It became clear after this battle that this war that had started as a religious one, was quickly transforming itself into a dynastic and national one, when the Holy League accepted the daughter of Phillip II of Spain and Elisabeth de Valois as the next ruler of France. Henry III, realising that this would mean that Spain would have overwhelming influence over Franc. If this happened, decided that the only thing that he could do would be to have the Duc de Guise assassinated and to ally himself to Henry of Navarre, which took place on the 30th April 1589. Their united forces laid siege to Paris on the 30th of July, however on the 1st of August Henry III the last of the line of Valois was stabbed in his headquarters at Saint-Cloud. He died the next day.
Henry of Navarre was now Henry IV of France, but his control of France was anything but total, and it would take him the next 9 years to conquer his kingdom. Many of the Catholics, who had previously been loyal to Henry III, now deserted Henry IV, and his army was growing exhausted, and Henry had to withdraw from the outskirts of Paris.
Soon after his ascension to the throne he fought Charles de Lorraine, duc de Mayenne, who had become head of the League after his brothers death at the hands of Henry III, Charles then suffered a more serious defeat at Ivry on the 14th March 1590. Henry was however unable to break the capital, Paris, despite the famine that resulted from the siege that Henry had put into effect. Henry then went onto Chatres and again laid siege, which surrendered on 10th April 1591. Soon after Chartres Henry captured Noyon, but could not defeat Rouen, and after a lot of consideration Henry decided to re-convert to Catholicism.
While many doubted the sincerity of this second conversion, this action did have an immediate positive effect, with many important towns and cities surrendering to him, including Orleans and Lyon. Riems however remained loyal to the League and so Henry was crowned on the 27th of February 1594 in Chartres. His conversion to Catholicism removed all legitimate pretexts for resistance to Henry becoming King, and on March 22nd Henry entered Paris, famously saying “ Paris is well worth a Mass!”
Towns and provinces hastened to show allegiance to the King and gave up their resistance, although Laon was under siege until they submitted. Brittany also remained loyal to the League, however this was mainly due to support from France and in order to ‘correct’ this situation Henry IV declared war on Spain in January 1595. He succeeded in forcing the Spaniards to surrender at Armeins on September 19th, and the treaty between France and Spain was concluded at Vervins on May 2nd 1598. On April 13th 1598 Henry signed the Edict of Nantes, which proclaimed freedom of conscience and granted many places of worship and nearly a hundred places of refuge for Protestants.
After which any serious resistance to his holding the throne was removed.
Henry IV had succeeded in uniting France and achieving peace both at home and abroad. And during the remainder of his brief reign he devoted himself to healing France’s wounds. This was however threatened to be undone upon his death if he did not produce a universally acceptable heir.
This very nearly would have been the case when Henry nearly married his mistress Gabrielle d’Estrees. This would have made their son Cesar heir to the crown of Saint Louis. This would have without a doubt have provoked a war of succession when Henry died and thankfully did not take place when Gabrielle did during childbirth in 1599.
Gabrielle’s death also removed any reason the Pope may have had for not granting Henry the annulment of his marriage to Marguerite de Valois. The annulment meant that Henry could then marry the princess of Tuscany, Marie de Medici in October 1600. The new queen gave birth on September 27th 1601 to the future Louis XIII.
Despite all that the King had done the remainder of his reign was far from tranquil and there were several attempts made upon his life, including in December 1594 when Jean Chatel wounded the King with a dagger. His crime was then used as a pretext to expel the Jesuits from France. Nevertheless France thrived and the economy was stabilised and the country prospered. It was also Henry’s interest in maritime and colonial expansion that led to greater exploration of Canada.
On May 14th 1610, while caught in a traffic jam in the narrow rue de la Ferronnerie a fanatic, Francois Revaillac leaped onto Henry’s carriage and stabbed the King twice with a long knife, he died. The people bestowed upon him the title Henry the Great.
Louis XIII
There is very little to say about Louis XIII reign because it was dominated mainly by outside, namely his mother, and Cardinal Richelieu. Louis XIII was born on 27th September 1601 in Fontainebleau; he was the eldest son of Henry IV and Marie de Medici. He succeeded the throne in 1610 after his fathers assassination, aged just nine. Because he was a minor his mother became regent and effectively ruled the country for him. She remained regent until Louis came of aged in 1614, but continued to govern for another three years.
