Book Review: Eminence
I recently finished reading Eminence: Cardinal Richelieu and the Rise of France by Jean-Vincent Blanchard. It was a book that had caught my eye when I was browsing at a Barnes and Noble back in the spring, and so I requested it for my birthday. Fortunately, it's a fairly quick read and is on a subject near and dear to my heart: early 17th century European history.
One of the fascinating things about Cardinal Richelieu, "his red eminence" as some of his contemporaries referred to him, is that he has very rarely been portrayed in a positive light by modern purveyors of pop culture. Drawing their inspiration from Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers wherein he appears as something of an antagonist (albeit one who is confronted only indirectly by the heroes), Richelieu is often portrayed as at best a ruthless, cynical manipulator of French royal power (as portrayed by Stephen Rea in the action film The Musketeer) and at worst as little better than the devil incarnate (as evidenced by Tim Curry's performance in Disney's God-awful 1993 version). In no film portrayal does Richelieu ever come off as particularly sympathetic, and when he isn't set up as an antagonist, he is usually portrayed as an incidental character.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, historians have taken a much more nuanced view of the Cardinal as someone who-- despite his faults-- was a tireless champion of the king and the expansion of French royal power, as well as the centralization of the French state and the practicing of both foreign and domestic realpolitik at a time when such policies were generally unheard of.
Richelieu came into his power by a strange combination of blind luck and personal talent. Born the third son of a minor noble, his future looked rather bleak, as his eldest brother was slated to inherit his father's title, and his middle brother slated to be named to the seat of the familial bishopric, that of Lucon. However, good fortune struck when his middle brother, in a fit of piety, decided to become a simple monk instead, allowing for the 20 year-old Armand Jean du Plessis to be named to the seat in his stead. Thus the young man, newly appointed bishop despite never having taken holy orders prior to having received any sort of religious instruction, found himself catapulted to something approaching regional power.
Good fortune struck again when Richelieu was nominated by the local assembly to represent Poitou in the Estates-General in 1614 (the last one held, incidentally, prior to the French revolution in 1789). There, his skills as an orator brought him to the attention of the queen mother, Catherine d'Medici who, despite her early sponsorship of him, would later turn into his nemesis.
Following the inter-familial struggles between Catherine (who ruled as regent and had no interest in giving up power upon her son's majority, instead favoring Italian courtiers) and Louis XIII (initially a shy, awkward boy who was determined to break free of his mother's dominance and assert himself as true king of France), Richelieu navigated a careful course between the two powers, risking the wrath of the queen mother and the suspicion of the King to eventually effect a reconciliation between the two, thereby earning himself a place on the king's counsel and a promotion to cardinal, even if it was at the expense of the former support he enjoyed of his erstwhile patron.
Once on the king's council, the cardinal made himself indispensable to the monarch and, despite his position as a Catholic cardinal, proved himself to be remarkably moderate in his duties. While the cardinal recommended crushing Huguenot dissent at home where the Huguenots rebelled (which they did off and on between 1622 and 1629), he made no effort to forcibly convert them or bring them to the catholic church. Likewise, seeing in the Spanish holdings in the Netherlands and the Hapsburg dynasty at the primary threat to French security, Richelieu allied himself with the ultra-protestant Swedes to fight the Catholic monarchs, a fact which earned him no love amongst the hyper-Catholic faction at court (which, incidentally, tended to orbit around the queen mother and her circle, and may have contributed to his reputation as a cynical politician). At home, Richelieu foiled several attempts to seize power from the king, the most notable of which was by the king's younger brother, Gaston. Given that Louis XIII had no children and did not appear to be in a rush to create any heirs, it seemed as though Gaston was heir apparent. Gaston loathed Richelieu and blamed him for having foiled a marriage with a Catholic Hapsburg princess (which Richelieu may or may not have done), and conspired on at least two occasions to murder the Cardinal.
While Richelieu's politics and actions may have been self-serving (after all, he did exercise tremendous power and enriched himself greatly under the auspices of the king), it seems unjust to simply dismiss him as a narcissistic toady looking for ways to advance himself at the expense of others. In an era when politics were inseparable from the personal and the concept of democracy an abstraction at best, it is unfair to label Richelieu a tyrannical manipulator of the king and oppressor of the people-- quite the contrary (during the early part of his tenure, Richelieu was in fact quite popular until the hardship caused by later wars tainted his legacy with higher taxes). There can be no doubt that Richelieu acted with the best interests of France at heart and was never hesitant to offer his resignation to the monarch whenever he felt the need to do so.
