Richelieu
Richelieu names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Richelieu ARMAND JEAN DU- PLESSIS, CARDINAL
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
ARMAND JEAN DU- PLESSIS, CARDINAL, DUC DE, DE, a French statesman; statesman; born of a noble but impoverished family in Paris, Sept. 5, 1585. CARDINAL RICHELIEU Richelieu was educated for the army, but abandoned a military career for the Church, in order to keep in the family the bishopric of Luçon, to which he was consecrated at 22. Representative of the Poitou clergy at the States-general in 1614, he attracted the notice of the queenmother, and rose in 1616 to be secretary at war and foreign affairs; but the downfall of Marshal d'Ancre, the queen-regent's favorite, in April, 1617, sent him back to his diocese. At length in August, 1620, the queen-mother and the young king were reconciled, mainly through the agency of the celebrated Capuchin Father Joseph "l'éminence grise" of later days, till his death in 1638, the intimate friend of Richelieu. The latter showed much tact and patient forbearance in his measures; he formed an alliance with the powerful Duc de Luynes, and in 1622 was named cardinal, in 1624 Minister of State. This position he retained to the end of his life, in spite of countless court intrigues, and ere long the most powerful open and secret opposition from the queen, Gaston, Duke of Orleans, and a host of minor i intriguers, first among whom was the too famous Duchesse de Chevreuse. His first important measure was the blow to Spain of an alliance with England, cemented by the betrothal (1625) of the king's sister, Henrietta, with Charles, then Prince of Wales. In the Valtelline War he cleared the country of the Spanish and papal troops, but was unable to pursue his advantage, and had to submit to the terms of the peace of Monzon (1626). His next task was to destroy the political power of the Huguenot party. After a 15 months' siege, which he conducted in person, concentrating all his energy on the task, the great stronghold of La Rochelle was starved into submission, Oct. 30, 1628. He next turned to crush Rohan and the Languedoc rebels, and destroyed the proud walls of Montauban, last refuge of Huguenot independence. Early in 1630 he entered Italy with a splendid army, himself in command, and soon reduced Savoy to submission. Meanwhile he plunged into dark and tortuous intrigues with the Italian princes, the Pope, and with the Protestants in the N. against the House of Austria. He promised a large subsidy to Gustavus Adolphus, and, through the masterly diplomacy of Father Joseph at the Ratisbon Diet in June, 1630, succeeded in persuading Ferdinand to dismiss Wallenstein. The first treaty of Cherasco (April, 1631), ended the Italian war, the second gave France the important strategic position of Pinerolo. Just before this final triumph Richelieu had successfully surmounted the greatest danger of his life-a great combination formed for his downfall by the queen-mother, Gaston of Orleans, the House of Guise, Bassompierre, Créqui, and the Marillacs. She tried to bully the king by her violence, but Richelieu followed his master to Versailles, and again had the whole power of the realm placed entirely in his hands. So ended "the Day of Dupes" (Nov. 11, 1630). The queenmother fled to Brussels, Bassompierre went to the Bastille, Gaston fled to Lorraine. The cardinal was now made duke and peer, and Governor of Brittany. Further intrigues and attempted rebellions by the emigrant nobles and governors of provinces were crushed with merciless severity-Marillac and Montmorency and other nobles were sent to the block. Meantime Gustavus Adolphus had run his brief and brilliant course; and his death at Lützen removed an ally with whom it might have become difficult to reckon. In July, 1632, Richelieu had seized the duchy of Lorraine. He continued his intrigues with the Protestants against Ferdinand, subsidizing them with his gold, but till 1635 he took no open part in the war. In May of that year, after completing his preparations and concluding a close alliance with Victor Amadeus of Savoy, Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, and the Dutch, he declared war on Spain, and at once placed in the field an army of 132,000 men. But his first efforts were singularly unsuccessful, and in 1636 Piccolomini and the Cardinal-Infante, Governor of the Netherlands, entered Picardy, crossed the Somme, and threatened Paris itself. In this hour of peril Richelieu rose to the height of his genius, and awoke a new and irresistible force as he threw himself on the patriotism of France. With 30,000 foot and 12,000 horse he swept the enemy out of Picardy, while his ally Bernhard drove them across the Rhine, and in 1638 destroyed the imperial army in the decisive battle of Rheinfelden, a victory which opened to him the gates of the key-fortress of Breisach. The unexpected death of Bernhard threw the fruit of his victories into the hands of Richelieu, whose policy soon bore further fruit in the disorganization of the power of Spain-revolts in Catalonia, and the loss of Portugal; the victories of Wolfenbüttel (1642) and Kempten (1642) over the Imperialists in Germany; and at length in 1641 in Savoy also in the ascendency of the French party. Another triumph that same year was the speedy collapse of the Imperialist invasion in the N. by the Count of Soissons, who perished in the first battle. The hatred of the great French nobles to his rule had never slumbered, however, and Richelieu found safety alone in the king's sense of his own helplessness without him. The last conspiracy against him was that of the grand-equerry, the young Cinq-Mars, whose intrigues with Gaston, the Duke of Bouillon, and the Spanish court were soon revealed to the cardinal, the center of a network of espionage which covered the whole of France. When the hour was ripe he placed in the king's hands at Tarascon proofs of the traitorous plot with Spain, and was given full powers as lieutenant-general