Richelieu, Armand Jean Duplessis, Duc de, known as Cardinal Richelieu 1585-1642
French prelate and statesman

Richelieu was born into a noble but impoverished family near Chinon, and was consecrated Bishop of Lu�on, which was in the family's control, at the age of 22. In 1614 he became adviser to Marie de M�dicis, regent for her son Louis XIII, and in 1616 he rose to be Secretary for War and Foreign Affairs. In 1622 he was made cardinal, in 1624 Minister of State to Louis XIII. In this capacity he made an alliance with Great Britain, which he strengthened by the marriage (1625) of the king's sister Henrietta Maria with Charles I.

One of his principal aims was to destroy the political power of the Huguenots. La Rochelle was starved into submission (1628), and he destroyed Montauban, the last refuge of Huguenot independence. From 1629 he was Chief Minister and effective ruler of France. In 1630 he entered Italy with a large army and reduced Savoy. He sought to reduce the power of the Habsburgs by supporting the Protestants of the North and Gustav II Adolf of Sweden, to whom he gave large subsidy, and the two treaties of Cherasco (1631) gave France a strategic supremacy. Meanwhile Richelieu successfully overcame a powerful conspiracy launched against him by the queen mother, the House of Guise and others. He was made duke, and Governor of Brittany. Further intrigues and attempted rebellions were crushed with merciless severity.

In July 1632 Richelieu seized the Duchy of Lorraine, and in 1635 entered the Thirty Years War by declaring war on Spain. After some initial reverses, he swept the enemy out of Picardy while Bernard of Saxe-Weimar drove them across the Rhine, and in 1638 destroyed the imperial army at Rheinfelden. His policy soon led to the disorganization of the power of Spain, and to the victories of Wolfenb�ttel and Kempten over the imperialist forces in Germany, and at length in 1641 in Savoy, as well as to the ascendancy of the French party.

At home the great French nobles continued to plot his downfall, and his safety lay in the king's helplessness without him. The last conspiracy against him was that of Henri Cinq-Mars, whose intrigues with the Duke of Bouillon and the Spanish court were soon revealed to the cardinal by means of a network of espionage which covered the whole of France. Cinq-Mars and De Thou were arrested and executed.

At the cost of high taxation and the suppression of constitutional government, Richelieu had built up the power of the French Crown and achieved for France a dominating position in Europe. Although he put what he thought were the interests of his country before personal ambition, he too often forgot in his methods the laws of morality and humanity.

Bibliography: Richelieu had a considerable literary ambition. His M�moires are still read with interest. Other works include Instruction du chr�tien (1619) and Trait� de la perfection du chr�tien (1646). He founded the French Academy in 1634. See also William F Church, Richelieu and Reason of State (1973); D P O'Connell, Richelieu (1968); C V Wedgwood, Richelieu and the French Monarchy (1962).