As part of her policy of allying France and Spain she arranged for Louis to marry Anne of Austria, the daughter of Phillip III of Spain, this took place in November 1615. By 1617, Louis was resentful of his lack of power and took as his favourite, Charles d’Albert de Luynes, who soon became dominant in the government.
Louis also exiled his mother to Blois, resulting in two separate attempts at rebellion organised by her in 1619-20. Richelieu, although not yet a cardinal was Marie de Medici’s main advisor, helped to reconcile the two in August 1620. Their relationship thereon consisted of thinly disguised hostility and little else.
Luynes died in December 1621, and Louis faced a Huguenot rebellion in southern France. Louis captured several Huguenot strongholds before concluding with a truce in the October of 1622. Meanwhile Richelieu had become a cardinal in September, and despite Louis distrust and suspicion of him because of his connection with Marie de Medici, Louis began to rely on Richelieu more and more for his political advice. This culminated with Richelieu becoming Louis’ principal minister in 1624.
Although Louis had displayed courage on the battlefield, he was not exactly intelligent and was extremely inattentive, with a very small attention span. This meant that Richelieu became the dominant force behind the King. Richelieu attempted to consolidate royal authority in France and make France more dominant within Europe. In October 1628, the Huguenot stronghold in La Rochelle was captured, and after this Richelieu convinced Louis to send an army into Italy in 1629.
This only served to increase the tensions between France and the Habsburgs, who were fighting the Protestant powers in the Thirty Years’ War. Soon the pro Catholic’s led by Marie de Medici were attempting to persuade Louis to change his policy and stop supporting the Protestant states. This episode was known as the Day of the Dupes (November 10th-12th, 1630) when Marie de Medici demanded that Richelieu was dismissed. Louis refused and Marie de Medici, along with Louis’ brother went into exile.
In May 1635, France declared war on Spain, and by August Spanish forces were advancing on Paris, Louis then overruled Richelieu and drove back the invaders. Meanwhile Anne of Austria gave birth to a son, Louis in May 1638.
Richelieu died in December 1642, after substantial victories over Spain and Louis was one of the most respected monarchs in Europe. Louis XIII dies five months later from TB, and was succeeded by his son Louis XIV.
Cardinal Richelieu
Cardinal Richelieu was born on the ninth of September 1585. He was the son of François du Plessis, whom was grand provost (chief magistrate) to Henry III. His mother, Suzanne de la Porte was the daughter of a councillor of the parlement de Paris, which was the supreme judiciary assembly. Richelieu therefore came from an unremarkable if intelligent family, very much from the middle class. Richelieu was five when his father died, leaving poorly managed estates, which had been ruined by inflation during the Wars of Religion (1562-98).
Richelieu embarked on a military career, but in order to retain the bishopric of Lucon, near La Rochelle, he switched to theology. Because he was below the canonical age for consecration when he completed his studies he needed a papal dispensation. It was for this reason the he went to Rome, where Paul V fell victim to his skills as a charmer and granted it.
On April 17th 1607, aged 22 Richelieu was ordained priest and consecrated to the see of Lacon. Richelieu was the first bishop in France to implement in his diocese the reforms laid down in the Council of Trent, and the first theologian to write in French.
After the assassination of Henry IV and during the corrupt regency of Marie de Medici, Richelieu was often called upon to act as an intermediary between various factions. This led to him being elected as one of the representatives of the clergy of Poitou to the Estates General of 1614. It was through the Estates General that he found his political footing, putting all of his energy into proving to the assembly of his various talents. While persuading the court of his support for royal authority. In a clash between the third estate i.e. the middle class and the papacy over the relationship between the crown and the pope he played an appeasing role, and was central in persuading the third estate that the terms set out by the Council of Trent should be upheld.
He was later appointed chaplain to Anne of Austria, the new queen, this appointment help the basic promise of eventual inclusion into the royal council. Clever negotiations with another faction led to Richelieu being made Secretary of state in 1616. Up until this time Richelieu had had no real international insight, however his appointment that year coincided with the outbreak of war between Spain, ruled by the Habsburgs, and Venice, with whom France was in alliance with. France’s involvement in this war led Richelieu to realise France’s vulnerability in respect to the Habsburg dynasty, the domestic problems of various religious movements throughout Europe at this time, and the dependency of the small states on France’s borders on an equilibrium of power between Spain and France.
