| Notes |
- When Henry IV dies, in 1610, he has had six children by his second
wife, Marie de Médicis, in the previous nine years. This level of
productivity is remarkable in that Henry is famous also for the number
of his mistresses (causing him to become known as le vert galant, the
"evergreen gallant").
Henry's infidelities have strained his relationship with Marie
(married for the advantages which a Medici dowry will bring to the
French exchequer), and it is only on the day before his assassination
that she finally manages to be crowned queen. The coincidence provokes
rumours as to her possible involvement in the crime. But as the
crowned queen she successfully asserts her claim to be regent for her
son, the 9-year-old Louis XIII.
Marie immediately reverses the anti-Habsburg policy prevailing at
the end of Henry's reign. She admits the Spanish ambassador to her
council and arranges for two of her children to marry the infanta and
infante, the two elder children of Philip III of Spain; Louis XIII is
betrothed to Anne, and his sister Elizabeth to the future Philip IV.
Marie's regency is extravagant and incompetent. It ends in violence
when Louis XIII, at the age of seventeen, arranges for the
assassination of his mother's favourite, the Marquis d'Ancre, and
takes power into his own hands. In the long run Marie's main
contribution is her employment of a very talented administrator -
Richelieu.
Armand du Plessis, created cardinal in 1622 and duc de Richelieu in
1631, begins his public career as the 21-year-old bishop of the small
diocese of Luçon. He comes to the attention of Marie de Médicis when
he is one of the representatives of the clergy in the estates general
of 1614 (summoned by her for the purpose of raising funds). He becomes
one of her secretaries of state in 1616.
When Marie is exiled from Paris in 1617 by her son, Richelieu goes
with her. But there is a reconciliation between mother and son in
1622. By 1624 Richelieu is on Louis XIII's council of state. Later in
that same year he is declared to be the "principal minister".
Over the next eighteen years the two men, minister and king,
devote themselves to raising the status of France. On his appointment,
Richelieu declares to his king that he will undertake four important
tasks. They are, in his own sequence: to destroy the Huguenots; to
weaken the power of the nobles; to bring the French people to
obedience; and to raise the name of the king to its rightful place
among foreign nations.
When Richelieu makes these resolutions, in 1624, the Huguenots have
recently been up in arms against the crown over an issue of church
property. As a result their fortresses, allowed them by the edict of
Nantes, have been reduced to just two - La Rochelle and Montauban.
Huguenot assistance to an English raid in 1627 gives Richelieu the
pretext he needs. He besieges the stronghold of La Rochelle. The
Huguenots hold out for a year, but finally yield in October 1628. In
the resulting peace of Alès, in 1629, all the political privileges
granted them in the edict of Nantes are removed, together with their
last two strongholds. But they are left with their freedom to worship
as Calvinists.
Richelieu's next aims (reducing the power of the nobles and
increasing the obedience of the populace) are resolved, almost as one
package, by making more effective France's steady progress towards
absolutism - or unbridled centralized rule by the monarch.
Strong centralized rule was attempted by Francis I, was improved
upon by Henry IV, and is now - thanks to Richelieu - successfully
achieved by Louis XIII. The estates general summoned in 1614 by Marie
de Médicis proves to be the last for almost two centuries (until the
fateful assembly of 1789). The administration now put in place is run
by bureaucrats from the centre, not by nobles dispersed around the
country. To have influence now one needs to be at court, under the eye
of the king and his minister.
Richelieu taxes the country hard, prompting several peasant
uprisings. He needs the money for his last purpose, promoting the
international dignity of the French king. This aim embroils him in the
Thirty Years' War.
The threat to France's international stature comes, as it has done
since the days of Charles V and Francis I, from the joint Habsburg
dynasties of Spain and Austria. From 1629, when the Austrian emperor
seems to have the upper hand in Germany's war, Richelieu is busy
diplomatically - in particular urging intervention by Gustavus II of
Sweden.
When Gustavus does invade, and in 1632 reaches as far south as
Munich, Richelieu takes advantage of the general turmoil to slip a
French army into Lorraine. But by 1635 Gustavus is dead, the Austrian
emperor is about to make peace with his German subjects, and Spain is
actively campaigning against the United Provinces on France's northern
border.
Richelieu decides that it is time for overt action. In 1635 he
makes an alliance with the United Provinces and Sweden and declares
war on Spain and the Austrian empire.
The war is still going on when Richelieu dies in 1642, to be
followed by Louis XIII in 1643. Had they lived until the peace of
Westphalia in 1648, they would have known that Richelieu had made
major strides in his aim of boosting the French king's prestige. The
treaty gives France territorial rights in Lorraine and Alsace (both
left a little vague), and it reflects a subtle change in Europe's
balance of power. By the end of the century the nation which everyone
else fears will be no longer Spain or the Austrian empire, but France.
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Abt 1561 - 1622 (61 years)