The Last Years of the Red Eminence

Cardinal Richelieu wielded tremendous political power, but he also made more than a few enemies. Would they seek revenge in his later years? In this episode, Deblina and Sarah recount the last years of Cardinal Richelieu

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Fara Dowdy and I'm Delaine Chalk Reboardings. And recently
we started a new series, a Bourbon series, not the

(00:21):
liquor as you mentioned at all. It's about the House
of Bourbon of France and Spain as well. Later find
out in Spain as well. Yes, you'll find out in
a few weeks perhaps, But we kicked off the series
with the assassination of the first French Bourbon King, Henry
the fourth, and the more recent news about the identification

(00:42):
of his decapitated head. Yes, his head, which had circulated
amongst collectors collector collectors for several years and was finally
confirmed to be his head. I still can't really get
over that story. But we're gonna be picking that line
up with his son Louiet, and it's interesting. But sometimes

(01:03):
the ministers behind rulers turn out to be more influential
or at least better remembered than the monarchs themselves, and
that's definitely the case with Louis the thirteenth. I mean,
he was an admirable soldier, he had some problems though
he was mentally unstable at times, and he was frequently
in ill health, and the first years of his rule

(01:25):
were very much dominated by his mother, Marie de Medici,
who was the conclusion to that Medici super series bringing
all of these together. Um. But unfortunately for him, I
guess her power continued on even after he had come
of age. They had some major issues with each other,

(01:45):
so consequently, throughout a lot of his reign he relied
on his minister, who was the brilliant Cardinal di Richilieu
otherwise known as the Red Eminence and Riche Luke could
definitely have his own series. He's involved in so much
and this is I mean, you hate to call a
particular time in history busy, but I think it's how

(02:07):
I would define this period. And I mean the Thirty
Years War alone could have multiple episodes on it. But
we want to keep this series rolling. This family does,
of course stretch on for centuries, so going to boil
it down, yeah, exactly. So our focus for this episode
is going to be on the final years of the
Cardinal and the King's long partnership and the plot that

(02:31):
almost undid them, and finally the birth of the boy
who had come to really define the French monarchy and
probably the Bourbon family. So the eventual Duke and Cardinal
de Richilio was born in as Armande Duplessi, and he
assumed this family bishop holding at a very young age. Actually,

(02:53):
before he was officially allowed to be consecrated. He had
to get a special permission for the pope to assume
this inherited family position, but his family really wanted to
push him into it. It was one of the most
valuable things they possessed. And he did fairly well from there.
I mean, that was certainly a promising early start for him. Yeah,

(03:17):
he continued to rise up through the ranks. He achieved
a court appointment by sixteen sixteen, so not too long
after that. Um and he became the principal advisor to
Marie Demici, the regent at the time. But he spent
the next few years in and out of favor with
her because it was a constantly changing political environment, well,
and in and out of favor in general, since she

(03:39):
herself was falling in and out of favor. UM. But
gradually he gained the trust of Louis the thirteenth, who
was not on good terms with his mother. And actually
pretty suspicious of anyone who had had connections with her.
But by sixteen twenty four he's sufficiently impressed Louis and
he's made his principal minister. And Rachel's two goals are

(04:03):
very focused on Louis and on the Bourbons, which I
think is why people have already been suggesting him to
us as part of the Bourbon series, right. And his
two main goals were very clear they were the first
one was to bring France together under an absolute monarchy,
and the second was to break up the Habsburg power.
And the Habsburgs were they were a family that controlled

(04:26):
Austrian Spain and threatened the Bourbons, and both of those
are things that we've seen good examples of in some
earlier episodes. I mean, with the all the sons of
Catherine de Medici, you can see how the absolute power
of the monarchy was sort of in shambles, and I
mean the Hapsburgs they were just the Bourbons were comparatively
an upstart family compared to this old line. So consequently,

(04:51):
with goals like that, Rechils time was filled with war.
And just to give you a few examples of the
many in sight, he took on the Huguenots, who he
considered a dangerous state within a state. Even though they
were French, they were a threat to the king, and
um he essentially crushed them at Lowerchelle, which was their

(05:14):
center of power in sixteen twenty and then he doesn't
miss the beat. Immediately after that, he convinced the king
to lead an expedition into northern Italy to stop the
Spanish Habsburgs from holding the strategic fort of Sale. So
he's really busy. Yeah, and then by sixteen thirty five,
Francis declared war on Spain, so he's taking his goals

(05:36):
and running with them, which that really becomes a dominating
point for the rest of this episode. But um, add
to all of these wars, these religious wars and international wars,
a really heavy dose of plotting, and there had been
conspiracies to remove the Cardinal from day one as soon
as he came into power, and as his power grew,

(05:57):
his enemies only got bigger, and by sixty he faced
this huge amount of internal criticism for forming these strategic
alliances with Protestant states, which some people saw his betrayal.
And uh. Part of this was launched by a smear
campaign from Murray to Medici. His former friend who was

(06:18):
definitely um definitely saw that this was the man who
largely controlled her son. So to watch out for all
these threats and to basically keep tabs on everything that
was happening in Europe, Richielieu had to rely on some
outside help. He set up a secret service and often
included missionary Fryers in a secret service, and they were

