CARDINAL (1585-1642) , French statesman, was born of an an cient family of the lesser nobility of Poitou. The cardinal's father, Francois du Plessis, seigneur de Richelieu (d. 1590), fought through the wars of religion, first as a favourite of Henry III., and after his death under Henry IV. His mother, Susanne de La Porte, belonged to a legal family. Armand was the third son and was born in Paris, Sept. 9, 1585. In 1606, at the age of twenty-one, he was nominated bishop of Lucon by Henry IV. As he was under the canonical age, he went to Rome to obtain a dispensation and was consecrated there in April 1607. In the winter of 1608 Richelieu went to his poverty-stricken little bishopric, and for the next six years devoted himself seriously to his episcopal duties. In 1614 he was elected by the clergy of Poitou to the last States-general which met before the Revolu tion. There he attracted the attention of Marie de' Medici, the queen-mother, and was chosen at its close to present the address of the clergy embodying its petitions and resolutions. After the States-general was dissolved he remained in Paris, and the next year he became almoner to Anne of Austria, the child-queen of Louis XIII. He was appointed in 1616 a secretary of state to the king. But he owed all to Concini, and his taste of power ended with the murder of his patron on Aug. 24, 1617.
The reign which Richelieu was to dominate so absolutely began with his exile from the court. He resigned himself to the post of chief adviser to Marie de' Medici in her exile at Blois. Here he sought to ingratiate himself with Luynes and the king by report ing minutely the actions of Marie and by protestations of loyalty. As this ungrateful work brought no reward, Richelieu retired once more to his bishopric. But he was exiled to Avignon, with his brother and brother-in-law, on April 7, 1618. There he wrote "A Defence of the Main Principles of the Catholic Faith," but the escape of Marie de' Medici from Blois, on Feb. 2 2, 1619, again opened paths for his political ambition. Luynes and the king recalled him to the post at Angouleme with the queen mother, who allowed him to sign the treaty of Angouleme with the Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld, acting for the king. By this treaty Marie was given liberty to live *herever she wished, and the government of Anjou and of Normandy with several castles was entrusted to her. Richelieu was made a cardinal by Pope Gregory XV., on Sept. 5, 1622.
Luynes's death on Dec. 15, 1621, made possible a reconcilia tion a month later between the king and his mother. Richelieu seized his opportunity. He furnished Marie de' Medici with political ideas and acute criticisms of the king's ministry, espe cially of the Brularts. Marie zealously pushed her favourite towards office, and eventually, in 1624, the king named him a member of his council. In August he became chief minister of Louis XIII.
serious opposition to the new minister. The first serious con spiracy took place in 1626, the king's brother, Gaston of Orleans, being the centre of it. His governor, Marshal D'Ornano, was arrested by Richelieu's orders, and then his confidant, Henri de Talleyrand, marquis de Chalais and Vendome, the natural son of Henry IV. Chalais was executed and the marshal died in prison. The overthrow of the Huguenots in 1629 made Riche lieu's position seemingly unassailable, but the next year it received its severest test. Marie de' Medici had turned against her "ungrateful" minister with a hatred intensified, it is said, by unrequited passion. In September 1630, while Louis XIII. was very ill at Lyons, the two queens, Marie and Anne of Aus tria, reconciled for the time, won the king's promise to dismiss Richelieu. He postponed the date until peace should be made with Spain. When the news came of the truce of Regensburg Marie claimed the fulfilment of the promise. On Nov. 163o, the king went to his mother's apartments at the Luxembourg palace. Orders were given that no one should be allowed to dis turb their interview, but Richelieu entered by the unguarded chapel door. When Marie had recovered breath from such auda city she proceeded to attack him in the strongest terms, declaring that the king must choose between him or her. Richelieu left the presence feeling that all was lost. The king gave a sign of yielding, appointing the brother of Marillac, Marie's counsellor, to the command of the army in Italy. But before taking further steps he retired to Versailles, then a hunting lodge, and there, lis tening to two of Richelieu's friends, Claude de Saint-Simon, father of the memoir writer, and Cardinal La Valette, sent for Richelieu in the evening, and while the salons of the Luxem bourg were full of expectant courtiers the king was reassuring the cardinal of his continued favour and support. The "Day of Dupes," as this famous day was called, was the only time that Louis took so much as a step toward the dismissal of a minister who was personally distasteful to him but who was indispensable. The queen-mother followed the king and cardinal to Compiegne, but as she refused to be reconciled with Richelieu she was left there alone and forbidden to return to Paris. The next summer she fled across the frontiers into the Netherlands, and Richelieu was made a duke. Then Gaston of Orleans, who had fled to Lor raine, came back with a small troop to head a rebellion to free the king and country from "the tyrant." The only great noble who rose was Henri, duc de Montmorenci, governor of Langue doc, and his defeat at Castelnaudary on the 1st of September 1632, was followed by his speedy trial by the parlement of Tou louse, and by his execution. Richelieu had sent to the block the first noble of France, the last of a family illustrious for seven centuries, the head of the nobility of Languedoc. He knew no mercy. The only other conspiracy against him which amounted to more than intrigue was that of Cinq Mars in 1642, at the close of his life. This vain young favourite of the king was treated as though he were really a formidable traitor, and his friend, De Thou, son of the historian, whose sole guilt was not to have revealed the plot, was placed in a boat behind the stately barge of the cardinal and thus conveyed up the Rhone to his trial and death at Lyons.