Will Durant---Richelieu (1585 - 1642)

Rhys Leo 1585 to 1642 1 between 2 Kings 16 10 to 24 the sudden death of Henry the fourth left France in a renewed disorder many rooted in the struggle of the nobles against the monarchy of the middle classes against the aristocracy of the Catholics against the Huguenots of the clergy against the state of the young king louis xiii against his mother and the france against austria and spain the fascinating and demonic genius who resolved all this chaos into order defeated the feudal reaction pacified the Huguenots subordinated the church to the state saved Protestant Germany from collapse broke the power of the encompassing hapsburgs and raised the French monarchy to domestic omnipotence and European supremacy was a Catholic priest the greatest subtlest and most ruthless statesman in the history of France it was part of Henry's tragedy that at his death his heir louis xiii was a helpless boy of 8 and that the widowed to whom he had left the Regency was a woman of more courage than intelligence willing to surrender the government to italian favorites provided she might enjoy the sweets of life in swelling amplitude she abandoned Henry's plan of a war to the death against the Hapsburgs on the contrary she elide france with spain by marrying her children to those of Philip the 3rd her son Louis to Anne of Austria her daughter Elizabeth to the future Philip the 4th the will of rich leah was to prove stronger than this mingled blood Henry and Sully had left 41 million three hundred forty five thousand livres in the Treasury gonchi no Kanchana his wife Lea Nora galley guy the Duke of a Pernod and other thirsty courtiers gathered around this hoard and prepared to consume it sully protested but was overruled he resigned in disguise just retired to his estates and wrote memoirs of his beloved king the nobles saw in the corrupt incompetence of the central government a chance to restore their old feudal sovereignties they demanded and obtained a convocation of the state's general assuming that it would be as usually in the past their voice and weapon against the monarchy but when it met at Paris in October 1614 they were disconcerted by the strength and proposals of the Third Estate the untitled untied shared mass of the people represented then as now by lawyers and expressing the power and the wishes of the middle class nobles and clergy rating birth and augment above wealth and law challenged the new heritability of judicial offices which was creating a rival nobility of the robe the tr-8r retaliated by asking for an investigation of the spacious gifts and Pensions recently received by Nobles from the government it called for the correction of abuses in the church it objected to the application in France of the rigorous decrees of the Council of Trent it demanded that the clergy be subject to the same laws and courts as the laity but a check be put upon the further acquisition of Realty by the UNTAC scible church and that the clergy baptized marry and bury the people without charge finally it defended the absolute authority and divine right of the king over the claims of nobles to rule him and of the Pope's to depose him this was an unexpected revolution the Troublesome delegates were placated with promises and the assembly was dissolved March 16 15 the promises were for the most part forgotten peculation and mismanagement were resumed and no further states-general was called until monarchy nobility and clergy alike collapsed in 1789 nevertheless the French Catholic clergy now honored itself with sincere and effective self reform it was not always responsible for the abuses that disordered the church since many of these stemmed from the appointment of bishops and Abbot's kings or nobles half pagan in life and sometimes skeptical in Creed Henry the fourth gave Huguenots uli for monasteries for his private support and made his mistress Corazon Abbess of shotty Oh sir Sen noble Lords bestowed Episcopal sees abysses and nunneries upon their younger sons their illegitimate children their brave soldiers their favorite women as the reformed decrees of the Council of Trent were not yet accepted in France there were few seminaries for the training of priests any tonsured youth who could read the Latin missile and acquire the elements of liturgy was eligible for the Sasser total office and many bishops who had been easy living men of the world before being rewarded with seas appointed to pasture its men of little education and less holiness the name of priest said a priest has become the synonym for ignorant sin debauchery the worst enemies of the church said st. Vincent de Paul are her unworthy priests pear board woz attacked the moral side of the problem by establishing 1610 the communauté a deep retro which required all the priests of a parish to live together in simplicity and fidelity to their vows in 1611 paired to be rule founded the congregation of the oratory on the model of a similar foundation by Saint Philip Neri in Italy it became a seminary for training young priests to better education and dedication in 1641 pear jeongja Coulier organized the Cilician order to prepare men for the priesthood and in 1646 he opened the seminary in church of san sue peace in paris in 1643 pears on st. John eed formed the Congregation of Jesus and Mary to fit men for the priesthood and missions so were formed bhasu a board a Lu and mala branch of the next generations and the power and splendor of the church under louis xiv new religious orders revealed and revived the piety of the people the Ursuline nuns entered France towards 1600 and undertook the education of girls within a century they had a thousand houses and 350 congregations the order of the Brothers of Mercy founded 1540 in Spain by Juan de Dios Saint John of God was welcomed into france by marie de Medicis and soon provided 30 hospitals in 1610 jean frame yo baroness of Chantal Saint Chantal helped by Francois Dessau Saint Francis of Sales established the Congregation of the visitation of Our Lady for the care of the sick and the poor by 1640 it had a hundred convents by 1700 one branch alone had 400 nunneries all in all there were in France in 1600 some 80,000 nuns two men stand out with special prominence in this Catholic revival of the 17th century Francois Desalle took part of his name from the town of his birth near