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Cardinal Mazarin

Cardinal Jules Mazarin (/ˈmæzərɪn/,[1] also UK: /ˈmæzəræ̃/,[2] US: /ˌmæzəˈræ̃/,[3][4] French: [ʒyl mazaʁɛ̃]; 14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661), born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino (Italian: [ˈdʒuːljo raiˈmondo maddzaˈriːno]) or Mazarini,[5] was an Italian cardinal, diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Louis XIII and Louis XIV from 1642 to his death. In 1654, he acquired the title Duke of Mayenne and in 1659 that of 1st Duke of Rethel and Nevers.

Cardinal Mazarin
Portrait of Jules Mazarin by Pierre Mignard (1658)
First Minister of State
In office
4 December 1642 – 9 March 1661
MonarchsLouis XIII
Queen Anne (regent)
Louis XIV
Preceded byThe Duke of Richelieu
Succeeded byJean-Baptiste Colbert
Personal details
Born
Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino

(1602-07-14)14 July 1602
Pescina, Abruzzo Ultra, Kingdom of Naples
Died9 March 1661(1661-03-09) (aged 58)
Vincennes, Île-de-France, France
Alma materRoman College
ProfessionClergyman, statesman
Cardinal, Bishop of Metz
MetropolisImmediately Subject to the Holy See
DioceseMetz
SeeMetz
Appointed29 November 1653
Term ended1658
PredecessorHenri de Bourbon
SuccessorFranz Egon of Fürstenberg
Other post(s)Abbot of Cluny (1654-1661)
Orders
Created cardinal16 December 1641
by Pope Urban VIII
RankCardinal-deacon
Personal details
DenominationRoman Catholic
MottoFirmando firmior hæret
Hinc ordo, hinc copia rerum
Signature
Styles of
Jules Raymond Mazarin
Reference styleHis Eminence
Spoken styleYour Eminence
Informal styleCardinal
SeeMetz

After serving as a papal diplomat for Pope Urban VIII, Mazarin offered his diplomatic services to Cardinal Richelieu and moved to Paris in 1640. After the death of Richelieu in 1642, Mazarin took his place as first minister and then of Louis XIII in 1643. Mazarin acted as the head of the government for Anne of Austria, the regent for the young Louis XIV. Mazarin was also made responsible for the king's education until he came of age.

The first years of Mazarin in office were marked by military victories in the Thirty Years' War, which he used to make France the main European power and establish the Peace of Westphalia (1646–1648). A major uprising against Anne of Austria and Mazarin, called the Fronde and led by the nobles of the Parliament of Paris, broke out in Paris in 1648, followed by a second Fronde, led by Louis, Grand Condé, who had turned from his chief ally to his chief enemy. Mazarin took Anne of Austria and Louis XIV out of Paris and then shifted his base to Germany for a time. Turenne, a general loyal to Louis XIV and Mazarin, defeated Condé, and Mazarin made a triumphal return to Paris in 1653.

The last years of Mazarin's life, between 1657 and his death in 1661, were marked by a series of major diplomatic victories. In 1657 he made a military alliance with England. In 1658 he unveiled the League of the Rhine, a new group of 50 small German principalities, which were now linked by a treaty with France. The same year, Marshal Turenne decisively defeated the army of Condé at the Battle of the Dunes in Flanders. Between February and June 1659, Mazarin conducted intensive negotiations with the Spanish. On 7 November 1659, Spain signed the Treaty of the Pyrenees, which added Artois, the Cerdagne and Roussillon as new provinces of France. That was followed in June 1660 by an even more important diplomatic event that had been carefully arranged by Mazarin, the marriage of Louis XIV with Maria Theresa of Spain. The marriage took place in Saint-Jean-de-Luz. The couple made a triumphant entry into Paris on 26 August 1660. The marriage and accompanying agreements ended, at least for a time, the long and costly wars between the Habsburgs and France. Exhausted by his diplomatic efforts, Mazarin died in 1661.

Mazarin, as the de facto ruler of France for nearly two decades, played a crucial role in establishing the Westphalian principles that would guide European states' foreign policy and the prevailing world order. Some of the principles, such as the nation state's sovereignty over its territory and domestic affairs and the legal equality among states, have remained the basis of international law to this day.

In addition to his diplomacy, Mazarin was an important patron of the arts. He introduced Italian opera on a grand scale to Paris and assembled a remarkable art collection, much of which today can be seen in the Louvre. He also founded the Bibliothèque Mazarine, the first true public library in France, which is now found in the Institut de France, across the Seine from the Louvre.

Early life

Giulio Mazzarino was born on 14 July 1602 in Pescina in the Abruzzo province of Italy, about one hundred twenty kilometers from Rome. His parents were residents of Rome, spending the summer in Pescina to escape the summer heat.[6] His father, Pietro Mazzarino (1576-1654), had moved to Rome from Sicily in 1590 to become a chamberlain in the family of Filippo I Colonna, the Grand Constable of Naples.[7] His father became a citizen of Rome in 1608. His mother Ortensia Bufalini (1575-1644) was a native of Rome, from the Bufalini family of nobility whose origins were in Città di Castello in Umbria. The family had moved to Rome in the Middle Ages. She was the goddaughter of Filippo I Colonna, her husband's employer. Giulio was the eldest of six children, two boys and four girls.[7]

Through the influence of the Colonnas, Giulio was admitted at the age of seven to the Jesuit College in Rome, the most respected school in the city. Though he declined to join their order, he excelled in his studies. In 1618, at the age of sixteen, he gave a public lecture on theories explaining Halley's comet, which appeared in that year. He also excelled in theatrics; he was chosen to play the part of the newly sainted Ignatius of Loyola in a religious pageant. He also acquired the habit of gambling at cards, and frequently was in debt.[7] A particular favourite game of his was a variant of Hoc named after him: Hoc Mazarin.[8]

When he was twenty his father decided to send him away from the bad influences of Rome. Giulio accompanied Girolamo Colonna, one of the sons of Filippo I Colonna, who was eighteen, to the Complutense University of Madrid (then located in Alcalá de Henares) in Spain. He studied law with Girolamo during the daytime and in the evenings continued to gamble and again was in debt. A notary who had advanced some cash to cover gaming debts urged the charming and personable young Mazarino to take his daughter as bride, with a substantial dowry, and Giulio accepted. Girolamo Colonna wrote urgently to his father in Rome, and Giulio was ordered to return immediately to Rome, without his fiancée.[9]

Papal envoy

Upon his return to Rome, he resumed his studies, this time in law. In 1628 he received the title of doctor in utroque jure, meaning he could practice both civil and canonical law.[10] In the same year Ferdinand II, the Habsburg emperor, laid claim to a papal territory, the Valtellina, in the Italian alps. Pope Urban VIII raised an army to defend his territory. The Prince of Palestrina, who was also a member of the Colonna family, commanded a new regiment of the Papal army, and invited Giulio to become a lieutenant in the regiment. Since neither the regiment nor Giulio had any military experience, they were assigned to a town far from the front line. Giulio knew little of military discipline. He received a message from Rome informing that his mother was seriously ill. Without asking permission from his commander, he immediately rode to Rome, and stayed there until his mother had recovered. He was summoned before the Pope, Urban VIII, to explain why he had deserted his post. He threw himself at the feet of the Pope, and pleaded to be pardoned for his excess of loyalty to his family. The Pope was impressed by Giulio's spontaneity and eloquence, forgave his desertion, and invited him to become a Papal emissary.[11]

In 1628 Mazarin was named the secretary to Jean-François Sacchetti, a senior papal diplomat, who was trying to prevent the impending War of the Mantuan Succession between the armies of France and Spain for dominance of that region of northern Italy.[7] Throughout 1629 and 1630 he shuttled between Milan, Mantua, Turin, Casale and France, trying to find a solution to the crisis before the fighting began. This became, throughout his career, his standard method of diplomacy; traveling continually, getting to know and win the trust of as many decision-makers as possible.[12] During this time he came to know Cardinal Francesco Barberini, the head of diplomacy for the papacy, and, more important, Cardinal Richelieu of France, his future mentor, whom he first met in Lyon on 29 January 1630. Richelieu was aloof and confrontational; he wrote afterwards: "This Mazarini is here more to spy than to negotiate....He is so Spanish and so Savoyard that what he says shouldn't be taken as gospel truth."[13]

 
Mazarin carrying the peace agreement to the armies at Casale, crying "Peace! Peace!" (18th century engraving)

Richelieu at first decided to ignore Mazarin's diplomacy and to send the French army across the Alps into Italy. On 26 October 1630 the French and Spanish armies met outside the walls of the French-held town of Casale, ready to fight. Suddenly, a man on horseback with a flag appeared, galloping toward them, crying "Pace! Pace!" ("Peace! Peace!") It was Mazarin, carrying an agreement from the Spanish commander to evacuate their soldiers from the town if the French would leave Montferrat to Charles Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. Mazarin brought together the Spanish and French commanders and explained the terms of the agreement, which were readily accepted by both sides. Mazarin had achieved his first diplomatic success.[13]

The result of Mazarin's first diplomatic efforts was the Treaty of Cherasco, 6 April 1631, in which the Emperor and the Duke of Savoy recognized the possession of Mantua and part of Monferrat by Charles Gonzaga and the French occupation of the strategic stronghold of Pinerolo, the gate to the valley of the Po, to the great satisfaction of Richelieu and King Louis XIII of France.

