Richelieu
1) His Biography:
Cardinal Richelieu, also known as Armand Jean du Plessis, was a French nobleman, statesman, and cleric. He rose to power as the top minister in King Louis XIII’s regency, and was known as the ‘Red Eminence.’ He was a bishop and the foreign secretary of France before becoming known as the ‘Red Eminence.’ He worked to disband royal factions and assist in the consolidation of regal power. By limiting the power of the nobles, he was able to transform the country into a powerful centralised state.
He expanded the army and fleet, ensuring France’s dominance in Europe’s ‘Thirty Years’ War,’ and limiting the Habsburg dynasty’s authority. He was instrumental in the establishment of French colonies. While a devout cardinal, he never shied away from forming alliances with Protestant monarchs to achieve his goals. As chief minister, he faced numerous hurdles, including the ‘Day of the Dupes,’ a plot orchestrated by the King’s mother, Marie de Medici, but he triumphed as he gained the King’s trust. He was also a major supporter of the arts.
He was nominated for Bishop of Lucon by King Henry IV in 1606, but because he was under the age limit, he travelled to Rome to seek special dispensation from the Pope. He was consecrated bishop in April 1607 and became a reformer in his diocese in 1608. During the period 1545-1563, he was essential in putting institutional reforms recommended by the ‘Council of Trent,’ becoming the first French Bishop to do so.
Following the assassination of King Henry IV in 1610, Queen Mother Marie de Medici’s government, which served as regent for her son King Louis XIII, went through a period of turmoil. With self-interest booming and royal factions and revolts on the rise, the system became corrupt. Bishop Richelieu was able to represent the clergy of Poitou at the ‘Estates General’ meetings in 1614 because of his role as a middleman. The ‘Third Estate,’ which comprised the commoners, opposed him on the subject of the papacy’s relationship with the crown. He was instrumental in getting the ‘Third Estate’ to establish the ‘Council of Trent’ conventions.
He finally became the chaplain of Queen Anne of Austria, Louis’s wife, and was appointed ‘Secretary of State’ in 1616. Even when Louis XIII reached adulthood, Marie de Medici and Concino Concini remained to rule. Concini’s power over the royal council and court, combined with her bad judgement, worsened the regal weakness and return of revolt and instability in regency.
In 1617, King Louis XIII, who had already reached the age of majority a few years before, staged a coup d’état to seize control of the regal authority previously held by Marie and Concini. The pro-Habsburg strategy was reversed, Marie was arrested, and she was exiled to the Château de Blois. On April 24, one of Louis’s favourites, Charles d’Albert de Luynes, killed Concini.
Cardinal Richelieu was removed from his position and exiled to Avignon in 1618. ‘L’Instruction du chrétien,’ a catechetical piece, was written during his stay there. Following Marie’s exile and subsequent insurrection against the king, he was successful in reconciling her with Louis. The ‘Treaty of Angoulême’ was signed, and Marie was later summoned to the royal council.
Following the death of Charles d’Albert de Luynes in 1621, he rose to power. On the King’s suggestion, Pope Gregory XV gave Richelieu cardinality on April 19, 1622. He went on to become Louis’ major guiding influence, and he was inducted into the royal council of ministers on April 29, 1624. He planned against the then-chief minister, Charles, duc de La Vieuville, who was arrested on August 12 on corruption accusations, and Richelieu took over the job the next day.
He attempted to weaken the Habsburg dynasty’s hold on power. He supported the Protestant Swiss canton of Grisons in countering Spanish dominance in Valtellina, Italy, while being a devout cardinal. By slashing the defences of princes and lower aristocrats, he hoped to remove royal factions. By limiting the power of the nobles and abolishing the office of ‘Constable of France’ in 1626, he advocated for the centralization of power in the kingdom. In 1627, he sent an army to besiege La Rochelle, which was under the power of Huguenot rebels assisted by King Charles I of England. In 1628, it finally surrendered to France.
Together with her son Gaston, Marie plotted to depose Richelieu as chief minister. She plotted a coup on November 16, 1630, dubbed the “Day of Dupes,” but was soundly defeated by Richelieu, who eventually won the King’s trust. Marie was sent to Compiègne, yet she continued to plot against Richelieu, although she was always unsuccessful. He dealt severely with his opponents, including ordering the execution of Henri, duc de Montmorency in 1632.
To protect his political position, he developed a network of spies across France and other European countries. He reinforced the army and fleet, ensuring France’s dominance in Europe’s ‘Thirty Years’ War.’ To pay the army, he imposed a ‘taille’ or land tax and a ‘gabelle’ or salt tax. The poor bore the brunt of it, mounting an uprising from 1636 to 1639, which Richelieu mercilessly suppressed.
Following the loss of the Habsburgs, he was successful in changing the ‘Thirty Years’ War’ from a conflict between Catholics and Protestants to a conflict between nationalism and Habsburg hegemony. He assisted in the establishment of French colonies in New France, such as the ‘Compagnie de la Nouvelle France,’ and promoted native assimilation into colonial society. The Ordinance of 1627 allowed Indians to convert to Catholicism and become “natural Frenchmen.” He was the target of many schemes later in his life, including one hatched by his protégée, Henri Coiffier de Ruzé, marquis de Cinq-Mars. Cinq-Mars was finally apprehended and executed.