annecy in savoy he studied law at Padua and became an official of the Savoy Senate but religion was in his blood he was ordained a priest and undertook 1594 the difficult task of winning back to Catholicism the Chablis region south of Lake Geneva which had been Calvinist since 1535 in five years the mission was accomplished partly by exiling the unconverted but mostly by France was persuasive piety patience and tact raised to a bishopric he gave himself to teaching children and adults when he visited Paris highborn women fell reverently in love with him and for a time piety became fashionable the career of Vincent de Paul followed less traditional grooves he began as a smiler but somehow he found his way to a franciscan college in Gascony his father longing like every Catholic parent to get his family into paradise by dedicating a child to the church sold a yoke of oxen to send his boy to study theology at the University to lose their Vincent was ordained priest 1600 on a voyage in the Mediterranean he was captured by pirates and he was sold as a slave in Tunis he escaped went to Paris served King Henry's divorced Margo as chaplain and then became spiritual director to Madame de bunda with funds provided by this lady he organised missions among the peasantry after nearly every mission he established a conference - our eta for the relief of the local poor and to provide for the continuance of these foundations he organized the congregation of the priests of the mission often called the Lazarus --ts from the Priory of Saint Lazarus that served as their headquarters in Paris as Madame de Gandhi was commandant of the French galleys Vincent took to preaching to the galley convicts shocked by their hardships and diseases he opened hospitals for them at Paris and Marseilles and aroused the conscience of France to better treatment of the prisoners he persuaded well-to-do women to give periodic service in the hospitals he raised large sums for charitable distribution and to administer these and help his ladies of charity he organised 1633 the sisters whom he preferred to call the Daughters of Charity now serving humanity and their church in many quarters of the world physically unattractive poorly garbed resembling some wrinkled bearded rabbi Monsieur vos all by his Labor's for the poor the sick that criminal won the hearts of nearly all who knew him he collected great sums established hospitals asylums seminaries homes for the aged retreats for laymen and priests volumes have swollen with accounts of his benefactions during the Fronde of 1648 253 in the blockade of Paris he supervised the feeding of 15,000 destitute persons here however Dogma overcame charity and he required a confession of Catholic faith as a condition of receiving food he joined in the campaign against poor royale but tried to soften the persecution of it's nuns when he died half of Paris mourned him and satisfaction was universal when the church 17:37 enrolled him among her Saints through him and Francois de Salle and the undiscovered gems and the ardent service of innumerable women French Catholicism experienced under louis xiii a rebirth of vigor and devotion old monastic orders returned to their rules nunneries reformed themselves now began pour Royale and its Jansenist saints mysticism found new advocates and practitioners of absorption in direct contemplation of God the young King caught in the fervor of the age solemnly placed France under the protection of the Virgin Mary in order said the Royal edict that all his loyal subjects might be received into paradise such being his goodwill and pleasure watchmen continued as in medieval France to awaken the Parisians each morning with a call to prayer for the departed dead Raviv ulzzang key door may create year for late tray passe but the conflict of creeds continued bitterly marie de medici s' adhered faithfully despite her piety to the Edict of Nantes Catholics nor Huguenots were disposed to tolerance the Pope is Nancy oh and the Catholic clergy denounced the government for permitting heresy where Catholics dominated they disrupted Protestant services destroyed Protestant churches homes sometimes lives children were forcibly taken from Huguenots parents on the ground that the parents prevented them from fulfilling their desire to become Catholics where Protestants dominated they retaliated in kind they excluded the mass from some 250 towns under their rule they demanded that the government prohibit Catholic processions in Protestant territory they ridiculed disturbed sometimes attacked such processions they for bad Protestants to attend Catholic baptisms marriages or funerals and their ministers declared that they would withhold the sacrament from parents whose children married Catholics said a famous freethinker while the Catholics were theoretically more bigoted than the Protestants the Protestants became more bigoted than the Catholics the preachers rivaled the Catholic clergy and suppressing heresy and criticism they excommunicated and delivered up to Satan but did not burn Jeremy furyay for having made fun of ecclesiastical assemblies and their writings attacked Catholicism in works which for bitterness of feeling have hardly ever been equalled and which it would certainly be impossible to surpass fearing repeal of the Edict of Nantes and resenting the alliance of france with spain the Huguenots strove to make their part of france politically independent and militarily secure with its own army and its own laws when louis xiii visited PO 1620 he was shocked to find not one Catholic Church in which to perform his devotions the young king looked with alarmed resentment upon the faith that threatened to divide not merely the soul but also the body of France he searched anxiously amid his court for a man with enough iron in his blood to transform this Sun during chaos of creeds and powers into a strong and united nation - louis xiii he knew that he himself lacked the physical health and mental force needed to meet these challenges begotten in the 48th year of a father perhaps weakened by sexual exuberance he suffered from tuberculosis intestinal inflammation and an embarrassing impediment in his speech through long periods he was too weak to indulge in sports he played and composed music groupies for the market put up preserves and helped in the kitchen heredity and disease left