The Pope sent Mazarin to Paris at the beginning of 1631 to work out the final details of the agreement. He returned to France again from April to July 1632. He had his first interview with Lous XIII and with the Queen, Anne of Austria, in May 1632. He tried to persuade Louis XIII to send a military expedition to capture Geneva, the fortress of the Protestant movement, but the King, who had good relations with the Swiss cantons, rejected the idea. Mazarin returned to Rome in November 1632, and made a new friend and ally, Antonio Barberini, the nephew of the Pope and one of his chief diplomats, and his older brother, Francesco Barberini, the Cardinal Secretary of State. With their assistance, he established himself as a guardian of French interests in Rome, and then of papal interests in France. In 1632, he was named papal vice-legate at Avignon, appointed a prelate, and began to wear ecclesiastical dress, though he was not and never became a priest.[14]

 
Mazarin as a papal envoy in Paris (1632)

While in Rome, Mazarin sent regular gifts of flowers, perfumes and delicacies to the women of the French court, and more valuable gifts, including statues and Renaissance paintings, to Richelieu.[15] In 1634 he was named nuncio extraordinary to Paris by Urban VIII, and entrusted with the mission of persuading Louis XIII to undertake a grand naval crusade against the Turks. The goal was to create a combined fleet of the ships of Christian nations to seize the Turkish ports around the Mediterranean. Mazarin, a realist, knew that, given the rivalries between European powers, this project would never take place.

A new crisis arrived on 19 May 1635; France declared war on the Habsburg rulers of Austria and Spain. Mazarin wrote later that he had done his best to persuade Richelieu to avoid a war. He wrote that in March 1635 he gave Richelieu all his reasons to maintain the peace. "His Eminence told me, as he stood up," Mazarin wrote, "that I courted Peace as if she were the woman of my dreams. Then he shook my hand, and concluded, 'You are no longer on the side of France.'"[16] Mazarin returned to Avignon on 7 April 1636.[17]

During all of his negotiations, Mazarin was very careful not to be too critical of the French court and Richelieu, and they remained in contact. In November 1636 he left Avignon to return to Rome, carrying instructions from Richelieu that made him a discreet ambassador for the king of France.[15]

The atmosphere within the papal curia was hostile to France and to Richelieu; Spanish priests occupied many positions in the hierarchy and they considered him, with reason, an agent of France. When the Pope refused to send him back to France, or to represent the papacy at a peace conference, he wrote: "I am not a subject of the King of France, but I believe I can truly say that the declarations of the Spanish have declared me to be French, so that with justice one can say that France is my country."[16]

His position in Rome was increasingly difficult. He had the affection of Pope Urban VIII, but he was disliked by Cardinal Barberini, the chief of Papal diplomacy, and by the large contingent of Spaniards in the papal household. He spent his time collecting sculpture and other works of art which he sent to Richelieu for the Cardinal's new palace in Paris. He considered serving the rulers of Savoy, Poland, or Queen Henriette of England, but in the end he decided to enter the service of Richelieu and France. However, Richelieu was in no hurry to bring him to Paris; he valued the diplomatic contributions Mazarin was making in Rome, as well as the art treasures he was acquiring. He kept Mazarin in Rome for two more years. Richelieu did one important favor for Mazarin; in October 1638 he put forward Mazarin's name as a candidate for Cardinal when the next vacancy opened up. In December 1638, when a sitting Cardinal died, Mazarin was nominated as a Cardinal. He had to wait the entire year of 1639 before his new position was confirmed. Then on 14 December 1639, he departed Rome for the port of Civitavecchia, boarded an armed French ship to Marseille, and then traveled from Lyon to Paris, where he arrived on 5 January 1640.[18]

Cardinal and deputy of Richelieu

 
Portrait of Cardinal Jules Mazarin by Simon Vouet (before 1649, private collection)

When he arrived in Paris, Mazarin was welcomed warmly by the King, by Richelieu, and by the Queen, Anne of Austria, to whom Mazarin had regularly sent perfumes, fans, gloves and other gifts. The Queen was at this time pregnant with her second child, and it was already anticipated that she would be the regent when King Louis XIII died.[19] Mazarin advised Richelieu on both political and cultural matters. He recommended artists to bring from Rome to Paris, and in 1640 he commissioned a bust of Richelieu from the sculptor Bernini in Rome, sending Bernini pictures of Richelieu. The bust of Richelieu arrived in August 1641. Mazarin declared that it was perfect, so lifelike that, as he wrote, "it seemed about to speak", but French tastes did not approve of the Baroque style. The other members of the Court condemned the work, and Mazarin wrote back to Bernini, sending him more pictures of Richelieu and asking him to try again.[19]

Richelieu sent Mazarin on several delicate diplomatic missions, including a long trip to Savoy to straighten out the tangled political affairs there: the regency of Christine, the Duchess of Savoy, and sister of Louis XIII, was challenged by her brothers-in-law, the princes Maurice and Thomas of Savoy. (See Piedmontese Civil War) Mazarin successfully secured Christine's position, and established a solid alliance between Savoy and France. This task kept him away from Paris for nine months, until June 1641. On 16 December 1641, though he had not reached his fortieth birthday, he received what he most desired, he was formally made a Cardinal.[19]

He had established a cordial relationship with Richelieu; Richelieu jokingly referred to him as Rinzama (an anagram of his name), or Nunzinicardo ("dear little envoy"), or, most frequently, Colmarduccio, or Colmardo. When was asked what it meant. he translated into French as Frére Coupechou, the term for a junior candidate monk who was assigned to chop cabbage in the kitchen of the abbey. However, he did not send Mazarin on the mission that he most wanted, as delegate of France to a Europe-wide peace conference. Richelieu's attention was devoted to making war; Richelieu, who was elderly and in poor health, took the King, who was also in poor health, the court and Mazarin on a series of long military expeditions, to suppress a rebellion in Catalonia, to capture Roussillon, and, in January 1642, to lay siege to Narbonne.[20]

On 11 June 1642, while in Tarascon on one of the long military expeditions, Mazarin was presented with evidence that Gaston, Duke of Orléans, the brother of Louis XIII, and the Marquis of Cinq-Mars, one of the King's closest advisors, had made a secret agreement with the King of Spain, without the knowledge of Richelieu or the King. It appeared probable that the Queen, Anne of Austria, was also aware of this secret betrayal of Richelieu, but did not tell him or the King. Cinq-Mars was arrested, Gaston was disgraced, and another conspirator, the Duke of Bouillon, was granted a pardon on the condition of revealing all the details of the plot to Mazarin, and surrendering the important fortress of Sedan to the King. Mazarin did not reveal the participation of the Queen in the conspiracy, but his knowledge gave him even greater leverage at the court.[21] The destruction of the conspiracy against the King was one of the last acts of Cardinal Richelieu. He fell ill and died on 4 December 1642.

Chief minister of France – Diplomacy

 
Anne of Austria with her children Louis XIV of France and Philippe, Duke of Orléans (unknown artist)

The succession of Mazarin to the position of chief minister of Louis XIII was not automatic or immediate. Despite the accounts of some later historians, Richelieu did not name Mazarin as his successor. Richelieu did, according to Mazarin himself, advise the King to employ Mazarin, who until that time had no official position at Court.[22]

After the death of Richelieu, Louis XIII named three prominent figures to advise him; François Sublet de Noyers, Léon Bouthillier, comte de Chavigny and Mazarin. Mazarin and de Chavigny immediately joined together to get rid of de Noyers. They hinted to the King that de Noyers had secretly made an agreement with Anne of Austria to make her the regent of France after the King's death. The King, who had little love for the Queen and in his will had refused to make her his Regent, was furious; de Noyers was forced to resign on 10 April 1643.[22]

Louis XIII died 14 May 1643, just five months after Richelieu. His successor, Louis XIV, was just four years old. The King had specifically instructed that his wife, Anne of Austria, not rule in his place as regent. However, as soon as he was dead, she applied to the body of nobles known as the Parliament of Paris, and had his will annulled. She was declared Regent on 18 May. The Queen had a particular dislike of de Chavigny, the other chief advisor chosen by Louis XIII. He had been close to Richelieu and was the only real rival in experience to Mazarin. The evening that she became regent, she declared that Mazarin would be her chief minister and head of her government.[22]

The management style of Mazarin was entirely different from that of Richelieu. The contrast was described by Cardinal Retz, the future enemy of Mazarin, in his Memoires: "One saw on the steps of the throne, where the sharp and fearsome Richelieu had thundered rather than governed the people, a leader who is gentle, benevolent, and demands nothing...He has the spirit, the insinuation, the playfulness, the manners, but also a certain laziness...."[23]

Cardinal Retz and other rivals in the court underestimated Mazarin's skills, energy and determination. Mazarin continued Richelieu's costly war against the chief rivals of France in Europe, the Habsburgs of Austria and Spain. The victories of Condé and Turenne finally brought Austria to the bargaining table and ended the Thirty Years' War with the Peace of Westphalia (1646–48)

Mazarin's policies also added Alsace (though not Strasbourg) to France. He settled Protestant princes in secularized bishoprics and abbacies in reward for their political opposition to the Habsburgs, building a network of French influence as a buffer in the western part of the Empire. In 1657, he made an attempt to get Louis XIV elected as Holy Roman Emperor.[24] In 1658 he formed the League of the Rhine, which was designed to check the House of Austria in central Germany. In 1659 he made peace with Habsburg Spain in the Peace of the Pyrenees, which added to French territory Roussillon and northern Cerdanya—as French Cerdagne—in the far south as well as part of the Low Countries.

