LOUIS XIII., King of France, son of Henri IV. and Marie de' Medici, b. at Fon tainebleau, Sept. 27, 1601, succeeded to the throne on the death of his father, May 14, 1610, his mother becoming regent. She entered into close alliance with Spain, and betrothed the king to Anne of Austria, daughter of Philip III. of Spain, upon which the Huguenots, becoming apprehensive of danger, took up arms; but peace was con cluded at St. Menehould on May 5, 1614; and the king, who was now declared of age, confirmed the edict of Nantes, and called an assembly of the states, which was soon dismissed because it began to look too closely into financial affairs. See MARIE DE' Afxruct. The suppression of Protestantism and liberty in Bearn led to the religious war in which the Protestants lost almost all their places of security, and which ended in 1622. After the death of De Luynes, in 1624, Richelieu, afterwards cardinal and duke, became the chief minister of Louis. His powerful mind obtained complete con trol over that of the weak king, and his policy effected that increase of monarchical power, at the expense of Protestants, nobles, and parliaments, which reached its con summation in the reign of Louis XIV. The overthrow of the Huguenots was completed
by the capture of Rochelle, Oct. 20, 1628, at the siege of which the king took part in person. In 1631 his brother, the duke of Orleans, having left the court, assembled a troop of Spaniards in the Netherlands, and entered France to compel the dismissal of Richelieu, whom he hated, and whom the king also secretly disliked; but the duke was completely defeated by marshal Schomberg at Castelnaudary. Richelieu now led Louis to take part in the thirty years' war, openly supporting Oustavus Adolphus and the Dutch against the Spaniards and Austrians. The latter years of Louis' reign were sig nalized by the getting possession of Alsace and of Roussillon, acquisitions which were confirmed iu the following reign. Louis died May 14, 1643. His queen, after 23 years of married life, bore a son in 1638, who succeeded to the throne as Louis XIV.; and in 1640, a second son, Philip, duke of Orleans, the ancestor of the present house of Orleans.