him no charms of figure or face he was precariously in his head and nose were oversized his pendulous under lip left his mouth always partly open and his long livid countenance harmonized with his deliberately drab costume he suffered no more from nature than from his physicians who in a single year bled him 47 times gave him 215 enemas and poured 212 drugs down his throat he survived by engaging in sports when he could hunting joining his army sleeping in the open air and eating the soldiers simple food beaten repeatedly by his teachers he abominated education and seems never to have read a book except for prayer he read the canonical hours every day accepted without question the faith taught him in his growing years and always joined and accompanied to its end any procession that pour the consecrated host an erotic tendency to occasional cruelty tarnished a disposition basically kind he was shy secretive and morose not much loving a life that had not loved him his mother considered him feeble-minded neglected him and openly preferred his younger brother Gaston he responded by hating her and worshiping the memory of his father he developed an aversion to women and after some timid contemplation of mademoiselle de oude fours beauty he gave his affections two young men married politically to Anne of Austria he had to be prodded into her bed when she miscarried he left her intact for 13 years the court advised him to take a mistress but he had other tastes then at 37 yielding to the demands of all France for a doe farm he tried again and grateful and gave the world louis xiv 1638 two years later she bore Philippe the first of all they all who continued his father's appreciation of male charms Louie was some inches a king suddenly still a lad of sixteen tired of conscience impedance and peculation z-- he gave secret orders for his assassination 1617 and when the Queen Mother protested against this termination of her favorite he banished her to Bois and chose as his chief minister Charl doubt bear who had suggested the stroke and who was now made Duke of Louie pressed by the Duke and Pope Paul v Louie ordered the Huguenots to restore all property that they had appropriated from the church when Bayern ignored the decree he marched into the province compelled obedience and brought Bayern and Navarre wants his father's personal realm under the direct rule of the king the Huguenots made no immediate resistance but in 1620 there General Assembly meeting in their strongest City La Rochelle demanded the return of the restored property as belonging to the people rather than to the church moreover at apportioned France into eight circles and appointed for each of them a chief administrator and a council to levy taxes and raise troops Louis declared that France could not tolerate such a state within a state in April 1621 he led one army and his generals led three others against the Protestant Citadel's several of these were taken but Manto ball under all redo cover all held out successfully incompetent generals allowed the war to drag on for a year and a half the peace treaty of October 9 1622 for bad Protestant assemblies but left Mon tobor and La Rochelle in Huguenots hands during these campaigns Lewin died 1621 and richly are climbed to power three the Cardinal and the Huguenots how does a man make his way to the top in those days it helped to be well borne our mall Jean do plac'd de Richelieu had four mother the daughter of an advocate in the Parliament of Paris and for his father the señor de richelieu grand provost of the royal household under Henry the fourth the ancient part two family inherited the right to recommend it to the king a candidate for the bishopric of loose all our mall 21 was so nominated by Henry 16:06 two years too young for Episcopacy he hastened to Rome lied about his age and delivered before Paul the fifth so handsome a Latin harangue that the Pope surrendered the see this Fay being a comple rich Lea confessed his lie and asked for absolution the Pope complied remarking questo Giovanni surround grin for Abel this youth will be a great knave the young Bishop described his bishopric as the poorest and nastiest see and France but there was some money in the family and he soon had his coach and his silver plate he did not take his office as a lazy sign a cure he devoted himself assiduously to his duties but he found time to flatter every influence and pull every wire when the clergy of poitou chose a delegate to the state's general 1614 our mo was their man in that assembly his grave faced his tall slim figure his almost legal ability to grasp an issue clearly and presented persuasively impressed everyone especially Marie de MIDI sees through her and Conchie knee he was made a Secretary of State 1616 a year later Conchie knee was killed and richly lost his post after a brief service with the banished Queen mother at bra he returned to loose all Murray plotted to escape rich Leo was suspected of complicity he was exiled to Avignon 1618 his political career seemed finished but even his enemies recognized his abilities and when Marie let herself out by night from a window of her castle at Bois and joined a force of rebel aristocrats Lewin called the young Bishop and commissioned him to win the Queen Mother back to reason and the he succeeded Lois secured a Cardinals hat for him and appointed him to the council of state soon rich Leah's superiority of mind and will made it self-evident and in August 1624 aged 39 he became prime minister the King found in him precisely the objective intelligence the clear purpose the tenacity of ends and the flexibility of means wherein he himself was wanting and he had the wisdom to accept the Cardinals guidance in the triple task of subduing the Huguenots the nobles and Spain in his memoirs wish lia remarked appreciatively the ability to let himself be served to delegate authority is not among the least qualities of a great king Louis did not always agree with his minister sometimes he rebuked him always he was jealous of him now and then he thought of dismissing him but how could he reject a man who was making him absolute in France and supreme in Europe and who was bringing in more taxes than even su Lee had gleaned the spirit of the Cardinal showed itself first in his treatment of religion he accepted without discussion the doctrines of the church and