Towards Protestantism at home, Mazarin pursued a policy of promises and calculated delay to defuse the armed insurrection of the Ardèche (1653), for example, and to keep the Huguenots disarmed: for six years they believed themselves to be on the eve of recovering the protections of the Edict of Nantes, but in the end they obtained nothing.

There was constant friction with the pontificate of the Spanish Cardinal Pamphilj, elected Pope on 15 September 1644 as Innocent X. Mazarin protected the Barberini cardinals, nephews of the late Pope, and the Bull against them was voted by the Parlement of Paris "null and abusive"; France made a show of preparing to take Avignon by force, and Innocent backed down. Mazarin was more consistently an enemy of Jansenism, in particular during the formulary controversy, more for its political implications than out of theology. On his deathbed he warned young Louis "not to tolerate the Jansenist sect, not even their name." After his death, Louis XIV did not appoint a new principal minister and instead governed himself, marking the beginning of a new era of centralized government in France.[25]

Discontent – The Fronde (1648-53)

Mazarin's long war against the Habsburgs, the final part of the Thirty Years War, was successful, but the cost was enormous. Resentment grew against the Spanish Queen and her Italian prime minister, and culminated in the Fronde, a rebellion against the government by members of the nobility and discontented citizens of Paris, which lasted from 1648 until 1653.[26]

Mazarin was forced to raise money by any means possible to support the war against the Habsburgs. His financial counselor was Michel Particelli d'Emery, also Italian. When taxes, loans, and the sale of titles did not bring in enough, he sought new sources of income. He discovered an old law dating to Henry IV which forbade Parisians to build houses outside the city limits. Since the city had grown well outside its old boundaries, in 1644 he imposed heavy fines on all those who lived outside the city limits. In addition, he taxed all merchandise being brought into the city. One measure caused particular resentment among the nobility; he imposed a special tax on all the nobles who served on the various royal courts and councils, amounting to four years of their fees.[27]

The Fronde of the Parliament

 
An anti-Mazarin cartoon from the Fronde (about 1650). The caption reads, "Despite Mazarin, the frondeurs assure the safety of the state."

The center of resistance was the Paris parlement, an ancient assembly of nobles which served as a high court of appeals. It was a period of rebellion against monarchs across Europe; independence movements appeared in the Spanish provinces of Catalonia and Portugal, a revolutionary seized power in Naples, and Charles I of England, the brother-in-law of Louis XIII, was deposed and executed in 1649. In Paris, the members of the parlement called a special session to debate Mazarin's measures. The meeting was forbidden by Regent, Anne of Austria, but went ahead anyway. The parlement issued a charter, inspired by the writ of Habeas Corpus in England, which revoked the authority of the King's justice officials, forbade any new taxes without the approval of the parlement, and declared that no royal subjects could be imprisoned without due process of law.[28]

Mazarin recommended to the Queen that she listen to the parlement and modify her decrees, but she was furious at their opposition. She waited until the right moment to strike back. The occasion she chose was the celebration of a major victory of the French Army over the Spanish at the Battle of Lens in Belgium on 26 August 1648. On the day that a special mass was held at the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris to celebrate the victory, she gave orders to the Captain of her guards to arrest the leaders of the parlement, including the popular Pierre Broussel. News of the arrest quickly spread in Paris, and crowds came out into the street to protest and to build barricades. That evening Mazarin wrote in his journal, "the parlement has performed the functions of the King, and the people have deferred to it entirely."[28]

During the Fronde, the anti-Mazarin crowds of Paris enjoyed listening to Mazarinades, popular songs with verses mocking the Cardinal. Dozens were written and published, accusing him of virtually all possible faults and crimes. Mazarin had a sense of humor, and when the Fronde was finished, he had the best Mazarinades collected and performed in a concert at his palace.

The rebellion lasted for three years. It took its popular name, Fronde, from the children's slings (frondes) which were used by the mobs in the Paris streets to hurl stones. It combined the anger of the Parisians against the new taxes with the resentment of the nobility against the reduction of their ancient privileges. It was led over time by an odd assortment of allies; Gaston d'Orleans, the brother of Louis XIII; Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé a brilliant general but poor politician, and the Cardinal Paul de Gondi, a consummate intriguer. Each of them had different goals, but all agreed that Mazarin should fall.[29]

When the Fronde began, the French Army, commanded by the Prince de Condé was far from Paris, fighting the Austrians. Mazarin quickly sent an envoy to the Emperor in Vienna, calling for a truce and peace conference. The Peace of Westphalia, ending the war, was signed 24 October 1648. Despite the peace, disturbances continued in the streets of Paris. During the night of January 6, 1649, Mazarin secretly took the young Louis XIV, Anne of Austria and the court to the safety of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, just west of Paris. Mazarin then set to work intriguing to divide the different factions of the Fronde. His goal was to separate the members of the Parlement and the more radical Parisian street demonstrators, who were united only by their dislike of Mazarin and Anne of Austria.[30]

As soon as the war was concluded, he brought Condé and his army back to Paris and placed the city under blockade. He then persuaded the Parlement that they had more to fear from an uprising of the Parisiens than they did from him. On 14 March 1649 Mazarin accepted many of the reforms demanded by the Parlement. In return, the Parlement supporters laid down their weapons and allowed Anne of Austria, the young Louis XIV and Mazarin to return to Paris.[31]

The Fronde of the Princes

 
Louis the Prince de Condé, leader of the second Fronde

The Parlement accepted Mazarin and his government, but the Fronde was still not finished. Many frondeurs were unhappy with the compromise reached in 1649. Once in Paris, Condé made endless demands on Anne of Austria until she finally angrily dismissed him. One of the other leaders of the Fronde, Jean François Paul de Gondi, soon persuaded Condé to join him in bringing down both Mazarin and Anne of Austria. Mazarin had an excellent network of agents, and immediately learned of the plot. On 18 January 1650 Mazarin had Condé, Condé's brother, Armand de Bourbon, prince de Conti and his brother-in-law, Henri II d'Orléans, duc de Longueville arrested.[31]

The agreements of 1649 had brought peace to Paris, but the unrest of the Fronde continued in other parts of France. Opponents of Mazarin disrupted tax collection and administration. As the rebellion grew, Mazarin observed that the rebels were only united in opposition to him. He decided it was wisest to resign his position and leave France while he could. He had Condé freed from prison, and, after a long journey to different cities, settled in Brühl near Cologne, as the guest of the Archbishop-Elector of Cologne.[31]

From Germany, he sent daily instructions to Anne of Austria and to his agents in France. The strategy was to sow distrust among the different factions of the Fronde. Mazarin's instructions were carried out meticulously by Anne of Austria. His intrigues succeeded in preventing the proposed marriage between one of the leading Frondeurs, the Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti with Princess Charlotte-Marie of Lorraine, Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, another of his principal enemies in Paris. He was greatly aided by the political ineptitude of Condé, who offended many of his natural allies. Mazarin urged Anne of Austria to bring him back to Paris as soon as possible, "to correct the greatest attack ever made against the royal authority".[32]

 
Battle between the Fronde forces of the Prince de Conde and the army loyal to Anne of Austria and Mazarin

Once back in Paris, Mazarin soon made an alliance with his old enemy, Cardinal Jean François Paul de Gondi. Condé departed to Bordeaux to gather reinforcements. He raised an army of Spanish and French soldiers, and marched on Paris, arriving on 2 July. The soldiers loyal to the Queen, commanded by Turenne, were waiting, and trapped Condé's army against the walls of Paris. An ally of Condé, the Grande Mademoiselle, ordered the gates of the city opened to rescue Condé's army. The battle was witnessed from the hills of Charonne by the young Louis XIV.[32]

As soon as Condé's soldiers entered Paris, he demanded an immediate purge of Mazarin's supporters. Riots broke out around the Bastille, and were suppressed with great difficulty. The Presidents of the Parlement, now allies of Mazarin, demanded that the violence be stopped and that Condé take his army out of Paris. Reluctantly, Condé left the city, going to the Spanish Netherlands, pursued by Turenne.

