Cardinal Richelieu

I was not bred for the altar. My elder brother held Luçon; when he shrank from orders, I took them—reading theology at a gallop and receiving dispensation. In 1607 I became bishop of a poor diocese. My speech at the Estates‑General in 1614 commended me to the Queen Mother; I was briefly Secretary of State in 1616, then sent down after Concini fell. Rome made me cardinal in 1622; in 1624 the King called me to be his principal minister.

I found great lords behaving as petty kings. I set about making the King obeyed. Royal intendants carried his eye and hand into the provinces; private armies and dueling were curbed; a navy was raised. I fostered commerce and colonies—the Company of One Hundred Associates for New France—and at the Palais‑Cardinal I fixed ministerial authority beside the throne, not above it.

I am a churchman who separated conscience from necessity. The Huguenots kept their worship; they could not keep a state within the state. La Rochelle fell in 1628 after a seawall and blockade starved resistance; the Edict of Alès in 1629 confirmed religion and ended fortresses.

Against Habsburg encirclement I preferred alliances useful to France, be they Catholic or Protestant. Thus I subsidized Sweden by the Treaty of Bärwalde in 1631, then brought France openly into war in 1635. Court daggers—Chalais, the Day of the Dupes—missed. I founded the Académie française in 1635 to steady our language; I patronized the stage and the press to serve policy, not vanity. Dying in 1642, I commended Mazarin to the King and left France readier for Louis XIV.