added a few superstitions surprising and so powerful a mind but he ignored the claim of the ultra montanus party that the Pope's had full dominion over Kings he preserved the Gallican liberties of the French churches against Rome and in things temporal he subordinated the church to the state as resolutely as any Englishman he banished father cosas who was the Royal confessor had intervened in politics no religion in his view should mingle with affairs of state the Alliance's he formed for France were made with Protestant and Catholic powers indifferently he applied his principles firmly to Huguenots playing politics despite the Peace of 1622 they had made La Rochelle a virtually sovereign city under the control of its merchants ministers and Generals from that strategic port the merchants plied their trade with the world and Pirates sailed out to seize any booty or any ship even those of France through this port given Huguenots permission any enemy of France might enter Louis too had violated the treaty he had promised to demolish Fort Louie which was a standing threat to the city instead he strengthened it and dissembled a small fleet in the nearby harbor of la blob a ban German brother to all read the Rome señor de soubise commanding a Huguenot squadron captured this royal fleet and towed it in triumph to La Rochelle 1625 Richelieu built another fleet organized an army and accompanied the king to the siege of the Huguenots stronghold soubise persuaded the Duke of Buckingham to send an armada of a hundred and twenty vessels to protect the city it came but suffered so sorely from the artillery of the Royal forts on the island of Rey that had crept back to England in disgrace 16:27 meanwhile richly uh acting as general for his sick King had captured all the land approaches to La Rochelle it remained only two blockaded by sea he ordered his engineers and his soldiers to build a mole of masonry seventeen hundred yards long across the entrance to the harbor leaving an opening for the movement of the tides these were so strong rising and falling twelve feet that the enterprise seemed impracticable every day half the stones laid that day were washed away the King grew weary of this bloodless warfare and went off to Paris many courtiers expected him to dismiss Richelieu for failing to take the city by assault but at last the mall was complete and began its scheduled work half the population of La Rochelle died of hunger only the richest could get a little meat be paid 45 levers for a cat mm for a cow Jean get all the mayor threatened to kill with his own dagger anyone who spoke of yielding nevertheless after 13 months of famine and disease the city capitulated in despair October 30th 1628 Richelieu entered on horseback followed by soldiers mercifully distributing bread half of France clamored for the total extinction of the Huguenots exhausted they could only pray richly you surprised them with peace terms that seemed to the Catholics outrageously lenient La Rochelle lost its municipal independence its forts and its walls but the persons and property of the inhabitants were spared the surviving Huguenots troops were allowed to depart with their arms and the free exercise of both the Protestant and the Catholic worship in the city was guaranteed other Huguenots towns surrendering received similar terms Catholic property expropriated by Protestants had to be restored but the temporarily homeless Huguenots ministers were compensated by a state subsidy of two hundred thousand livres and like the Catholic clergy they were exempted from the head tax or tie the general amnesty was granted to all who had shared in the rebellion Henry the fourth seed active not was confirmed in every essential by Richelieu use Edict of grace June 28 1629 positions in the Army Navy and civil service were kept open to all without question of creed Europe was startled to see French Catholics following and honoring Protestant generals like Turin Schaumburg and only to Rome from that time said Richelieu differences in religion never prevented me from rendering to the Huguenots all sorts of good offices with a wisdom tragically lacking in louis xiv the great cardinal recognized as colbert was to do the immense economic value of the Huguenots de france they abandoned revolt gave themselves peacefully to Commerce and Industry and prospered as never before for the Cardinal and the nobles he proceeded with equal resolution and less lenience against the nobles who still held France to be many and not one feudalism was by no means dead it had fought in the religious wars for control of the central government the great Nobles still had their fortified castles their armed forces their private Wars their private courts their officers of law they still had the peasantry at their mercy and charged obstructive tolls on Commerce traversing their domains France dismembered by feudalism and religion was not yet a nation it was an unstable and agitated assemblage of proud and semi-independent barons capable at any moment of disrupting the peace and the economy of the state most of the provinces were ruled by Dukes or counts who claimed their governorships for life and handed them on to their sons it seemed to Richelieu that the only practicable alternative to this enfeebling chaos was to centralized authority and power in the king conceivably he might have labored to balance this by restoring some measure of municipal autonomy but he could not restore the medieval commune which had rested on the Guild's and a protected local economy the passage from a city to a national market had undermined the guilds and the communes and required central rather than local legislation to mines frozen in the perspective of today the Royal absolutism desired by Richelieu seems but a reactionary despotism in the view of history and of the great majority of Frenchmen in the seventeenth century it was a liberating progress from feudal tyranny to unified rule France was not right for democracy most of its population were ill fed ill clothed illiterate darkened with superstitions and murderous with certainties the towns were controlled by businessmen who could think in no other terms than their own profit or laws and these men hampered at every step by feudal privileges were not disposed to unite with the lesser Nobles as in England to establish a Parliament checking