(06:39):
working under his number two guy, who was known as
the Gray Eminence, the Friar Father Joseph. And Father Joseph
is kind of a key character in Rishie Lou's right
to how the man behind the curtain who was kind
of pulling the strings. Upon becoming principal Minister, Rishilieu even
said that next to God, father Joseph had been the

(07:00):
principal instrument of his present fortune, so gave him a
lot of credit. And I think some people even think
Father Joseph really is like the man behind a reach Ali,
the puppet master. I mean that might be going kind
of far, but he's certainly an interesting figure in a
really interesting contrast to reach Lu, who was still very

(07:22):
goods oriented, he'd like to accumulate wealth, and Father Joseph
was his exact opposite in that respect. But reach Les
secret service, they were not to be trifled with. They
could find almost anyone, disaffected people, people who may have
been plotting, dangerous, dangerous people in the realm. And since

(07:43):
one of his goals was to promote absolute monarchy, he
didn't really let rank and position get in his way. Uh,
it wasn't going to hold him back from finding you
if you were causing trouble. And this proved especially true
when he went head to head with the Queen Anne
of Austria, who was the still childless wife of Louis
the thirteenth. So now we're going to switch gears a

(08:05):
little bit here and focus on And for a second.
Who Um, if you are familiar with Cardinal Richelieu, might
be because of the Three Musketeers. And if you're familiar
with the Three Musketeers, you know that and and the
Cardinal are mortal enemies. He's always trying to catch her
in the act of some secret liaison, and the Musketeers

(08:27):
are always pulling through for her. But um, we covered
a little bit of Anne's background in an episode I
recorded with Candice a while back on historical weddings. Um.
But she was in quite a pickle in the sixteen thirties.
To put it simply, she had been married since she
was fourteen, but she hadn't had a child, So that

(08:49):
big deal at the time. Yeah, really big deal. I
mean it's it's childlessness in a marriage at the time
was grounds to a null the marriage which had I
mean it was a decades long marriage. They had been
married for a very very long time, and if the
marriage were to be annulled, she'd she'd be in a
bad spot, probably sent back home again. Another thing that

(09:11):
added to her sort of precarious position in the situation,
beyond just the fact that she didn't have a child
in an air, was the fact that she was a
Spanish princess, and this was an increasingly kind of precarious position,
especially after five and the declaration of war against um Spain. Yeah,
so she was possibly the enemy within. And she insisted

(09:34):
she had become thoroughly French. She had been, after all,
living in France since she was a teenager. Um, but
she kept up with some of her Spanish habits, which
I guess didn't help matters much. She slept late, she
loved to eat Spanish chocolates, which I don't know if
you could fault somebody habits like that. I love that
these are specifically Spanish habits. I mean it sounds like

(09:57):
kind of a nice deal to me. But her husband
and was suspicious of her. He always thought that maybe
her heart was still with Spain. He thought that she
quote had a great passion for the interests of Spain,
which is a little ironic because his sister was married
to the Spanish king. I mean it was their marriages

(10:17):
had been double marriages, So you'd think you'd have a
little compassion here, you'd think. But more seriously than that,
Anne was suspected of conspiring against her husband with his
brother and air Gaston and Deblina and I were talking
earlier about how the name Gaston negative condetation. That always

(10:37):
makes you a little worried. And you're going to see
Guston pop up again later in this episode. He um,
he's not terribly close to his brother, to put it nicely. Um.
But Anne, who was already no friend of Cardinal Richelieu,
found herself in really hot water in sixty seven for
a series of correspondences she had had with her brother

(11:00):
Philip the fourth of Spain and it seemed like the
correspondence had gone a little beyond just your basic you know,
dear brother, I hope you're well, that sort of thing,
and um, she was discovered and the cardinal forced her
to place her correspondence under watch, which was a really
embarrassing thing for her to have to come out basically

(11:22):
recan't her correspondence, And worse than that, one of her
servants was arrested and tortured in an attempt to draw
out even more damning information about her, to try to
ruin her, essentially, But he didn't give anything up. He
didn't give anything up, and maybe there was nothing to
give up. Maybe there wasn't. I guess, we don't know,

(11:43):
but uh, it's fortunate for Anne certainly that her servant
didn't say anything damning, because miraculously, at thirty six, she
finally became pregnant. She had had several miscarriages before but
hadn't even been pregnant. And quite time she and Louis
must have reconciled to a certain extent um and by

(12:05):
January fourteenth, sixteen thirty eight, Richelieu had been informed and
the country was praying for a dauphin and they their
prayers were answered September five, sixteen thirty eight, and delivered
a healthy baby boy in the presence of witnesses, and
he was considered God given the future Louis the fourteenth. Yeah,

(12:28):
and obviously this miracle child Um did raise a few eyebrows.
People were wondering how this couple suddenly conceived Um. The
witnesses are there to make sure it's actually her baby.
It's not a girl, and it's not switched their boy
or a dad baby switched for a living one, so
they were sure it was hers. But people were still