Louis XIV, now of age to claim his throne, re-entered Paris in October 1652, accompanied by his mother and by Turenne. Mazarin had to wait longer to make his return, which was carefully orchestrated with his help. The Parlement de Paris was first transferred by Anne of Austria from Paris to Pontoise, to see how many members would accept her authority. A majority appeared at the meeting. Following the prepared plan, the Parlement respectfully asked that Mazarin be dismissed, and Anne of Austria agreed. Mazarin, knowing this was the plan, accepted this decision, and waited a respectful time in exile. He made his return to Paris in February 1653. He was welcomed with a triumphal banquet at the Hotel de Ville, where crowds earlier had demanded his downfall.[33]

Financing the Kingdom – Fouquet and Colbert

Finding money was a primary preoccupation for Mazarin throughout his entire time as first minister. His new taxes on Parisians and the nobility had provoked the first Fronde, but the end of the Fronde did not resolve the problem. The government had borrowed huge amounts to finance the campaigns against the first Fronde and against Condé, and also had to pay for the continual travels of the Regent and the young King, and the elaborate festivities, parades, and cavalcades that accompanied their travel and every major event. The royal budget for 1653 was about 109 million livres, which amounted to eight hundred tons of silver or sixty tons of gold. Expenditures were the greatest between 1656 and 1659. Twenty-seven agreements were made with bankers, who loaned the government 98 million livres to supplement the money collected through ordinary taxes.[34]

Following the death of his first finance minister, La Vieuville, on 2 February 1653, Mazarin chose a new minister, Nicolas Fouquet. At the age of twenty-five, Fouquet had inherited a very large fortune after the death of his young first wife, and an even greater fortune when he married the second time, to Marie-Madeleine de Castille, whose family was one of the wealthiest in Europe. Fouquet began as a master of receipts at age twenty, then an intendant to the army, then Procuror-General for the Parliament of Paris at the age of thirty-five.[35]

Through his family connections, Fouquet had amassed a fortune of three to four million livres. One of the reasons for Fouquet's rapid rise was his willingness to lend very large sums to Mazarin for his various projects. In November 1657 Mazarin needed 11.8 million livres to pay the Army of the North. Fouquet, drawing upon his wealthy relatives, was able to provide the money. In 1659 he provided another loan of five million livres.[34]

 
Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the enemy and successor of Fouquet

One effect of the enormous amount of money in the market during the period of the Regency of Anne of Austria and Mazarin was a decline in the value of the Livre tournais, the official coin of the realm, lost twenty percent of its value against the Florin. However, without the money lent by Fouquet and other aristocratic financiers, Louis XIV could never have accomplished his early military and diplomatic successes.[36]

The great rival of Fouquet was Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who was also recommended to Louis XIV and brought into the government by Mazarin. Soon after he became an assistant to Mazarin, he wrote a mémoire to Mazarin, claiming that of the taxes paid by the people, not one-half reached the King. The paper also accused Fouquet of using royal funds for his own enrichment. Mazarin did not defend Fouquet; shortly before his own death, he agreed that Fouquet had to go. Shortly after Mazarin's death, Fouquet was accused by Colbert of misuse of state funds, his property was confiscated, and he was put into prison until his death, with Colbert eventually taking his place.

The personal fortune of Mazarin at the time of his death was immense, amounting to 35 million livres, not counting the sums he left to his nieces. It exceeded the second-greatest personal fortune of the century, that of Richelieu, worth some 20 million livres. About one third of the personal fortune of Mazarin came from some twenty-one abbeys around France, each of which paid him an annual share of their revenue.[37] Unlike members of the nobility, he did not have any large estates; his only real estate was the palace in Paris which he purchased in 1649, and added several surrounding houses. It was valued at 1.2 million livres. Thirty-seven percent of his fortune was in easily transportable jewels and cash. Within the ebony cabinets of his rooms at the Louvre his heirs found 450 pearls of high quality, plus quantities of gold chains and crosses, and rings with precious stones, altogether adding another 400,000 livres.[35] He left to his family jewels worth an estimated 2.5 million livres, and gave a collection of diamonds worth 50,000 livres to the new Queen, and a 14-carat diamond called The Rose of England, valued at 73,000 livres, to the Queen Mother. The most valuable legacies of all, including a set of eighteen diamonds known as the "Mazarins", worth two million livres, were given to the young Louis XIV.[35]

Patron of the arts

Mazarin was second only to Louis XIV as a patron of the arts in France in the 17th century.[38] In 1648 he founded the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture.[39] After his death in 1661, the inventory of his art collection at the Mazarin Palace recorded 858 paintings, 128 statues, 185 busts, plus 150 carpets, 514 pieces of jewelry and fine silver, and 317 precious stones, not counting the famous Mazarin diamonds, which he left to Louis XIV.[38][40] His collection included works by most of the major French and Italian artists of his time and before, going back to the Renaissance. His acquisitions included works by Poussin, Rubens, Corregio, Van Dyck, Titian, and many others, as well as the famous Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione by Raphael, which had belonged to Charles I of England, and had been bought by Richelieu. Just before his death, he visited his gallery for the last time with his deputy Brienne, and told him: "Ah, my poor friend, I must leave all this. Farewell, dear paintings, which cost me so much and which I so much loved." Many of the paintings he owned are now in the Louvre.[41]

The Palais Mazarin (Mazarin Palace) was created by Mazarin beginning in 1643, soon after he became first minister, when he rented four adjacent hôtels on the north side of the Rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs between the Rue Vivienne to the east and the Rue de Richelieu on the west and across from the Palais Royal, which was the King's residence. He commissioned François Mansart to add a garden wing with two superimposed galleries running north from the west end of the easternmost building, the Hôtel Tubeuf, where he could display his art. Between 1645 and 1647 he commissioned the Italian painter Giovanni Francesco Romanelli to create scenes from the works of Ovid on the ceiling of the upper gallery (although much modified, now known as the Galerie Mazarine[42]). In 1721, the Palais Mazarin became the site of the King's Library (Bibliothèque du Roi), now the Richelieu site of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.[43] Mazarin spent little time in his Palace; he lived most of the time in the Palais Royal, when Louis XIV was in residence there, or in the Louvre. Near the end of his life he resided in the Château de Vincennes, where he decorated a suite of rooms. He also had the moats of the chateau turned into a kind of zoo, with lions, tigers, bears and other exotic animals, for the amusement of the young King.[38]

Mazarin also played an important role in bringing Italian music to Paris. Before Mazarin, Italian opera was very little known or appreciated in Paris. Louis XIII, Catherine de Medici and Marie de Medici had all brought Italian musicians to Paris, but Mazarin did it more systematically and on a much larger scale. After his arrival as a minister in 1643, he invited the famous soprano Leonora Baroni and the castrato Atto Melani. Melani doubled as a diplomat; Mazarin sent him on several secret missions to other courts in Europe. [44]

Due to Mazarin's efforts, seven Italian operas were performed in Paris between 1645 and 1662. In 1645 Mazarin brought to Paris the famous scenery designer Giacomo Torelli, who staged Sacrati's opera La finta pazza.[45] In 1647, for Carnaval, he staged a lavish production of the premiere of Orfeo by Luigi Rossi. Later on Torelli became involved more in the ballet de cour than in opera, reflecting the passion of the king for dancing. Torelli's career in France came to a definitive end in 1661, when he worked on sets for Molière's Les fâcheux, presented by Nicholas Fouquet as part of his grand fête at Vaux-le-Vicomte in honor of the King, the overly ostentatious display which ultimately led to Fouquet's imprisonment.[46]

Mazarin was also a famous collector of books. In 1646, he brought to Paris his collection of nine thousand volumes, which he installed in his residence. It was the second-largest library in Paris, second only to the library of the King. However, when Mazarin was forced to leave Paris during the Fronde, his library was seized by the Fronde leaders, and was dispersed. He then began a second library with what was left of the first. The library grew to over 25,000 volumes and was open to all scholars after 1643. It is recognized as the first true public library in France. In his will, he gave his library to the Collège des Quatre-Nations which he had founded in 1661. The original bookcases of his library were transferred to the reading room of the College of Quatre-Nations when it was built.[47]

Educator of Louis XIV

 
The wedding of Louis XIV and Maria Theresa. Mazarin is at their right.

