fjt_015523 - CARDINAL ARMAND JEAN DU PLESSIS, DUKE OF RICHELIEU Lieutenant Général des Mers du Levant 1647

CARDINAL ARMAND JEAN DU PLESSIS, DUKE OF RICHELIEU

(09/09/1585-14/12/1642)

Armand Jean du Plessis was born in Paris on September 9, 1585 to a grand provost of the Poitevin nobility and the daughter of a bourgeois and lawyer.. When his brother Alphonse decided to become a monk, he wanted to replace him at the bishopric of Luçon and had to undertake theological studies.. He was ordained bishop in 1607, when he was only twenty-two, then he was appointed chaplain to the queen mother, Marie de Medici, and secretary of state in 1616.. Close to Concini, he fell into disgrace during the latter's assassination. He was rehabilitated in 1622 and he became the principal minister of Louis XIII in 1624. Upon his return to power, Richelieu never ceased to fight the Protestants. In particular, he organized the siege of La Rochelle, which benefited from the help of the Duke of Buckingham; the city surrendered on October 28, 1628. He also fought the armies of Rohan in the Cévennes and Languedoc. He repressed with an iron fist the revolt of the "barefoot" of Normandy (punishment of Rouen) and had the feudal strongholds dismantled in order to avoid any revolt.. As superintendent of navigation and commerce, he developed trade with Guyana, Martinique, Réunion, Madagascar and Canada.. Richelieu died in Paris on December 14, 1642..