(12:50):
questioning the paternity of the child Um, and Louis the
thirteenth was understandably kind of annoyed by this. He dismissed
the criticism and said, quote, it is scarcely a miracle.
If a husband who sleeps with his wife gives her
a child, Um, it's probably their best proof that. Two
years later they had yet another exactly, but he didn't

(13:12):
get too entrenched in his fatherly duties. Not too long
after his son's birth, probably within about a year of
Louis the fourteenth birth, Louis the thirteenth had a new
favorite hanging around. It wasn't just Richilieu in the picture anymore.
This was a different kind of favorite too. Yes, this
was someone who actually seriously threatened the crown, the position
of Louis the thirteenth son, and also the place of Richelieu. Yeah,

(13:35):
and it's kind of ironic that this relationship proved so threatening,
threatening to reach lou as well, because the pairing was
one of the cardinal's own making. Back in sixteen thirty two,
Richelieu had taken in this orphaned boy and twine quiffe
a Rose, the Marquis de Saint Mars, who was the
son of one of Richelieu's dear friends. He had taken

(13:58):
him in, taken him under protection. I mean, Richelieu was
a powerful guy with lots of connections. Um, I was
going to help out his friend's boy. And by the
time the young man was about nineteen years old, Richelieu
encouraged a relationship with the king. He thought that Sant
Mars might be pretty easily controlled and he could essentially

(14:22):
extend his own control over Louis through this young man
and actually work. It did work, It was quite successful. St.
Mars not only became a favorite, but he also earned
the title Master of the robes. He and the King
had kind of a tumultuous relationship, though St Mars would
often start these big fights with him and then they
would make up sort of I don't know, I guess

(14:45):
a caddie type thing, lover's quarrels kind of how I
think of it, kind of awkward. But he was also
getting or sank Mars was getting more arrogant and getting
kind of wild in his ways, and Richelieu didn't really
care for that. Plus he didn't care for the fact
that sink Mars was not as easily controllable as he

(15:06):
thought he might be. He had some clear ambition to
become more than just this temporary royal favorite um. Sink Mars,
on the other hand, saw that the Cardinal was standing
in his way of becoming something more and thought that
maybe since he was kind of sickly and getting older,
he could just be safely eliminated. So St mars first

(15:30):
brush with conspiracy came in sixteen forty one when with
the Count Desoissant, and that plan was aborted, though that
didn't actually go anywhere. Yeah, but sank Mars was still
lucky that Richelieu and his secret service didn't detect his
own involvement. He wasn't caught, but the next conspiracy was
of his own making, and it was actually probably the

(15:53):
most serious conspiracy during Richelieu's time. Along with a group
of noblemen and the king's husky younger brother, Gaston, Sink
Mars was planning to stir up revolts and eventually allow
Spain to enter France. And it gets pretty serious when
you learn that he even signed a secret treaty with

(16:15):
Philip the Fourth of Spain March thirteen, sixteen forty two,
with Philip promising to assist the rebellion with troops and
with money. So it's straight up treason, yep. And Richilu
of course is not happy about this when he finds out,
and he does find out about the plot by June
eleven of that year, and it takes him just two

(16:36):
days to arrest Saint Mars, who's convicted of treason and beheaded.
But this is kind of the beginning of the end
for this whole group of people. I think it's it's
interesting that this conspiracy does come so close to the
end of their lives. Richelieu dies very soon after this
last betrayal December sixteen forty two, and he's followed by

(16:57):
the King in May sixteen forty three. So within just
a few months we have a complete regime change as
the young Louis the fourteenth, who is still less than
five years old, becomes king with his mother Anne as regent,
and she declares a cardinal Mazarin as her chief advisor.

(17:18):
Mazarin he's an interesting guy too, hand picked by her
former enemy Richelieu, yet much more to her own liking
in possibly more ways than one. Yeah, they have kind
of an interesting, very close relationship going forward. But I
think this is launching us into a different direction, different direction, well,

(17:38):
in a different king who we will inevitably be covering
some events of the life of Louis the fourteenth, the
son king Builder of Versailles. I mean, how can we
even pick? I don't know where to start. Yeah, that's
going to be a tough one to to boil down
as well, but I think that's what you can find
the Bourbon series. So I guess that brings us to

(17:59):
listener mail. We have a letter from Carrie from Philadelphia,
and Carrie says, just listening to your unearthed in two
thousand ten show regarding ancient k cow brews. I just
wanted to mention the hopefully someone else already has that.
One of my favorite local breweries, dog Fish Head of Delaware,

(18:20):
produces an amazing throwback cow brew called Theobroma and one
of my all time favorites that they make. Haven't had
a chance to try their ancient recipe saliva beer that
sounds pretty fascinating and not very delicious, so and Carrie says,
maybe someday, if I'm lucky, he will get to try that.

(18:41):
Happy New Year, and thanks for the podcast. And when
you mentioned this letter, I thought it was interesting because
a way back when we did an episode on the
history of chocolate, somebody suggested that same chocolate e beer
pretty must be good. Must be good if all these
people have it on their minds. But if you have
any um beverage related recommendations here um or just any

(19:07):
fun historical events in the life are reacially you want
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(19:31):
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(19:51):
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