the royal power the French parliament representative and legislative Parliament's they were superior courts nurtured and more tests in precedent they were not chosen by the people and they became Citadel's of conservatism the middle classes the artisans and the peasants approved the absolutism of the king as the only protection they could see from the absolutism of the lords in 1626 in the name of the king rich lea issued an edict that struck at the very base of feudalism he ordered the destruction of all fortresses except on the frontiers and for bad in future the fortification of private dwellings in the same year his older brother having been killed in a duel he made dueling a capital crime and when Mol Morel see boots veal and the Count de Chapelle dueled nevertheless he had them put to death he confessed himself much troubled in spirit by this procedure but he told his master it is a question of breaking the neck of jewels or of your Majesty's edicts the nobles vowed vengeance and plotted the ministers fall they found an eager ally in the Queen Mother once the patron of riche leaves she came to hate him when she saw him opposing her policies when Louise fell gravely ill July 1630 she and the Queen nursed him back to semi health and asked is there reward the Cardinals head in her own Palace the Luxembourg Marie de Medici stinking Richelieu far away repeated the demand with passionate urgency and offered as a willing replacement michel de maria keeper of the seals Richelieu coming by a secret passage entered the room unannounced and confronted the Queen Mother she confessed that she had told the king that either she or he richly who must go the harassed King withdrew and rode off to his hunting lodge at Versailles courtiers flocked around Marie rejoicing in her expected victory but Louis sent forest you confirmed him as Prime Minister assured him of the Royal support and signed an order for Marriott's arrest the plotting Nobles were thrown into angry confusion by that day of dupes November 10th 1630 re-ack was allowed to live but his younger brother a marshal of France was later indicted on a charge of peculation and was rather samara Lee put to death 1632 Louis ordered his mother to retire to her chateau at mula and to withdraw from politics instead she fled to Flanders 16:31 formed a court in exile at Brussels and continued to work for rich leaves fall she never saw the king again her other son Monsieur Gaston Duke of or layer raised an Army in Lorraine and leaded in open rebellion against his brother 1632 he was joined by several Nobles among them the highest in France all read Duke of Moammar all see governor of Languedoc thousands of the aristocracy rallied to the revolt near Castel notary September 1st the 37 year old memorial see engaged the forces sent against him by richly you he fought till brought down by seventeen wounds his and gaston's army rich in titles but poor and discipline fell to pieces under attack and Maul Morosi was captured gassed all surrendered and as the price of pardon named his accomplices Louis ordered the Parliament of Toulouse to trim' all Morrissey for treason its verdict was death the last of the ducal mamuro seized died without fear a complaint saying I hold this decree of the King's justice for a decree of God's mercy most of France condemned the cardinal and the King for unfeeling severity Louis replied I should not be king if I had the feelings of private persons and richly you defended the execution as a necessary notice to the aristocracy that they too were subject to the laws nothing so upholds the laws he said as the punishment of persons whose rank is as great as their crime to further obstacles remained to Richelieu's supremacy the governors and the Parliament was ending the loss of provincial revenue through malversation and incompetence in noble governor's and in bourgeois or petty noble magistrates the Cardinal sent to each district in tendance to supervise the administration of finance and justice and the enforcement of the laws these royal appointees took precedence over local officials of whatever rank local autonomy declined efficiency and tax collections roads anticipated in some measure by Henry the fourth suppressed by the nobles in the Fronde consolidated by louis xiv adapted by napoleon this system of intendant's became a major feature of the centrally controlled bureaucracy that henceforth administered the laws of france the parliament of paris thought at opportune under a weak monarchy to extend its functions from the registration and interpretation of the laws to the role of an advisory council to the king Richelieu would not Brook such rivalry to his Council of State probably under his prodding and with his sharp phrasing Louis summoned the leaders of the Parliament told them you are constituted only to judge between master Peter and master John if you go on as at present I will pair your nails so close that you will be sorry the Paris Parliament and the provincial Parliament followed suit even their traditional functions were curtailed rich leaders set up extraordinary commissions to try special cases France became a police state the Cardinals spies were everywhere even in the salons lettre de cachet orders in secret became a frequent instrument of government Richelieu was now in effect King of France 5 the Cardinal supreme with this isn't rated power in his hands he did everything for France little for the people he thought of France is a power now there's a sum of living individuals he did not idealize the common man and he probably thought it'd do Chiat decorum that such men should die for their country he would sacrifice them to make the future France secure from Habsburg encirclement he laboured far into the night at the business of the state but almost always on foreign policy he had no time to improve the economy except to ferret out tax evaders and bring revenue and intelligence to Paris with less leakage on the way in 1627 he organized a public post taxes were still collected by finance ears to whom they had been farmed these men had exacted twice sometimes thrice the amount they transmitted to the government the nobility and the clergy were exempt from the major taxes clever businessmen and the hordes of officials found ways of avoiding or appeasing the collectors towns paid a small composition to escape the poll tax the