All in all, a fascinating look at the life of a truly remarkable man.
One of the fascinating things about Cardinal Richelieu, "his red eminence" as some of his contemporaries referred to him, is that he has very rarely been portrayed in a positive light by modern purveyors of pop culture. Drawing their inspiration from Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers wherein he appears as something of an antagonist (albeit one who is confronted only indirectly by the heroes), Richelieu is often portrayed as at best a ruthless, cynical manipulator of French royal power (as portrayed by Stephen Rea in the action film The Musketeer) and at worst as little better than the devil incarnate (as evidenced by Tim Curry's performance in Disney's God-awful 1993 version). In no film portrayal does Richelieu ever come off as particularly sympathetic, and when he isn't set up as an antagonist, he is usually portrayed as an incidental character.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, historians have taken a much more nuanced view of the Cardinal as someone who-- despite his faults-- was a tireless champion of the king and the expansion of French royal power, as well as the centralization of the French state and the practicing of both foreign and domestic realpolitik at a time when such policies were generally unheard of.
Richelieu came into his power by a strange combination of blind luck and personal talent. Born the third son of a minor noble, his future looked rather bleak, as his eldest brother was slated to inherit his father's title, and his middle brother slated to be named to the seat of the familial bishopric, that of Lucon. However, good fortune struck when his middle brother, in a fit of piety, decided to become a simple monk instead, allowing for the 20 year-old Armand Jean du Plessis to be named to the seat in his stead. Thus the young man, newly appointed bishop despite never having taken holy orders prior to having received any sort of religious instruction, found himself catapulted to something approaching regional power.
Good fortune struck again when Richelieu was nominated by the local assembly to represent Poitou in the Estates-General in 1614 (the last one held, incidentally, prior to the French revolution in 1789). There, his skills as an orator brought him to the attention of the queen mother, Catherine d'Medici who, despite her early sponsorship of him, would later turn into his nemesis.
Following the inter-familial struggles between Catherine (who ruled as regent and had no interest in giving up power upon her son's majority, instead favoring Italian courtiers) and Louis XIII (initially a shy, awkward boy who was determined to break free of his mother's dominance and assert himself as true king of France), Richelieu navigated a careful course between the two powers, risking the wrath of the queen mother and the suspicion of the King to eventually effect a reconciliation between the two, thereby earning himself a place on the king's counsel and a promotion to cardinal, even if it was at the expense of the former support he enjoyed of his erstwhile patron.
Once on the king's council, the cardinal made himself indispensable to the monarch and, despite his position as a Catholic cardinal, proved himself to be remarkably moderate in his duties. While the cardinal recommended crushing Huguenot dissent at home where the Huguenots rebelled (which they did off and on between 1622 and 1629), he made no effort to forcibly convert them or bring them to the catholic church. Likewise, seeing in the Spanish holdings in the Netherlands and the Hapsburg dynasty at the primary threat to French security, Richelieu allied himself with the ultra-protestant Swedes to fight the Catholic monarchs, a fact which earned him no love amongst the hyper-Catholic faction at court (which, incidentally, tended to orbit around the queen mother and her circle, and may have contributed to his reputation as a cynical politician). At home, Richelieu foiled several attempts to seize power from the king, the most notable of which was by the king's younger brother, Gaston. Given that Louis XIII had no children and did not appear to be in a rush to create any heirs, it seemed as though Gaston was heir apparent. Gaston loathed Richelieu and blamed him for having foiled a marriage with a Catholic Hapsburg princess (which Richelieu may or may not have done), and conspired on at least two occasions to murder the Cardinal.
While Richelieu's politics and actions may have been self-serving (after all, he did exercise tremendous power and enriched himself greatly under the auspices of the king), it seems unjust to simply dismiss him as a narcissistic toady looking for ways to advance himself at the expense of others. In an era when politics were inseparable from the personal and the concept of democracy an abstraction at best, it is unfair to label Richelieu a tyrannical manipulator of the king and oppressor of the people-- quite the contrary (during the early part of his tenure, Richelieu was in fact quite popular until the hardship caused by later wars tainted his legacy with higher taxes). There can be no doubt that Richelieu acted with the best interests of France at heart and was never hesitant to offer his resignation to the monarch whenever he felt the need to do so.
All in all, a fascinating look at the life of a truly remarkable man.