biography
| name: |
Richelieu, Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal, duc de (Duke of)
|
pronunciation:
[reeshlyoe]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1585–1642)
|
| biography:
| French statesman and first minister of France (1624–42), born in Richelieu, WC France. A protégé of the queen mother, Marie de Medicis, he became minister of state (1624), and as chief minister was the effective ruler of France. His twin aims, to secure universal obedience to the Bourbon monarchy and to enhance France's international prestige, were achieved at the expense of recalcitrant groups in French society. His principal achievement was to check Habsburg power, ultimately by sending armies into the Spanish Netherlands, Alsace, Lorraine, and Roussillon. He founded the French Academy in 1634. |
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