Richelieu was removed from his post in 1617, after a palace ‘revolution’ which overthrew the regency of Marie de Medici. Richelieu was banished to Lucon and then later exiled to the papal city of Avignon. In 1619 after a ‘reconciliation’ between the king and Marie de Medici Richelieu was returned to the council. This was partly due to the hope that he would induce a calming influence over Marie.
There followed four years of hostility in which time the King nominated Richelieu to be made a cardinal. A revolt of the Huguenots and the death of Louis XIII favourite advisors led to Marie de Medici’s recall to the council and Richelieu’s promotion.
In 1624 another crisis, this time over Valtellina in northern Italy led to Richelieu’s appointment as secretary of state for commerce and marine and chief of the royal council. Four years later the title of First Minister was created for this office.
From his very first day in office, Richelieu was subject to various plots to remove him, and it was the success of his security organisation in discovering these plots and his manipulation of state trials that made him feared and detested.
Richelieu had set himself various goals when he entered his post as first minister: firstly to reduce the Habsburgs control and superiority within Europe, thereby reducing their influence over France, so that France could be more independent and could control its own destiny. The reduction in the power of the Habsburgs would also allow France to become a stronger power within Europe, which would serve to strengthen the country as a whole.
The second aim for Richelieu was to make the monarchy stronger, “to make the King absolute in his kingdom in order to establish order therein”. Richelieu believed that by making the monarchy stronger and more absolutist then France would become a stronger country, would be more united and more powerful.
To assure better relations with England on of Richelieu’s first important acts as First minister was to arrange a marriage between the king’s sister Henrietta Maria and the Prince of Wales, later Charles I, a move which was extremely unpopular with the English public. Following this Richelieu made alliances with the Dutch and German enemies of the Habsburg dynasty in the hope that this would strengthen France and diminish the Habsburgs control over Europe.
One of the biggest problems in France at this time was religion, and to Richelieu the Huguenots represented a state within a state, with the civil government of major cities in their hands and considerable armed forces at their disposal. Richelieu was prepared to tolerate this religious dissent so long as it did not mount to a political challenge. In this attempt at social harmony Richelieu failed a first and in 1628 he laid siege to the Huguenots stronghold of La Rochelle, but it took a year to succeed.
It was during this time that Spain took the opportunity to extend its influence into northern Italy at the expense of France’s allies. When Richelieu went with an army to check what the Spaniards had done, the Habsburgs took this opportunity to introduce imperial garrisons into the duchy of Lorraine. These events were followed by intricate political negotiations which culminated in Richelieu refusing to endorse the peace Treaty of Regensburg in 1630 and the Habsburgs appeal to the Pope to have Louis XIII excommunicated for this ‘breach of faith’.
It was at this time that Richelieu’s position was at its most insecure, his relationship with the King was distant and on his return from Italy Marie de Medici demanded that Louis should get rid of him. Louis XIII saw this decision as whether to he would have independence or would be subject to his mother’s domination. He put his full support behind Richelieu and never looked back.
In 1631 he subsidized the invasion of Germany by the champion of the Lutheran cause, Gustav II Adolph, king of Sweden. Richelieu’s German foreign policy was thrown into crisis when Sweden became embroiled in the armies of the Catholic league, consolidating the imperial and Catholic cause. The war spilled over the Rhine and France’s outer provinces became drawn into the Habsburgs line of ‘fire’. The seizure by France of Archbishop of Trier in 1635 resulted in France’s involvement in the Thirty Years War, because France had promised the Archbishop their protection.
His last months were disturbed by the most serious conspiracies of his lifetime, especially that of the royal favourite Cinq-Mars who was exposed by Richelieu’s secret service and was executed. Richelieu’s health had been deteriorating for some years, and it was virtually on his deathbed that he dictated to the King what he felt were the five propositions respecting royal behaviour towards ministers should be.
Richelieu died on December 4th 1642, and was buried at the chapel of the Sorbonne, which he himself had financed. Throughout his time as first minister Richelieu had succeeded in breaking the political power of the great families of France making the King into an absolute ruler, and establishing France as the first military power in Europe. He united France, and encouraged exploration and the expansion of colonies in Canada and in the Indies. Richelieu made possible the grandeur of France that his successors later achieved.
