Cardinal Richelieu :: essays research papers

Cardinal RichelieuCardinal Richelieu was born Armand blue jean du Plessis in Paris in September of 1585. The name Richelieu came from the name of his familys estate. The du Plessis were considered youngster nobility and Armands grand founder, Louis, secured their place in court through marriage to Francoise de Rochechouart, an authorized family at the time. Louis died young and left five sons, the second oldest of whom, Francois, was Richelieus father. Francois also died young, loss his family in dire financial straits due to some silly investments. As a child, Richelieu was sickly and unfortunately would suffer from various maladies for the inhabit of his life. Armand was extremely intelligent and at the age of nine was sent to College de Navarre in Paris. Originally, Armand was to keep up had a military career and his older brother Alphonse was to have a ghostly life, but Alphonse suffered mental problems so, at the age of seventeen, Armand began to con theology seriously , in order to keep the Bishopric in the family. Armands convey had fought hard for this title and would not let it go easily. He took to his religious studies easily and because of his health problems was ideally suited to this life. In 1606 thence Abbe Armand de Richelieu was appointed Bishop of Lucon and in 1622, Pope Gregory appointed him a Cardinal. Like his grandfather and father before him, serving the monarchy was very important to Richelieu. To this end he affiliate himself with Marie de Medici, the queen mother, and was appointed to the court as Secretary of State to distant affairs in 1616. This position did not last long as Maries favorite, Concino Concini, was assassinated this caused a falling out between mother and son. The king, Louis XII, had intractable to take a more direct hand in regime at his time. For a time Richelieu was in disgrace but then king and his mother soon reconciled, which was good news for Richelieu. He was do Prime Minister under Louix XIII in 1624. He was dedicated to the supreme authority of the crown. At the time, there was political corruption galore, an free-lance nobility and problems with the Protestant Huguenots. Richelieu saw all of these things as impediments to his goals and through coercion, handling and oppression, set about changing things. In 1628, he defeated a Huguenot rebellion and although they were banned from military service, he allowed them to practice their religion.