brunt of the burden fell upon the peasantry Richelieu led it to destitution to make France the strongest power in Christendom like Henry the fourth he preferred to conquer enemies with money rather than with blood many of the treaties with which he waged war included subsidies to allies and deucer to potential foes at times desperate for funds he advanced his own money to the Treasury once he hired an alchemist to make gold taxation and the state corvée unpaid labour on the roads cooperated with drought famine pestilence and ravages by soldiery to bring peasants near to suicide several killed their families and themselves starving mothers killed and ate their infants 1639 in 1634 according to a probably exaggerated report a fourth of the population of Paris begged periodically and sporadically the poor rose in revolt that were mercilessly suppressed rich leah used the taxes to build armies and a navy right would not be heard unless it spoke with guns having purchased the office of grand admiral he fulfilled its functions resolutely he repaired and fortified harbors established Arsenal's and provisioned depots at the ports built eighty-five ships founded pilot schools trained marine regiments he raised a hundred regiments of infantry 300 troops of cavalry he restored discipline in the army he failed only in his efforts to banish prostitutes with his revitalized armament he faced the chaos of Foreign Relations back wheezed by the Regency of Marie de Medicis returned to the policy of Henry the fourth and directed all his forces to one goal the liberation of France from the cordon of Habsburg power and the Netherlands Austria Italy and Spain Marie had allied France to Spain that is in rich leaves view she had submitted to the enemy and she had alienated those on whom Henry the fourth had relied his friends the English the Dutch and the Protestants of Germany with the quick strategic eye of a general Richelieu you saw in the vault alene passes that connected Austria and Spanish Italy the key to the United power of Spain and the Empire to exchange supplies and troops for 12 years he struggled to win those passes his wars against the Huguenots and the nobles distracted and defeated him but he retrieved with diplomacy far more than he had lost in war he had won to his faithful service Francoise LeClair de Tremblay who had taken the name Joseph on becoming a Capuchin monk father Joseph was sent everywhere on delicate diplomatic missions and performed them skillfully and France began to pair the grey garbed monk as aminos Gries his grey eminence with the red robed richly as aminos Rouge so aided the Cardinal vowed that he would prove to the world that the age of Spain is passing and the age of France has come in 1629 the epochal conflict in germany seemed about to end in the complete triumph of the catholic Habsburg Emperor over the Protestant Prince's Richelieu turned the tables with money he signed with gustavus adolphus 1631 a treaty by which the virile King of Sweden aided by a million livres a year from France was to invade Germany and rescue the Protestant states the ultra montanus of France denounced the minister as a traitor to the faith he retorted that neutrality was treason to France when Gustavus died in victory at lützen 1632 and most German princes yielded to the Emperor Richelieu actively entered the war he expanded the French armies from 12,000 in 1621 to 150,000 in 1638 he helped the revolt of the Catalans in Spain his diplomacy gave him control of trier Coblentz colmar Mannheim and Basel his troops took Lauren and forced their way through Savoy to Milan the center of Spanish power in North Italy then the pendulum of Fortune veered and all these victories seemed meaningless in July and August 1636 a strong force of Spanish and imperial troops crossed the Netherlands into France took extra Chappell Aachen and Corby advanced to amia laid waste to the green valleys of the some and the Oise richly whose armies were far away the road to Paris lay open and defenseless to the enemy the Queen Mother in Brussels the Queen in San German and her pro Spanish party in France rejoiced and counted the days before the Cardinals expected fall in Paris angry multitudes Poli elated in the streets calling for his death but when he appeared among them outwardly calm on his stately horse no one dared touch him and many prayed God to give him strength to save France then appeared not only his courage but his foresight and Industry he had long ago organized the citizens of Paris into a reserved militia he had stored up arms and materials for them now he inspired them with fervor and they responded to his call the Parliament of Paris the corporations and the guilds voted funds in a few days a new army was on the march and it laid siege to corby Gaston of or they are in command dilly-dallied rich Lea came up took charge ordered assault on November 14th Corby was taken and the Habsburg troops retreated into the Netherlands in 1638 Bernhardt of sacks vimar reading a German army financed by Richelieu you took Elle's us dying a year later he bequeathed it to France elzar sandlot ringen became Alsace Lorraine and began to be French in 1640 Arras was taken in 1642 a force under the command of the king and the Cardinal captured Perpignan and the surrounding province of Russia all was detached from Spain everywhere rich Lea seemed now the organizer of victory the unreconciled Nobles the Spanish faction at the court the highborn ladies palpitating with intrigue made a last effort to unseat the minister in 1632 after long serving the Cardinal in diplomacy and war the Marquis of Fe odd died leaving a widow and a handsome twelve-year-old son or equally a de Roos a Marquis of sank Mar Richelieu took the lad under his protection and introduced him to the king perhaps he thought with this toy to distract Louis from Mademoiselle de out for who was among the aintry gaunt it's so transpired the king was charmed by the youths looks and wit and insolence made him master of the horse begged him to share the royal bed but sank Mar maturing 221 preferred the pretty courtesan Merion de lon and the exalted Marie de Gonzaga you we know Poland now one of the Cardinals loveliest enemies probably at her suggestion and inflamed by her strategic retreats the youth in portioned Louie for admission to the Royal Council and for a command in the