From the eighth birthday of the young Louis XIV, Mazarin took the title "Superintendent of the Royal Education" and managed every aspect of the young King's studies. All of the King's activities were governed and scheduled by Mazarin; his time of rising, his prayers, his physical exercise (paume fencing, and dance) followed by a morning lesson in politics with Mazarin himself. In the afternoons he was charged to write an essay each day for Mazarin on what he had learned. The education he gave Louis was purely practical, not theoretical. Among other topics, he instructed the King in the fine art of dissimulation, or lying, when needed, and always, when making an agreement, to leave a way out.[48]

Beginning in 1659, as the King reached the age of twenty-one, and Mazarin approached the end of his life, he wrote a series of guidelines in political affairs for the King. When the King set off on his journey to Spain to be married, Mazarin wrote to him: "Remember, I ask you, what I have had the honor to tell you, when you asked me the way to take to become a great King....it is necessary to begin by making the greatest efforts to not be dominated by any passion....because, otherwise, if any misfortune arrives, regardless of what good will you have, you will not be able to do what has to be done."[49]

Despite Mazarin's instructions, Louis XIV continued to correspond with Mazarin's niece Marie, with the tacit collusion of his mother. Mazarin immediately adopted a stricter tone: "God established Kings...for watching over the well-being, safety and peace of their subjects; and not to sacrifice this well-being and safety for their personal passions...you must remember your responsibilities to God for your actions and for your safety, and to the world for the support of your glory and your reputation." Mazarin also threatened to depart France with his family if the King did not agree to stop communicating with Marie. In response, Louis wrote a new letter to his mother, promising that henceforth he would forget Marie and concentrate exclusively on "the great occupation of King". (Grand metier du Roi)[49]

Final military and diplomatic accomplishments (1658–1661)

The last years of Mazarin's life, between 1658 and his death in 1661, were marked by a series of major diplomatic victories, including the marriage of Louis XIV. In 1658, after long and intense preparation, Mazarin unveiled the League of the Rhine, a new group of fifty small German principalities which were now linked by a treaty with France. They promised not to allow enemy forces pass through them to invade France. This treaty weakened both the old Holy Roman Empire and the Austrian Empire of the Habsburgs, This gave a new measure of security to France's eastern border.[50] In the same month, Marshal Turenne decisively defeated the army of Condé at the Battle of the Dunes in Flanders. This marked the end of the threats to France from the north, from the Spanish Netherlands.[50]

Negotiation of a draft peace treaty between France and Spain took place between February and June 1659, but many critical details remained unresolved. Mazarin and Spain's Dom Luis de Haro personally took charge of the negotiations on 13 August. Their conferences, which continued for three months, were held on the French-Spanish border on the island of Faisans, midway between French Hendaye and Spanish Fuenterrabía, in the river Bidassoa.[51] The resulting Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed on 7 November 1659 and added Artois, Cerdanya, and Roussillon as new provinces of France. It also provided for an even more important diplomatic event carefully arranged by Mazarin, the marriage of Louis XIV with Maria Theresa of Spain, the French celebration of which followed in June 1660 in nearby Saint-Jean-de-Luz. The couple made a triumphant entry into Paris on 26 August 1660. This marriage and accompanying agreements ended, at least for a time, the long and costly wars between the Austrians and France.[50]

Mazarin, as the de facto ruler of France, played a crucial role in establishing the Westphalian principles that would guide European states' foreign policy and the prevailing world order. Some of these principles, such as the nation state's sovereignty over its territory and domestic affairs and the legal equality among states, remain the basis of international law to this day.

Death

 
Tomb of Mazarin in the Institut de France

In his last months, Mazarin resided mainly in the Louvre Palace. A large fire broke out in the Gallery of Apollo, the main picture gallery of the Louvre, and destroyed many pictures, greatly upsetting Mazarin. It was the beginning of his decline. When his doctor informed him that his end was near, Mazarin asked, "How long?" The Doctor replied "two months." Mazarin responded, "That's enough."[52]

Mazarin had already prepared several wills. Knowing that his enemies at court were telling Louis XIV that he was taking money that belonged rightfully to the King, his first will, which he made public, cleverly left all of his fortune to Louis XIV. Mazarin probably calculated that the King would be too embarrassed to take all of his mentor's and chief Minister's wealth. The King waited for three days, then refused to accept it. Mazarin had also prepared a different will, which left a large sum for the establishment of the Collège des Quatre-Nations, which he had founded for students from the four new provinces which he had added to the territory of France by the Treaty of Westphalia. The college, now the Institut de France, was eventually built directly across the Seine from the Louvre, where it is visible from the Palace. Mazarin asked that his remains be interred there, where they rest today in a marble monument beneath the dome. The college is home to the five French academies, including the Academie Française.

The Mazarinettes

Mazarin did not have children, but he did have seven nieces: five from the Mancini family (daughters of his sister Girolama) and two from the Martinozzi family (daughters of his sister Laura). The nieces all moved to Paris, and Mazarin devoted care to arranging marriages for them, always with wealthy and aristocratic families. The nieces were known for their beauty, wit and ambition, and became known as the Mazarinettes.

Laura Mancini was the eldest of the five famous Mancini sisters. She married Louis de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, grandson of King Henry IV, and was the mother of the great general the Duke of Vendôme. Both Olympia Mancini and Marie Mancini had romantic relationships with the young Louis XIV. He wished to marry Marie, but was prevented by his mother and by Mazarin, who had greater plans to marry Louis to a princess of Spain. In 1657 Olympia was married to Prince Eugene of Savoy, and became the mother of Eugene of Savoy, a famous general for the Austrians. Marie became the wife of the Italian nobleman Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna, of the same family that had employed Mazarin's father as an intendant.[53] Hortense Mancini was married shortly before Mazarin's death to a nephew of Cardinal Richelieu, who thereafter took the title Duke Mazarin. After fleeing from her abusive marriage, Hortense became for a time the mistress of King Charles II of England. Marie Anne Mancini married the Duke of Bouillon soon after the death of Mazarin.[53]

As for the two Martinozzi sisters, Anne Marie Martinozzi married the Prince de Conti in 1654. Her sister Laura Martinozzi married Alfonso IV d'Este, Duke of Modena, and was the mother of Mary of Modena, who became Queen Consort of England as the wife of King James II.

In fiction

Notes and citations

  1. ^ "Mazarin". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins. from the original on 29 July 2019. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  2. ^ "Mazarin, Jules". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press.[dead link]
  3. ^ "Mazarin". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.). HarperCollins. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  4. ^ "Mazarin". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  5. ^ For "Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino or Mazarini", see Dethan 1991, p. 979. For "Giulio Mazzarino", see Poncet 2018, p. 24. For the surname "Mazarini", see Dethan 1959, p. 9; Dethan 1977, p. 11; Treasure 1995, p. 404. Some sources give his surname as "Mazzarini", for example, Buelow 2004, p. 158 2016-05-28 at the Wayback Machine or Viaggio del Cardinale Mazzarini a St Jean de Luz l'anno 1659 2021-06-27 at the Wayback Machine; others, as "Mazarino" (Dizionario italiano multimediale e multilingue d'Ortografia e di Pronunzia 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine or Il cardinale Mazarino 2021-06-27 at the Wayback Machine).
  6. ^ Poncet 2018, p. 24.
  7. ^ a b c d Dethan 1959, p. 10.
  8. ^ Parlett 1991, pp. 88/89.
  9. ^ Dethan 1959, p. 11.
  10. ^ Poncet 2018, p. 32.
  11. ^ Dethan 1959, p. 13.
  12. ^ Dethan 1959, p. 14.
  13. ^ a b Dethan 1959, p. 16.
  14. ^ Dethan 1959, p. 22.
  15. ^ a b Dethan 1959, p. 38.
  16. ^ a b Dethan 1959, p. 24.
  17. ^ Poncet 2018, p. 118.
  18. ^ Dethan 1959, pp. 42–43.
  19. ^ a b c Dethan 1959, p. 45.
  20. ^ Dethan 1959, pp. 45–49.
  21. ^ Dethan 1959, pp. 47–49.
  22. ^ a b c Dethan 1959, pp. 50–51.
  23. ^ Bourbon-Busset 1959, p. 53.
  24. ^ O'Connor 1978, p. 5-9.
  25. ^ Jones, Colin (1994-10-20). The Cambridge Illustrated History of France (1st ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 196. ISBN 978-0-521-43294-8.
  26. ^ This section draws upon the chapter "Le vaincu de la Fronde deviant monarque absolu" by Jacques de Bourbon-Busset in Mazarin, edited by Georges Mongrédien (Bourbon-Busset 1959, pp. 53–81).
  27. ^ Bourbon-Busset 1959, p. 54.
  28. ^ a b Bourbon-Busset 1959, p. 56.
  29. ^ Bourbon-Busset 1959, pp. 56–58.
  30. ^ Bourbon-Busset 1959, pp. 59–60.
  31. ^ a b c Bourbon-Busset 1959, pp. 60–61.
  32. ^ a b Bourbon-Busset 1959, p. 75.
  33. ^ Bourbon-Busset 1959, p. 76.
  34. ^ a b Goubert 1990, p. 434.
  35. ^ a b c Goubert 1990, p. 439.
  36. ^ Goubert 1990, p. 439-443.
  37. ^ Goubert 1990, p. 478.
  38. ^ a b c Poncet 2018, p. 92.
  39. ^ Georges Dethan, "Mazarin, Jules, Cardinal" in The New Encyclopædia Britannica (15th edition, Chicago, 1991) vol. 7, p. 979.
  40. ^ Cosnac, Les richesses du palais Mazarin (1884) 2018-12-28 at the Wayback Machine.
  41. ^ Colombier 1959, p. 113.
  42. ^ Thackray, Anne (1996). "Mazarin family (1) Cardinal Jules Mazarin [Giulio Mazarini]", vol. 20, pp. 895–896 2018-12-29 at the Wayback Machine, in The Dictionary of Art (34 vols.), edited by Jane Turner. New York: Grove. ISBN 9781884446009.
  43. ^ Braham, Allan; Smith, Peter (1973). François Mansart, p. 71. London: A. Zwemmer. ISBN 9780302022511; Ayers, Andrew (2004). The Architecture of Paris, p. 58. Stuttgart; London: Edition Axel Menges. ISBN 9783930698967; Sauval, Henri (1724). Histoire et recherches des antiquite's de la ville de Paris, vol. 2, pp. 172–180 2022-06-01 at the Wayback Machine. Paris: Charles Moette; Jacques Chardon.
  44. ^ Banham, Martin (1995). The Cambridge Guide to the Theatre, second edition. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521434379.
  45. ^ James R. Anthony (1992), "Mazarin, Cardinal Jules Mazzarini, Giulio Raimondo 2018-12-28 at the Wayback Machine", Grove Music Online.
  46. ^ Aronson, Arnold; Roy, Donald (1995). "Torelli, Giacomo", pp. 1116–1117 in The Cambridge Guide to the Theatre, second edition, edited by Martin Banham. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521434379.
  47. ^ Poncet 2018, p. 92-93.
  48. ^ Mongrédien 1959, pp. 256–258.
  49. ^ a b Mongrédien 1959, p. 260.
  50. ^ a b c Mongrédien 1959, p. 292.
  51. ^ Bluche 1990, p. 86.
  52. ^ This section draws mainly upon "Chapter VI: Le vieille homme et le jeune Roi" by Jean d'Ormesson in Mazarin (Ormesson 1959, pp. 201–225).
  53. ^ a b Colombier 1959, pp. 130–143.
  54. ^ Paris (novel), pp. 458-460 and p. 493, Ballantine Books Trade Paperback Edition (2014)

