 instead of 23, before arriving in Luzon on December 15, 1609.
Shortly after his installation in his diocese, he showed his character as a Catholic reformer by being the first bishop in France to implement the institutional reforms that the Council of Trent had prescribed between 1545 and 1563.
It was around this time that Richelieu befriended François Leclerc du Tremblay (better known as “Father Joseph”), a Capuchin monk, who was to become his closest confidant. His intimacy with Richelieu (who was called “His Eminence”) and the gray color of his frock earned Father Joseph the nickname of “Grey Eminence”. Subsequently, Richelieu often employed him as an agent during diplomatic negotiations.
In 1614, he was elected deputy of the Poitevin clergy to the Estates General to be held in Paris. He was then elected spokesperson for the assembly. In the presence of the regent Marie de Medici, he eulogized the government in his closing speech on February 23, 1615. His Estates General were the last before the better known ones of 1789.
He was appointed Grand Chaplain to the future Queen Anne of Austria by Marie de Medici in November 1615. This position allowed him to sit on the King's Council in 1616 for five months as Secretary of State for the Interior and War.
Political ascent
Richelieu began by serving the opposing party of Louis XIII, under the authority of Concino Concini, Marshal of Ancre and the Queen Mother, of whom he was first the courtier and the favorite before becoming its irreconcilable enemy. .
In 1617, the assassination of Concini, of which Louis XIII and the Duke of Luynes were the instigators, led to her being excluded from the king's entourage. Richelieu then found himself on the wrong side and had to follow the queen mother, then in disgrace, to Blois where he was confined to his bishopric.
Responsible for negotiating an accommodation between mother and son, he succeeded in bringing Louis XIII and Marie de Médicis closer together, acquiring a reputation as a fine negotiator and having the treaties of Angoulême (1620) and Angers (1621) concluded:the hat Cardinal was given to him as a reward on September 5, 1622. He was enthroned in Lyon on December 12 of that same year.
On April 29, 1624, he entered the King's Council with the protection of the Queen Mother, Marie de Medici, and almost in spite of Louis XIII who distrusted him.
Richelieu's policy
When he came to power, he implacably took over the three main objectives of Henri IV:
* destroy the political power of Protestantism in France,
* bring down the pride and factious spirit of the nobility,
* and bring down the House of Austria .
A great trust was then established between the young king and Richelieu.
Political and military submission of the Protestants
First directing his efforts against the Protestants, he took from them in 1628, their last place of safety, La Rochelle and destroyed their power by the peace of Alès and the edict of Nîmes (1629), which took away their political privileges. .
Supremacy of royal power against the Great
He seeks to consolidate royal power and crush internal factions. By lowering the power of the nobility, he transformed France into a strongly centralized state.
To fight against the Great, Richelieu had to thwart, but also to foment, a thousand cabals, intrigues and plots. He had many enemies, the most important of whom after Marie de Medici was Gaston d'Orléans, the king's brother. Unable to succeed with the king, the Greats sought support abroad and provoked several revolts. Several attempts were made to assassinate the cardinal.
To subjugate the Greats of the kingdom and make them respect the royal decisions that they have become accustomed to ignoring at best, he will not hesitate to have nobles such as Montmorency-Boutteville executed, or the Chalais conspirators or Cinq -March. Under Richelieu, the absolutist character of the monarchy increased considerably. In the King's Council the Grands disappeared, replaced by officers and magistrates of low birth. Richelieu forbade duels and razed more than 2,000 fortified castles which were no longer useful for the defense of the kingdom. In the provinces, the independent assemblies were replaced or supervised by the agents of the crown. In the provinces, the royal power closely controlled the governors.
Lowering of the House of Austria
His foreign policy objective was primarily to counter the power of the House of Austria. At the same time, he replaced the Valtellina valley, an essential communication node in Europe, which Spain disputed with him (1626), assured the Duke of Nevers of the Duchy of Mantua and Montferrat by forcing the pas de Suze (1629), seized the States of the Duke of Savoy (1630) and prepared to fight Austria. Taking part for this purpose in the Thirty Years' War, he was not afraid to support the German Protestant princes and united with Gustavus II Adolf, King of Sweden, in his efforts against the Habsburgs.
Other works
Richelieu is also famous for his support of the arts; the best known fact is the foundation of the French Academy, a society responsible for questions concerning the French language. He is also famous for the red color of his cardinal's cape, which was said to match his bloodthirsty character. Everyone knows the verse with which Marion Delorme ends:
Look everyone! Here comes the red man passing by.
He took care of the internal administration as well as the political direction, restored order in the finances, reformed the legislation, created a navy in 1626 by giving himself the title of "Grand Master and Superintendent of Navigation", gave a great extension to the colonial establishments, occupied New France, the Lesser Antilles, Saint-Domingue, Guyana, Senegal, etc.
To support Samuel de Champlain and retain the post of Quebec, he founded the Compagnie des Cent-Associés and by the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye returned Canada to the French authority of Champlain, after the colony had been taken by the Kirkes brothers in 1629. This success allowed the colony to develop thereafter and to become the center of French-speaking culture in North America.
In 1631, at the height of his power, he obtained permission from the king to build a castle and a town which took his name:Richelieu. This is considered today as one of the masterpieces of 17th century Western town planning.
This minister was one of the most important who governed France; he had grand views and pursued their execution with unshakable perseverance and firmness, but he was accused of having shown himself to be implacable and of having sometimes exercised personal vengeance under the pretext of the interests of the State. /P>
Granting of the first charter 1636.
Unpopularity at his death
His great reforms made him so unpopular that when his death was announced on December 4, 1642, the people lit bonfires to celebrate the event. As he died, he recommended his successor Mazarin to the king. He had, at his death, 20 million pounds (one of the largest fortunes of the time and, it is said, the largest of all time in France, after that of Mazarin), and bequeathed one million and half to the king, who died a few months after him.