His encouragement of the arts was extensive, ranging from the renovation of the Sorbonne and the construction of its chapel in Paris to assisting aspiring writers in the establishment of the ‘Académie Française.’ After suffering from a variety of diseases, he died on December 4, 1642. He was laid to rest in the Sorbonne church. When his mummified head was stolen during the French Revolution, his body was taken out. It was discovered in the ownership of Nicholas Armez of Brittany in 1796, who exhibited it on occasion. Napoleon III persuaded Nicholas Armez’s nephew, Louis-Philippe Armez, to hand it over to the government in 1866 so that the rest of the body might be preserved.
2) France in the 17th century:
Richelieu’s political career appeared to be over when Concini was assassinated in 1517. Richelieu accompanied Marie de Medici to a château in Blois, where she was exiled. Richelieu was almost forgotten between 1617 and 1622. Ironically, the only way he could reach the monarch was through Marie’s ties to insurrection. When mother and son had a falling out over her associations with individuals in the royal court who were regarded untrustworthy, Richelieu acted as a go-between.
Marie was re-instated at court in 1622 as a result of Richelieu’s deft talks with Louis XIII. Richelieu being a talented politician, Marie persuaded her son. Hardly any of the politicians who succeeded Luynes after his death in 1621 were successful, and as France grew increasingly involved in the Thirty Years War on a non-military level, Louis realized that a long-term replacement for Luynes was required. In April 1624, Richelieu was appointed to the Royal Council, and in August 1624, he was appointed Chief Minister.
For a variety of reasons, Richelieu’s tenure as chief minister is noteworthy. He attacked the Huguenots, overhauled the navy and army, destroyed any revolts, and pushed royal absolutism; he raised funds via whatever means necessary, and he oversaw a foreign strategy aimed at making France the most powerful country in Europe.
3) Richelieu’s contribution to Foreign Policy:
Cardinal Richelieu’s policy had two main objectives: to centralise power in France and to oppose the Habsburg dynasty (which ruled in both Austria and Spain). He was confronted with a difficulty in Valtellina, a valley in Lombardy, shortly after becoming Louis’ major minister. Richelieu backed the Protestant Swiss canton of Grisons, which also claimed the strategically crucial valley, to fight Spanish claims. The Cardinal dispatched troops to Valtellina, driving out the Pope’s garrisons. Richelieu’s early choice to defend a Protestant canton against the Pope was a foretaste of his foreign policy’s strictly diplomatic power politics.
Cardinal Richelieu had only one foreign policy goal: to defend France’s interests by any means necessary. Richelieu, as a devoted servant of Louis XIII, desired for France to be the dominating force in Europe and for Louis to be accorded the dignity he believed he deserved.
Richelieu paid little attention to religious factors while deciding foreign policy and what was best for France. In the Thirty Years War, as a Cardinal, he allied with Protestant Sweden and served as a bulwark against Catholic Spain. Despite his opposition to Habsburg encirclement, the Holy Roman Emperor was nonetheless the Catholic Church’s temporal defender. Politics and religion were two separate entities for him.
4) Importance of Richelieu’s ideas in International Relations:
Richelieu’s reign was a pivotal moment in French reform. Previously, the political organisation of the country was essentially feudal, with powerful lords and a wide range of laws in different regions. Parts of the nobles plotted against the King on a regular basis, raising private armies and forming alliances with foreign countries. Under Richelieu, this system gave rise to centralised power.
Local and even religious interests were sacrificed to the interests of the entire nation, as well as the nation’s embodiment, the King. Richelieu’s foreign policy was also crucial for France, as it served to limit Habsburg hegemony throughout Europe. Richelieu did not live to see the Thirty Years’ War come to a close. The conflict ended in 1648, with France emerging well ahead of any other power and the Holy Roman Empire undergoing a period of decline.
Richelieu’s accomplishments were crucial to Louis XIII’s successor, King Louis XIV. He continued on Richelieu’s job of establishing an absolute monarchy; in the same vein as the Cardinal, he established laws that further repressed the once-mighty nobility, and with the Edict of Fontainebleau, he entirely obliterated all remains of Huguenot political power.
Furthermore, Louis used his country’s victory in the Thirty Years’ War to establish French control in continental Europe. As a result of Richelieu’s actions, Louis XIV became the most powerful monarch in Europe during the late seventeenth century, and France became the most powerful nation.
Richelieu is also remembered for the totalitarian methods he used to keep control. He banned the press, developed a massive network of internal spies, prohibited political discussion in public assemblies such as the Parlement de Paris (a court of law), and persecuted and executed those who dared to plot against him. Richelieu has been referred to as the “father of the modern nation-state, modern centralised power, and the modern secret service” by Canadian historian and philosopher John Ralston Saul.
Historians disagree about Richelieu’s motivations: some see him as a loyal follower of the monarchy, while others see him as a power-hungry cynic. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas popularised the latter picture, portraying Richelieu as a self-serving and vicious de facto ruler of France.
Despite these disagreements, Richelieu is still revered in France. He has a battleship and a battleship class named after him. His notions of a strong nation-state and assertive foreign policy contributed to the contemporary system of international politics. Richelieu’s actions and views, particularly as enunciated in the Treaty of Westphalia that concluded the Thirty Years’ War, can be attributed, at least in part, to national sovereignty and international law.
His association with Samuel de Champlain and the budding colony along the St. Lawrence River is a lesser-known component of his legacy. Richelieu’s retention and development of Canada allowed it to grow into a French empire in North America, with parts of it eventually becoming modern Canada and Louisiana, thanks to the settlement’s strategic location as the St. Lawrence-Great Lakes entryway into the North American interior.