Army when Richelieu discountenanced these proposals sank Mar begged the King to dismiss the minister refused he joined Gaston Varley all the Duke of we all and others in a plot to surrender Saddam to a Spanish army with this army at their back the conspirators were to enter Paris and take possession of the King and Gaston pledged himself to arrange the assassination of the Cardinal on the way to Perpignan sank Mars friend Jacques Cousteau too solicited the cooperation of the Queen but Anne of Austria expecting Louie's early death and her elevation to power as regent sent a hint of the scheme to richly you he pretended to have a copy of the agreement with Spain Gaston believing it confessed and as usual betrayed his associates sank Marda - and booyah were arrested we all as the price of pardon confirmed gaston's confession the two youths were tried by a court at Lyon they were unanimously condemned and they dignified their treason with a stoic death the King hurried back to Paris to protect his power Richelieu mortally ill was carried in a litter through a France dying of victories and crying out for peace six epitaph what was he like this Cardinal who was hardly a Christian this great man who felt that he could not afford to be good Philippe Duchamp pena sent him down the ages in one of the most famous paintings in the Louvre the tall figures saved from absurdity by raiment given authority by red robe and hat posing as if in some forensic plea proclaiming his nobility and his clear-cut features and delicate hands challenging his enemies with his sharp eyes but pale with exhausting years and saddened with the consciousness of inexorable time here is the worldliness of power crossed with the asceticism of dedication he had to be strong to keep his faults from defeating his purposes he began his career at court with an ingratiating humility which he later avenged with a pride that admitted only one superior once when the Queen visited him he remained seated the discourtesy permitted only to the king he was like most of us vain of his appearance avid of titles resentful of criticism eager for popularity jealous of corny he wished to be known also as a dramatist and a poet actually he wrote excellent prose as his memoirs show as readily as Wolsey he reconciled the following of Christ with a cautious attention to Mammon he refused bribes and took no salary but he appropriated the income of many benefits 'as alleging his need to finance his policies like Wolsey he built himself so splendid the palace that before he died he thought it wise to present it to the Doh fam so the Palais cardinal became the Palais Royale we may suppose that it was built for an administrative staff and diplomatic show rather than for personal extravagance he was no miser he enriched his relatives and could be generous with the money of the state he bequeathed half of his personal hoard to the king advising him to use it on occasions which cannot abide the tardiness of financial forms what appears as his unfeeling cruelty was to him a necessity of rule he took it for granted that men certainly states could not be managed by kindness they had to be intimidated by severity he loved France but Frenchmen left him cold he agreed with Cosimo de'medici that a state cannot be governed with pattern Oster's and with Machiavelli that the ethics of Christ cannot be safely followed in ruling or preserving a nation a Christian he wrote cannot too soon forgive an injury but a ruler cannot too soon punish it when it is a crime against the state without this virtue of severity which becomes mercy insofar as the punishment of one culprit prevents a thousand from forgetting it states cannot survive it was richly you who gave currency to the phrase raison d'etat that is the ethical code must give way to reasons of state he seems never to have questioned the identification of his policies with the needs of France and she persecuted his personal enemies as firmly as he punished the foes of the king within his castle and his diplomatic front he was human longed for friendship and felt the loneliness of the exalted talam all's gossipy a story yet would have us believe that rich leader tried to make a mistress of Marie de Medicis it was 20 years older than he it is highly improbable there are other legends of the Cardinals secret amours even with Nino and along Clos and it would not have violated the mores of the time if the harassed statesman had consoled himself with contours all that we know clearly of his affections is that he was profoundly attached to his niece Marie Madeleine de Campbell a widowed soon after marriage she wished to enter a convent but Richelieu persuaded the Pope to forbid it he kept her near him to manage his household and he received from her a devotion in tenser than most loves she dressed like a nun and concealed her hair Richelieu conducted himself toward her with all due propriety but the Queen's refused her the benefit of any doubt and gave a lead to gossip that added another sting to the Cardinals tale he loved not man nor woman neither and both took their revenge what he had above all was will few lives in all history have been so unified in their aim so undeviating in its pursuit the laws of motion could not be more constant we must admire his devotion to his tasks is wearing himself out in them through years of labor and nights without sleep he dedicated those Labor's to those could sleep without fear under cover of his sleepless care we must concede him a surpassing courage which faced powerful nobles and scheming women stood them off killed them off dauntlessly amid repeated plots against his life he risked his head time and again on the issue of his policies he was seldom well having contracted a fever from the marshes of poitou he was subject to repeated headaches which sometimes lasted for days on end probably his nervous system was genetically weak or congenitally injured one sister was feeble-minded one brother was for a while insane and court rumors said that the Cardinal himself had fits of epilepsy and mad hallucinations he suffered from hemorrhoids boils and a disease of the bladder as in Napoleon's case his political crises were occasionally complicated by inability to urinate more than once his illnesses led him to think of retiring then imprisoned in his will he took hold again and fought on we cannot