of the realm. Cinq-Mars and De Thou were at once arrested, and the wretched coward, Gaston of Orleans, hastened after his kind to buy his own security by betraying his accomplices. Cinq-Mars and De Thou were executed at Lyons in the autumn of 1642. But the great minister was himself dying in the hour of his greatest triumphs. He faced the inevitable at last with calm tranquillity-when the priest bade him forgive his enemies, he made answer, I have never had any other enemies than the State's." He died Dec. 4, 1642, bequeathing Mazarin to the king as his successor. Richelieu built up the power of the French crown, he achieved for France a preponderance in Europe, and throughout life he moved onward to his goal with the strongest tenacity of purpose, unmoved either by fear or pity. He destroyed the local liberties of France, and crushed every element of constitutional government, and his policy overwhelmed the citizens with taxation and made waste places some of her fairest provinces and most thriving towns. Our judgment of him will always differ according as we examine his end or his means the public He never sacrificed or the private man. to personal ambition the interests of his country as these seemed to himself, but he often forgot in his methods the laws of morality and humanity. The weakest point in Richelieu's character was his literary ambition and the extraordinary pains he took to construct a literary reputation. His own plays, for the fate of which he trembled with anxiety, sleep in safe oblivion, but his "Memoirs" are still read with interest. He founded the French Academy. His Correspondence and State Papers, edited by d'Avenel, fill eight volumes of the "Collection de Documents inédits sur l'Histoire de France" (1853-1877).
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
resh'eh-leo (1585-1642), a French cardinal and statesman of the seventeenth century. He was a native of Paris. He belonged to a noble but impoverished family, and was educated for the military profession. A brother that was a bishop having retired to a monastery, Richelieu studied theology and obtained an appointment as his successor. Having attracted the attention of Mary de Medici, the mother of the young King Louis XIII , he obtained standing at court. In 1622 he was made a cardinal, and two years later he was appointed minister of state. Although at times Louis XIII and the court party tried to get rid of Richelieu, he remained in power practically throughout the entire reign of his royal master, whom, indeed, he survived a few months. He shaped the history of France for a quarter of a century. His state policy may be described in brief as covering two points; the making of the French monarch supreme at home, and humbling his chief rival, the German emperor, abroad. In pursuance of this policy, he crushed the great nobles of France with a merciless hand and waged unrelenting warfare against the Huguenots until he had captured La Rochelle and the other garrisoned towns which they held. Although he was a Catholic, his enmity for the Huguenots was political, rather than religious. He believed that the possession of fortified towns by a factious element was contrary to the interests of the general government. In foreign affairs, he struck hands with Gustavus Adolphus and the Protestant princes of northern Europe against the Catholic emperors and princes of southern Germany. Portugal became independent of Spain through his assistance. He left a reputation as a patron of literature. His success in influencing Corneille and other literary men to do his bidding was expressed in the current phrase that he employed "five poets to wash his dirty linen." He founded the French Academy in 1635. He left a number of works, including religious books, dramas, correspondence, and state papers. Of the dramas in particular, it is said there is doubt concerning the authorship. It is believed that, in his eagerness to pose as a literary man, Richelieu permitted his name to be attached to the work of others. The outlet of Lake Champlain was named the Richelieu in honor of the great cardinal. Bulwer-Lytton made him the hero of a drama. See Mazarin ; Louis
Richelieu LOUIS FRANCOIS AR- MAND DU PLESSIS, DUC DE
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
LOUIS FRANCOIS AR- MAND DU PLESSIS, DUC DE, a Marshal of France, descended from the same family as the Cardinal; born in 1696. After the death of Louis XIV., he was admitted into the court of the Regent; the Duc d'Orleans and he largely participated in its profligacy. He was sent to the Bastille in 1716, for fighting a duel with the Comte de Gacé, and again in 1719, as an accomplice with the Spanish ambassador in a conspiracy against the Regent. He distinguished himself under Villars, and afterward at Kehl, Philipsburg, Dettingen, and Fontenoy; conquered Minorca, forced the Duke of Cumberland to submit to the capitulation of Klosterseven, and devastated the electorate of Hanover. In 1781, he obtained the rank of dean of the French marshals; and he concluded his long career, varied with acts of heroism and villainy, in 1788.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The narrative Collier's set out in 1921 — Luçon at 22, the Day of Dupes in November 1630, La Rochelle starved out in October 1628, the war on Spain from 1635 — is still the narrative in textbooks today, and no discovery has overturned it. What has moved is interpretation: the 1921 picture of a far-sighted architect of the centralized modern state has given way, through work such as Joseph Bergin's studies of Richelieu's rise and his immense private fortune, to a more improvisational minister whose centralizing measures were largely emergency devices to pay for a ruinous war. Historians also now stress what the old account skips, notably his founding of the Académie française in 1635. His name is more familiar to most visitors today as the Louvre's Richelieu wing, opened in 1993 in the former finance ministry.
Written for this edition, 2026.