[Born in Paris, 1585. Died there, 1642. Aged 57.]
The great Minister of Louis XIII., and the actual ruler of France during
that monarch’s reign. He was the third son of François du Plessis,
Seigneur de Richelieu, and at first destined for the army, but renounced
this career for the Church, when his elder brother gave up his
ecclesiastical dignities for a monastic life. His political career
commenced when he was appointed Secretary of State for the War and
Foreign Departments; and it was sustained on the highest eminence, by
the force of superior intelligence, unequalled craftiness, and an utter
contempt for conscientious scruples. He was now the grateful protégé of
the King, now his exacting master; now he was insidiously sowing the
seeds of distrust and dissension amongst all the members of the Royal
Family, now openly and magnanimously effecting their reconciliation.
But, subtle and unscrupulous as were the means he employed, his views
were vast, his political ideas profound, and he laboured strenuously to
give stability to the French monarchy. He was a heartless man, but a
faithful minister; jealous of interference with his control, but using
his boundless influence for the welfare of the nation. He was a right
hypocrite, affecting piety, which he never felt; he was perfidious, and
even cruel; but we look back upon his career with an enforced respect
for his skill, his strong will, and his undoubted successes. He
persecuted Protestants in France, and abated the power of the French
nobility.
[From the marble in the Louvre, by Coysevox. He wears the Cardinal’s
robe, with the Order of the Holy Spirit. Modelled from some of the
painted portraits of the time. There are two statues of him at
Versailles, one by Ramey, dated 1819, the other by Duret, 1836.]
292A. CARDINAL RICHELIEU. _Minister of France._
[A mask.]