judge him fairly unless we see him wholly including features that will take form as we proceed he was a pioneer of religious toleration he was a man of wide and sensitive culture a connoisseur of music a discerning collector of art a lover of drama and poetry a helpful friend of men of letters the founder of the French Academy but history properly remembers him above all is the man who freed France from that Spanish dominance which had resulted from the religious wars and which in the league had made France a pensioner almost a dependency of Spain he achieved what Francis the first and Henry the fourth had longed and failed to do he broke the chordal strangle air with which Habsburg powers had encircled France later pages must detail the far-seeing strategy whereby he decided the 30 Years War saved German Protestantism as the ally of Catholic France and made it possible for Mazarin to mould the constructive Peace of Westphalia for France itself he created unity and strength at the cost of a dictatorship and a royal absolutism that in time generated the revolution if it is a Statesman's prime duty to make his people happy and free recently you fell far short Cardinal directs a shrewd but not impartial judge condemned him as having established the most scandalous and dangerous tyranny that perhaps ever enslaved the state Rhys Leo would have replied that the statesman is required to consider the happiness and freedom of future generations as well as of his own that he must make his country strong to guard it against alien invasion or domination that for this purpose he may justly sacrifice a present generation for the security of its successors in this sense richly use Spanish rival Lola virus raided him the ablest Minister that Christendom has possessed these last thousand years Chesterfield ranked him as the ablest statesman of his time and perhaps of any other his return from his final victory a true seal was the funeral procession of a still living man from Terris gone to Leon he took a barge on their own at Leon he remained till sank Mar and de2 were tried and dead then weak from the pain of an anal fistula he had himself carried to Paris and a litter borne by 24 men of his bodyguard and large enough to contain a bed for the dying man a table a chair and a secretary to take dictation of army orders and diplomatic messages six weeks that death march took and along the road people gathered to get a glimpse of the man to whom they could give not love but fear respect and reverence as the awesome embodiment of both church and state the Vicar of God and King arrived in Paris he was moved into his palace without leaving his couch he sent in his resignation to his master who refused to accept it Louie came to his bedside nursed him fed him wondered what he would do if this incarnate will should cease the Cardinals confessor giving him the last sacrament asked him if forgiving his enemies he answered that he had never had any except the enemies of France after a day of coma he died December 4th 1642 aged 57 the King decreed an entire week of funeral ceremonies through a day and a half sightseers filed by his corpse but in many provinces people kindled bonfires in gratitude that the iron Cardinal was dead he continued for a time to rule France he had recommended giulio Matsuri Nia's successor to his ministry Louis complied he left ten volumes of memoirs recording the actions of the state as if they had been not his but the Kings in his final years he had dedicated to Louis eighth Testament politique to serve after my death for the administration and conduct of your realm here amid some platitudes are precise and pithy Maxim's of government in a style rivaling any other prose of the time advises the King to avoid war as something for which his majesty was by nature unfit it is more profitable and more glorious to reconcile a dozen enemies than to ruin one besides he confided the French are not constituted for war at the start they are all ardor and bravery but they lack the patience and flim to await the propitious moment as time goes on they lose interest and become soft to the point where they are less than women a king like a general must have a masculine courage capable of resisting emotional inclinations he should give women no voice in government for they follow their moods and passions rather than their reason however intellect in a woman is unbecoming I have never seen a woman of much learning who was not marred by her knowledge women cannot keep secrets and secrecy as the sole of statesmanship a prudent statesman will talk little and listen much he will watch lest he give offence by some careless word he will never speak ill of anyone unless the interest of the state requires it the king should get a general knowledge of the his trien constitution of all states especially his own and the author asks some understanding for his ministry and his character great men who are appointed to govern states are like those condemned to torture with only this difference but the latter received the punishment of their crimes the former of their merits the King survived him by five months Louise brief rule was gratefully remembered for he released political prisoners suffered exiles to return and allowed France to breathe he complained that the Cardinal had not permitted him to act as he wished his mother had died a few months before Richelieu he had her remains brought from Cologne and gave them stately burial and in his last moments he repeatedly prayed that God and man would pardon the harshness he had shown to her he saw himself failing but rejoiced in the vigor and beauty of his four-year-old son what is your name he asked playfully louis xiv answered the boy not yet my son not yet said the king smiling he bagged the court except the Regency of the Queen until his son should come of age when he was told that death was near he said then my god I consent with all my heart he died on May 14 1643 aged 41 people went to his funeral as to a wedding talam all reported and appeared before the queen is at attorney the terrible Cardinal had made everything ready for log Roman arc and lagron siècle

Channel: Rocky C

Views: 26,250

Rating: 4.8832116 out of 5

Keywords: Will Durant, Richelieu, Cardinal Richelieu

Id: _SnjEjp4VKQ

Length: 61min 7sec (3667 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 26 2017