Books cited in text

  • Bluche, François (1990). Louis XIV. New York: Franklin Watts. ISBN 9780531151129.
  • Buelow, George J. (2004). A history of baroque music. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-34365-9.
  • Bourbon-Busset, Jacques de (1959). "Chapitre II: Le vaincu de la Fronde devient monarque absolu". In Mongrédien, Georges (ed.). Mazarin (in French). Paris: Hachette. pp. 53–81. OCLC 742625187.
  • Colombier, Pierre du (1959). "Chapitre IV: Le Premier ministre se fait l'ambassadeur de l'art italien". In Mongrédien, Georges (ed.). Mazarin (in French). Paris: Hachette. pp. 113–151. OCLC 742625187.
  • Dethan, Georges (1959). "Chapitre I: Le jeune Monsignore à la conquête de Richelieu". In Mongrédien, Georges (ed.). Mazarin (in French). Paris: Hachette. pp. 7–51. OCLC 742625187.
  • Dethan, Georges (1977). The Young Mazarin. Translated by Baron, Stanley. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 9780500870044.
  • Dethan, Georges (1991). "Mazarin, Jules, Cardinal". The New Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (15th ed.). Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. pp. 979–980. ISBN 0-85229-529-4.
  • Goubert, Pierre (1990). Mazarin (in French). Paris: Fayard. ISBN 2-213-01650-X.
  • Mongrédien, Georges (1959). "Chapitre VIII: Le rideau s'est levé sur le Grand Siècle". In Mongrédien, Georges (ed.). Mazarin (in French). Paris: Hachette. pp. 255–292. OCLC 742625187.
  • O'Connor, John T. (1978). Negotiator Out of Season: Career of Wilhelm Egon Von Furstenberg, 1629–1704. Athens, GA: U of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-0436-6.
  • Ormesson, Jean d' (1959). "Chapitre VI: Le vieil homme et le jeune Roi". In Mongrédien, Georges (ed.). Mazarin (in French). Paris: Hachette. pp. 201–225. OCLC 742625187.
  • Parlett, David (1991). A History of Card Games. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-282905-X.
  • Poncet, Olivier (2018). Mazarin l'Italien (in French). Paris: Tallandier. ISBN 979-10-210-3105-0.
  • Treasure, Geoffrey (1995). Mazarin: The Crisis of Absolutism in France. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-014573.

Further reading

  • Bonney, R. "The Paradox of Mazarin." History Today 32. (Feb 1982): 18–24.
  • Bonney, Richard. "Cardinal Mazarin and the great nobility during the Fronde." English Historical Review 96.381 (1981): 818–833.
  • Bonney, Richard. Society And Government In France Under Richelieu And Mazarin 1624–61 (Springer, 1988).
  • Ekberg, Carl J. "Abel Servien, Cardinal Mazarin, and the Formulation of French Foreign Policy, 1653–1659." International History Review 3.3 (1981): 317–329.
  • Haffemayer, Stéphane. "Mazarin, Information and Communication During the Fronde (1648–1653)." Media History 22.3-4 (2016): 386–400.
  • Hassall, Arthur. Mazarin (1903)
  • Perkins, James Breck (1886). France Under Mazarin (2 volumes). New York: Putnam. Vols. 1 & 2 at Internet Archive.
  • Sonnino, Paul. Mazarin's Quest: The Congress of Westphalia and the Coming of the Fronde (Harvard UP, 2008O. 307 pp
  • Wilkinson, Richard. "Cardinal Mazarin" History Today (April 1996) 46#4 pp 39–45.

External links

  •   Media related to Jules Cardinal Mazarin at Wikimedia Commons
  • Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Jules Mazarin" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

