Cardinal Richelieu (Rish-a-lu) was probably the most influential person and politician in Europe, if not the world. He was a Chief Minister, a position that was extremely close to the modern day Prime Minister, and he was the one that started the return of France to an important country, since it had been at various states of decay since the 100 Years War, though King Louis XIV made France an important country just after Richelieu’s death.
Cardinal Richelieu was born in 1585 to a noble family in France, and was given an extensive education. He was originally planning to join the military as a commander, but instead decided to join the church. King Henry IV of France almost immediately recognized his ability, however, and in 1606 asked if he would become a bishop. It was extremely uncommon for someone so young (21 years) to become a bishop, since they usually had to wait until they were 35 years old at the least. Richelieu then had to ask the Pope for special permission to become a bishop. The Pope saw no reason not to grant the request, and granted it.
He quickly came to be known as a reformer, though this wasn’t entirely true, since he was the first bishop to start instituting the reforms declared by the Council of Trent in 1563. This Council was something like a revitalization of the Catholic church, and they defined several Protestant arguments. They didn’t adopt all the reforms, not nearly, but just enough to be reinstituted in places that were sitting on the fence of staying Catholic or turning Protestant. What this meant is that the Protestants hated him for being Catholic, and the Catholics hated him for being Protestant, which became something of a trend for him.
He quickly proved to be a successful politician and became the most powerful and important of the bishops, so in 1622 he became a cardinal, which meant he was next in importance to the Pope. For the same reason in 1624, when he would’ve been 39-40, the time he should’ve been becoming a bishop, he became the Chief Minister, the most important person in France, after the King, but since Louis XIII wasn’t a very capable king Richelieu was the most important person.
Richelieu then decided to centralize power in France, stripping titles and lands from the nobility, even ordering all nobles castles to be demolished, leaving only the King, and his Chief Minister, with power in France. The nobility rose up against this, of course, but were ineffective and incapable of fighting coherently against Richelieu, since they had so long fought each other. The Cardinal then took his time and quashed each rebellion in turn, getting his way.
He then looked outwards from France and decided the only people capable of defeating and taking this new France was the Hapsburg family, a family that was deeply ingrained in both the Holy Roman Empire and Spain. He then spent most of his life checking the Hapsburgs power and trying to abolish them for good. This was not accomplished, but he did manage an incredible amount while never directly going to war with them, since he was able to pay for much of the Netherlands revolt against Spain and northern Italy’s defense against the H.R.E.’s attempted invasion. He was also influential in the 30 years war which primarily occurred in the H.R.E.
However, all this funding of revolts, defenses, and squashing of rebellions meant that he had to raise taxes. Considerably. Since the church was exempt from taxes and the remaining nobles were close relations to the King, these taxes fell primarily, and heavily, on the poor people, meaning that in addition to the rich, the poor hated Richelieu.
Despite being hated by Catholics, Protestants, Nobles, common people, the most powerful family in Europe, and several other countries like England that just didn’t like France, Cardinal Richelieu managed to live as a cardinal and the Chief Minister until his natural death in 1642, at age 57. He was also included as the main antagonist of “The Three Musketeers” which is, somewhat funnily, probably what he is most well known for.
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