Cardinal Mazarin

His widow, Anne of Austria, claimed the regency and forgot that she was the sister of the King of Spain and the sister-in-law of the Emperor in the thought that she was the widow of one King of France and the mother of another.

Her minister was Cardinal Mazarin, an Italian, who had commended himself to Richelieu by his capacity for business and his complete independence of French party feeling.

If he was noted rather for cleverness than for strength of character, he was at least anxious to carry out the policy of his predecessor and to maintain the predominance of the crown over aristocratic factions.

And for some time, Richelieu's policy seemed to carry success with it through the impetus which he had given it.

It surrendered in August.

The cautious Richelieu had been contented to announce that he reserved all question of the ownership of his conquests till it should be finally determined by a treaty of peace.

After Rocroi, Mazarin had no such scruples.

Thionville was formally annexed to France.

He did something to reform the religious orders and seems to have thought of making himself independent patriarch of France, since all his attempts failed to win papal favor.

His successor, Cardinal Mazarin, far less commanding in personality and less original in statesmanship, only continued part of his work, the campaign against Austria.

Giulio Mazzarini, chief minister, 1642 to 1661, born in Italy in 1602 and educated at Rome and in Spain, had, like Richelieu, forsaken a soldier's career for diplomacy.

For two years he acted as papal nuncio in Paris and became a naturalized Frenchman.

He succeeded Father Joseph in Richelieu's confidence, became cardinal in 1641, and was commended by his dying master to the king.

As Louis XIII's own health was fast failing and the Dauphin only four years old, Mazarin foresaw the coming importance of the queen, and by his personal attractions and deferential manners won her favor.

Anne was lonely and unappreciated.

After her husband's death in 1643, she responded by giving Mazarin her entire confidence and affection, and it is probable that they were secretly married.

In 1651, he saw his opportunity.

The chief advisor to the young King Louis XIV was a man named Cardinal Mazarin, and he was exiled from the court for angering the nobles by trying to consolidate the king's power.

Away from Paris, Mazarin would need someone to carry messages back and forth for him, and so Jean-Baptiste quickly secured the position.

Mazarin soon realized that Jean-Baptiste was absolutely meticulous.

The epoch of European history with which I have here attempted to deal is an epoch of restorations — restorations which assume widely different forms in correspondence with the varying circumstances of the countries in which they take place.

In France after a period of fierce internal strife during which all antagonistic influences exhaust themselves in a vain struggle with the tenacious purpose of Mazarin and sink into helplessness, the triumphant monarchy emerges as a despotism of an almost Oriental type.

That despotism is conferred upon a prince of great capacity and of boundless ambition with all the instruments of ambition ready to his hand.

In England a different scene is witnessed.

The character and purposes of the king, his detestable private example, the influence of his mistresses, the potency of backstairs intrigue afford opportunity for all who unite ambition and capacity with cunning, frivolity or shamelessness to come to the front and to prosper.

In writing the chapters devoted to the Fronde I have drawn largely from the Histoire de France pendant la minorité de Louis XIV.

and the Histoire de France sous le ministère de Mazarin of M. Cheruel, which from the impartial and exhaustive use displayed by the writer of authorities previously unknown or neglected must be held to supersede former works on the subject.

The voluminousness however, the abundance of detail and the somewhat provoking looseness of the arrangement of these volumes render the conception of persons and events in their due proportions a matter of the utmost difficulty The Histoire de France of M. Henri Martin, and especially the Französische Geschichte of Professor Ranke have been constantly referred to lessen this difficulty; while in one or two instances I have been aided by Dr Kitchen's History of France and Mr Perkins', France under Richelieu and Mazarin.

This celebrated febrifuge was first taken to Europe about the middle of the seventeenth century, and was named after the Countess of Chinchon, who had been cured of intermittent fever at Lima.

Afterward, when Cardinal de Lugo spread the knowledge of the remedy through France and recommended it to Cardinal Mazarin, it received the name of Jesuit's bark.

The French chemists, Pelletier and Caverton, discovered quinine in 1820.

This tree is indigenous to the Andes, where it is found on the western slope between the altitudes of 2,000 and 9,000 feet, the species richest in alkaloids occupying the higher elevations where the air is moist.

had passed through his hands at the ordination retreats, and those who belonged to the Tuesday conferences were intimately known to him.

Who could be better fitted to select those who were suitable for preferment? Mazarin, it is true, objected to the council on principle, but that was simply because he considered that bishoprics and abbeys were useful things to keep in reserve as bribes for his wavering adherents.

certain reforms on which vincent insisted were not to his mind either although he offered no opposition it was not his way to act openly and he bided his time the wonder was that vincent was able to do what he did so thoroughly in the meantime it began to dawn upon the public that the superior of st lazare was for the moment a man of influence It was already well known that he was a man of immense charity, with many institutions on his hands, several of which were in urgent need of funds.

It seemed a very simple thing to offer him a large sum of money for the poor, on condition that he would put in a good word for a brother or a nephew who was just the man for a bishopric or anything else that might offer.

BUT AN ATTEMPT TO GET HIM EJECTED FROM THE COUNCIL MET WITH SUCH STORMY OPPOSITION THAT THE PRIME MINISTER DETERMINED TO CHANGE HIS TACTICS.

There was no man he revered or admired so much as M. Vincent, he declared enthusiastically, no one who was of such use in the council of conscience.

But the summoning of the council rested with Mazarin, and the intervals between its meetings became longer and longer.

Anne of Austria's sudden spurt of energy—she was a thoroughly indolent woman by nature— began to die out as she became accustomed to her new responsibilities.

He was very eager to become a practicing warrior.

He was Cardinal Mazarin was the first minister in France at the time.

And his mother, Henrietta Maria, was living at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, as it happens, where he would later live himself.

And sometimes at the Louvre.

just after he got married.

I mean, there's a kind of funny parallel with Hortense Mancini because when they were in exile, Charles, who had masses of girlfriends by that time already, was quite smitten with Hortense Mancini and wanted to marry her, one of the of the seven Mazarinettes.

And their uncle, Cardinal Mazarin, said no, because at that time he was sort of like a king without a kingdom, a penniless exile.

And he said no.

The epoch of European history with which I have here attempted to deal is an epoch of restorations, restorations which assume widely different forms in correspondence with the varying circumstances of the countries in which they take place.

In France, after a period of fierce internal strife, during which all antagonistic influences exhaust themselves in a vain struggle with the tenacious purpose of Mazarin and sink into helplessness, the triumphant monarchy emerges as a despotism of an almost oriental type.

That despotism is conferred upon a prince of great capacity and of boundless ambition, with all the instruments of ambition ready to his hand.

In England, a different scene is witnessed.

It displays a low moral sense and is ruled by a spirit of unreason, though by the very law of its being it half-consciously feels its way toward the goal of 1689.

The character and purposes of the King, his detestable private example, the influence of his mistresses, the potency of backstairs intrigue, afford the opportunity for all who unite ambition and capacity with cunning, frivolity or shamelessness to come to the front and to prosper.

In writing the chapters devoted to the Fronde, I have drawn largely from the Histoire de France pendant la minorité de Louis XIV and the Histoire de France sous le ministère de Mazarin of M. Cheroul, which from the impartial and exhaustive use displayed by the writer of authorities previously unknown or neglected must be held to supersede former works on the subject.

The voluminousness, however, the abundance of detail and the somewhat provoking looseness of the arrangement of these volumes render the conception of persons and events in their due proportions a matter of the utmost difficulty.