cardinal, mazarin, cardinal, jules, mazarin, also, french, ʒyl, mazaʁɛ, july, 1602, march, 1661, born, giulio, raimondo, mazzarino, italian, ˈdʒuːljo, raiˈmondo, maddzaˈriːno, mazarini, italian, cardinal, diplomat, politician, served, chief, minister, kings, f. Cardinal Jules Mazarin ˈ m ae z e r ɪ n 1 also UK ˈ m ae z e r ae 2 US ˌ m ae z e ˈ r ae 3 4 French ʒyl mazaʁɛ 14 July 1602 9 March 1661 born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino Italian ˈdʒuːljo raiˈmondo maddzaˈriːno or Mazarini 5 was an Italian cardinal diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Louis XIII and Louis XIV from 1642 to his death In 1654 he acquired the title Duke of Mayenne and in 1659 that of 1st Duke of Rethel and Nevers His EminenceCardinal MazarinPortrait of Jules Mazarin by Pierre Mignard 1658 First Minister of StateIn office 4 December 1642 9 March 1661MonarchsLouis XIIIQueen Anne regent Louis XIVPreceded byThe Duke of RichelieuSucceeded byJean Baptiste ColbertPersonal detailsBornGiulio Raimondo Mazzarino 1602 07 14 14 July 1602Pescina Abruzzo Ultra Kingdom of NaplesDied9 March 1661 1661 03 09 aged 58 Vincennes Ile de France FranceAlma materRoman CollegeProfessionClergyman statesmanCardinal Bishop of MetzMetropolisImmediately Subject to the Holy SeeDioceseMetzSeeMetzAppointed29 November 1653Term ended1658PredecessorHenri de BourbonSuccessorFranz Egon of FurstenbergOther post s Abbot of Cluny 1654 1661 OrdersCreated cardinal16 December 1641by Pope Urban VIIIRankCardinal deaconPersonal detailsDenominationRoman CatholicMottoFirmando firmior haeretHinc ordo hinc copia rerumSignatureStyles of Jules Raymond MazarinReference styleHis EminenceSpoken styleYour EminenceInformal styleCardinalSeeMetzAfter serving as a papal diplomat for Pope Urban VIII Mazarin offered his diplomatic services to Cardinal Richelieu and moved to Paris in 1640 After the death of Richelieu in 1642 Mazarin took his place as first minister and then of Louis XIII in 1643 Mazarin acted as the head of the government for Anne of Austria the regent for the young Louis XIV Mazarin was also made responsible for the king s education until he came of age The first years of Mazarin in office were marked by military victories in the Thirty Years War which he used to make France the main European power and establish the Peace of Westphalia 1646 1648 A major uprising against Anne of Austria and Mazarin called the Fronde and led by the nobles of the Parliament of Paris broke out in Paris in 1648 followed by a second Fronde led by Louis Grand Conde who had turned from his chief ally to his chief enemy Mazarin took Anne of Austria and Louis XIV out of Paris and then shifted his base to Germany for a time Turenne a general loyal to Louis XIV and Mazarin defeated Conde and Mazarin made a triumphal return to Paris in 1653 The last years of Mazarin s life between 1657 and his death in 1661 were marked by a series of major diplomatic victories In 1657 he made a military alliance with England In 1658 he unveiled the League of the Rhine a new group of 50 small German principalities which were now linked by a treaty with France The same year Marshal Turenne decisively defeated the army of Conde at the Battle of the Dunes in Flanders Between February and June 1659 Mazarin conducted intensive negotiations with the Spanish On 7 November 1659 Spain signed the Treaty of the Pyrenees which added Artois the Cerdagne and Roussillon as new provinces of France That was followed in June 1660 by an even more important diplomatic event that had been carefully arranged by Mazarin the marriage of Louis XIV with Maria Theresa of Spain The marriage took place in Saint Jean de Luz The couple made a triumphant entry into Paris on 26 August 1660 The marriage and accompanying agreements ended at least for a time the long and costly wars between the Habsburgs and France Exhausted by his diplomatic efforts Mazarin died in 1661 Mazarin as the de facto ruler of France for nearly two decades played a crucial role in establishing the Westphalian principles that would guide European states foreign policy and the prevailing world order Some of the principles such as the nation state s sovereignty over its territory and domestic affairs and the legal equality among states have remained the basis of international law to this day In addition to his diplomacy Mazarin was an important patron of the arts He introduced Italian opera on a grand scale to Paris and assembled a remarkable art collection much of which today can be seen in the Louvre He also founded the Bibliotheque Mazarine the first true public library in France which is now found in the Institut de France across the Seine from the Louvre Contents 1 Early life 2 Papal envoy 3 Cardinal and deputy of Richelieu 4 Chief minister of France Diplomacy 5 Discontent The Fronde 1648 53 5 1 The Fronde of the Parliament 5 2 The Fronde of the Princes 6 Financing the Kingdom Fouquet and Colbert 7 Patron of the arts 8 Educator of Louis XIV 9 Final military and diplomatic accomplishments 1658 1661 10 Death 11 The Mazarinettes 12 In fiction 13 Notes and citations 14 Books cited in text 15 Further reading 16 External linksEarly life EditGiulio Mazzarino was born on 14 July 1602 in Pescina in the Abruzzo province of Italy about one hundred twenty kilometers from Rome His parents were residents of Rome spending the summer in Pescina to escape the summer heat 6 His father Pietro Mazzarino 1576 1654 had moved to Rome from Sicily in 1590 to become a chamberlain in the family of Filippo I Colonna the Grand Constable of Naples 7 His father became a citizen of Rome in 1608 His mother Ortensia Bufalini 1575 1644 was a native of Rome from the Bufalini family of nobility whose origins were in Citta di Castello in Umbria The family had moved to Rome in the Middle Ages She was the goddaughter of Filippo I Colonna her husband s employer Giulio was the eldest of six children two boys and four girls 7 Through the influence of the Colonnas Giulio was admitted at the age of seven to the Jesuit College in Rome the most respected school in the city Though he declined to join their order he excelled in his studies In 1618 at the age of sixteen he gave a public lecture on theories explaining Halley s comet which appeared in that year He also excelled in theatrics he was chosen to play the part of the newly sainted Ignatius of Loyola in a religious pageant He also acquired the habit of gambling at cards and frequently was in debt 7 A particular favourite game of his was a variant of Hoc named after him Hoc Mazarin 8 When he was twenty his father decided to send him away from the bad influences of Rome Giulio accompanied Girolamo Colonna one of the sons of Filippo I Colonna who was eighteen to the Complutense University of Madrid then located in Alcala de Henares in Spain He studied law with Girolamo during the daytime and in the evenings continued to gamble and again was in debt A notary who had advanced some cash to cover gaming debts urged the charming and personable young Mazarino to take his daughter as bride with a substantial dowry and Giulio accepted Girolamo Colonna wrote urgently to his father in Rome and Giulio was ordered to return immediately to Rome without his fiancee 9 Papal envoy EditUpon his return to Rome he resumed his studies this time in law In 1628 he received the title of doctor in utroque jure meaning he could practice both civil and canonical law 10 In the same year Ferdinand II the Habsburg emperor laid claim to a papal territory the Valtellina in the Italian alps Pope Urban VIII raised an army to defend his territory The Prince of Palestrina who was also a member of the Colonna family commanded a new regiment of the Papal army and invited Giulio to become a lieutenant in the regiment Since neither the regiment nor Giulio had any military experience they were assigned to a town far from the front line Giulio knew little of military discipline He received a message from Rome informing that his mother was seriously ill Without asking permission from his commander he immediately rode to Rome and stayed there until his mother had recovered He was summoned before the Pope Urban VIII to explain why he had deserted his post He threw himself at the feet of the Pope and pleaded to be pardoned for his excess of loyalty to his family The Pope was impressed by Giulio s spontaneity and eloquence forgave his desertion and invited him to become a Papal emissary 11 In 1628 Mazarin was named the secretary to Jean Francois Sacchetti a senior papal diplomat who was trying to prevent the impending War of the Mantuan Succession between the armies of France and Spain for dominance of that region of northern Italy 7 Throughout 1629 and 1630 he shuttled between Milan Mantua Turin Casale and France trying to find a solution to the crisis before the fighting began This became throughout his career his standard method of diplomacy traveling continually getting to know and win the trust of as many decision makers as possible 12 During this time he came to know Cardinal Francesco Barberini the head of diplomacy for the papacy and more important Cardinal Richelieu of France his future mentor whom he first met in Lyon on 29 January 1630 Richelieu was aloof and confrontational he wrote afterwards This Mazarini is here more to spy than to negotiate He is so Spanish and so Savoyard that what he says shouldn t be taken as gospel truth 13 Mazarin carrying the peace agreement to the armies at Casale crying Peace Peace 18th century engraving Richelieu at first decided to ignore Mazarin s diplomacy and to send the French army across the Alps into Italy On 26 October 1630 the French and Spanish armies met outside the walls of the French held town of Casale ready to fight Suddenly a man on horseback with a flag appeared galloping toward them crying Pace Pace Peace Peace It was Mazarin carrying an agreement from the Spanish commander to evacuate their soldiers from the town if the French would leave Montferrat to Charles Gonzaga Duke of Mantua Mazarin brought together the Spanish and French commanders and explained the terms of the agreement which were readily accepted by both sides Mazarin had achieved his first diplomatic success 13 The result of Mazarin s first diplomatic efforts was the Treaty of Cherasco 6 April 1631 in which the Emperor and the Duke of Savoy recognized the possession of Mantua and part of Monferrat by Charles Gonzaga and the French occupation of the strategic stronghold of Pinerolo the gate to the valley of the Po to the great satisfaction of Richelieu and King Louis XIII of France The Pope sent Mazarin to Paris at the beginning of 1631 to work out the final details of the agreement He returned to France again from April to July 1632 He had his first interview with Lous XIII and with the Queen Anne of Austria in May 1632 He tried to persuade Louis XIII to send a military expedition to capture Geneva the fortress of the Protestant movement but the King who had good relations with the Swiss cantons rejected the idea Mazarin returned to Rome in November 1632 and made a new friend and ally Antonio Barberini the nephew of the Pope and one of his chief diplomats and his older brother Francesco Barberini the Cardinal Secretary of State With their assistance he established himself as a guardian of French interests in Rome and then of papal interests in France In 1632 he was named papal vice legate at Avignon appointed a prelate and began to wear ecclesiastical dress though he was not and never became a priest 14 Mazarin as a papal envoy in Paris 1632 While in Rome Mazarin sent regular gifts of flowers perfumes and delicacies to the women of the French court and more valuable gifts including statues and Renaissance paintings to Richelieu 15 In 1634 he was named nuncio extraordinary to Paris by Urban VIII and entrusted with the mission of persuading Louis XIII to undertake a grand naval crusade against the Turks The goal was to create a combined fleet of the ships of Christian nations to seize the Turkish ports around the Mediterranean Mazarin a realist knew that given the rivalries between European powers this project would never take place A new crisis arrived on 19 May 1635 France declared war on the Habsburg rulers of Austria and Spain Mazarin wrote later that he had done his best to persuade Richelieu to avoid a war He wrote that in March 1635 he gave Richelieu all his reasons to maintain the peace His Eminence told me as he stood up Mazarin wrote that I courted Peace as if she were the woman of my dreams Then he shook my hand and concluded You are no longer on the side of France 16 Mazarin returned to Avignon on 7 April 1636 17 During all of his negotiations Mazarin was very careful not to be too critical of the French court and Richelieu and they remained in contact In November 1636 he left Avignon to return to Rome carrying instructions from Richelieu that made him a discreet ambassador for the king of France 15 The atmosphere within the papal curia was hostile to France and to Richelieu Spanish priests occupied many positions in the hierarchy and they considered him with reason an agent of France When the Pope refused to send him back to France or to represent the papacy at a peace conference he wrote I am not a subject of the King of France but I believe I can truly say that the declarations of the Spanish have declared me to be French so that with justice one can say that France is my country 16 His position in Rome was increasingly difficult He had the affection of Pope Urban VIII but he was disliked by Cardinal Barberini the chief of Papal diplomacy and by the large contingent of Spaniards in the papal household He spent his time collecting sculpture and other works of art which he sent to Richelieu for the Cardinal s new palace in Paris He considered serving the rulers of Savoy Poland or Queen Henriette of England but in the end he decided to enter the service of Richelieu and France However Richelieu was in no hurry to bring him to Paris he valued the diplomatic contributions Mazarin was making in Rome as well as the art treasures he was acquiring He kept Mazarin in Rome for two more years Richelieu did one important favor for Mazarin in October 1638 he put forward Mazarin s name as a candidate for Cardinal when the next vacancy opened up In December 1638 when a sitting Cardinal died Mazarin was nominated as a Cardinal He had to wait the entire year of 1639 before his new position was confirmed Then on 14 December 1639 he departed Rome for the port of Civitavecchia boarded an armed French ship to Marseille and then traveled from Lyon to Paris where he arrived on 5 January 1640 18 Cardinal and deputy of Richelieu Edit Portrait of Cardinal Jules Mazarin by Simon Vouet before 1649 private collection When he arrived in Paris Mazarin was welcomed warmly by the King by Richelieu and by the Queen Anne of Austria to whom Mazarin had regularly sent perfumes fans gloves and other gifts The Queen was at this time pregnant with her second child and it was already anticipated that she would be the regent when King Louis XIII died 19 Mazarin advised Richelieu on both political and cultural matters He recommended artists to bring from Rome to Paris and in 1640 he commissioned a bust of Richelieu from the sculptor Bernini in Rome sending Bernini pictures of Richelieu The bust of Richelieu arrived in August 1641 Mazarin declared that it was perfect so lifelike that as he wrote it seemed about to speak but French tastes did not approve of the Baroque style The other members of the Court condemned the work and Mazarin wrote back to Bernini sending him more pictures of Richelieu and asking him to try again 19 Richelieu sent Mazarin on several delicate diplomatic missions including a long trip to Savoy to straighten out the tangled political affairs there the regency of Christine the Duchess of Savoy and sister of Louis XIII was challenged by her brothers in law the princes Maurice and Thomas of Savoy See Piedmontese Civil War Mazarin successfully secured Christine s position and established a solid alliance between Savoy and France This task kept him away from Paris for nine months until June 1641 On 16 December 1641 though he had not reached his fortieth birthday he received what he most desired he was formally made a Cardinal 19 He had established a cordial relationship with Richelieu Richelieu jokingly referred to him as Rinzama an anagram of his name or Nunzinicardo dear little envoy or most frequently Colmarduccio or Colmardo When was asked what it meant he translated into French as Frere Coupechou the term for a junior candidate monk who was assigned to chop cabbage in the kitchen of the abbey However he did not send Mazarin on the mission that he most wanted as delegate of France to a Europe wide peace conference Richelieu s attention was devoted to making war Richelieu who was elderly and in poor health took the King who was also in poor health the court and Mazarin on a series of long military expeditions to suppress a rebellion in Catalonia to capture Roussillon and in January 1642 to lay siege to Narbonne 20 On 11 June 1642 while in Tarascon on one of the long military expeditions Mazarin was presented with evidence that Gaston Duke of Orleans the brother of Louis XIII and the Marquis of Cinq Mars one of the King s closest advisors had made a secret agreement with the King of Spain without the knowledge of Richelieu or the King It appeared probable that the Queen Anne of Austria was also aware of this secret betrayal of Richelieu but did not tell him or the King Cinq Mars was arrested Gaston was disgraced and another conspirator the Duke of Bouillon was granted a pardon on the condition of revealing all the details of the plot to Mazarin and surrendering the important fortress of Sedan to the King Mazarin did not reveal the participation of the Queen in the conspiracy but his knowledge gave him even greater leverage at the court 21 The destruction of the conspiracy against the King was one of the last acts of Cardinal Richelieu He fell ill and died on 4 December 1642 Chief minister of France Diplomacy Edit Anne of Austria with her children Louis XIV of France and Philippe Duke of Orleans unknown artist The succession of Mazarin to the position of chief minister of Louis XIII was not automatic or immediate Despite the accounts of some later historians Richelieu did not name Mazarin as his successor Richelieu did according to Mazarin himself advise the King to employ Mazarin who until that time had no official position at Court 22 After the death of Richelieu Louis XIII named three prominent figures to advise him Francois Sublet de Noyers Leon Bouthillier comte de Chavigny and Mazarin Mazarin and de Chavigny immediately joined together to get rid of de Noyers They hinted to the King that de Noyers had secretly made an agreement with Anne of Austria to make her the regent of France after the King s death The King who had little love for the Queen and in his will had refused to make her his Regent was furious de Noyers was forced to resign on 10 April 1643 22 Louis XIII died 14 May 1643 just five months after Richelieu His successor Louis XIV was just four years old The King had specifically instructed that his wife Anne of Austria not rule in his place as regent However as soon as he was dead she applied to the body of nobles known as the Parliament of Paris and had his will annulled She was declared Regent on 18 May The Queen had a particular dislike of de Chavigny the other chief advisor chosen by Louis XIII He had been close to Richelieu and was the only real rival in experience to Mazarin The evening that she became regent she declared that Mazarin would be her chief minister and head of her government 22 The management style of Mazarin was entirely different from that of Richelieu The contrast was described by Cardinal Retz the future enemy of Mazarin in his Memoires One saw on the steps of the throne where the sharp and fearsome Richelieu had thundered rather than governed the people a leader who is gentle benevolent and demands nothing He has the spirit the insinuation the playfulness the manners but also a certain laziness 23 Cardinal Retz and other rivals in the court underestimated Mazarin s skills energy and determination Mazarin continued Richelieu s costly war against the chief rivals of France in Europe the Habsburgs of Austria and Spain The victories of Conde and Turenne finally brought Austria to the bargaining table and ended the Thirty Years War with the Peace of Westphalia 1646 48 Mazarin s policies also added Alsace though not Strasbourg to France He settled Protestant princes in secularized bishoprics and abbacies in reward for their political opposition to the Habsburgs building a network of French influence as a buffer in the western part of the Empire In 1657 he made an attempt to get Louis XIV elected as Holy Roman Emperor 24 In 1658 he formed the League of the Rhine which was designed to check the House of Austria in central Germany In 1659 he made peace with Habsburg Spain in the Peace of the Pyrenees which added to French territory Roussillon and northern Cerdanya as French Cerdagne in the far south as well as part of the Low Countries Towards Protestantism at home Mazarin pursued a policy of promises and calculated delay to defuse the armed insurrection of the Ardeche 1653 for example and to keep the Huguenots disarmed for six years they believed themselves to be on the eve of recovering the protections of the Edict of Nantes but in the end they obtained nothing There was constant friction with the pontificate of the Spanish Cardinal Pamphilj elected Pope on 15 September 1644 as Innocent X Mazarin protected the Barberini cardinals nephews of the late Pope and the Bull against them was voted by the Parlement of Paris null and abusive France made a show of preparing to take Avignon by force and Innocent backed down Mazarin was more consistently an enemy of Jansenism in particular during the formulary controversy more for its political implications than out of theology On his deathbed he warned young Louis not to tolerate the Jansenist sect not even their name After his death Louis XIV did not appoint a new principal minister and instead governed himself marking the beginning of a new era of centralized government in France 25 Discontent The Fronde 1648 53 EditMain article The Fronde Mazarin s long war against the Habsburgs the final part of the Thirty Years War was successful but the cost was enormous Resentment grew against the Spanish Queen and her Italian prime minister and culminated in the Fronde a rebellion against the government by members of the nobility and discontented citizens of Paris which lasted from 1648 until 1653 26 Mazarin was forced to raise money by any means possible to support the war against the Habsburgs His financial counselor was Michel Particelli d Emery also Italian When taxes loans and the sale of titles did not bring in enough he sought new sources of income He discovered an old law dating to Henry IV which forbade Parisians to build houses outside the city limits Since the city had grown well outside its old boundaries in 1644 he imposed heavy fines on all those who lived outside the city limits In addition he taxed all merchandise being brought into the city One measure caused particular resentment among the nobility he imposed a special tax on all the nobles who served on the various royal courts and councils amounting to four years of their fees 27 The Fronde of the Parliament Edit An anti Mazarin cartoon from the Fronde about 1650 The caption reads Despite Mazarin the frondeurs assure the safety of the state The center of resistance was the Paris parlement an ancient assembly of nobles which served as a high court of appeals It was a period of rebellion against monarchs across Europe independence movements appeared in the Spanish provinces of Catalonia and Portugal a revolutionary seized power in Naples and Charles I of England the brother in law of Louis XIII was deposed and executed in 1649 In Paris the members of the parlement called a special session to debate Mazarin s measures The meeting was forbidden by Regent Anne of Austria but went ahead anyway The parlement issued a charter inspired by the writ of Habeas Corpus in England which revoked the authority of the King s justice officials forbade any new taxes without the approval of the parlement and declared that no royal subjects could be imprisoned without due process of law 28 Mazarin recommended to the Queen that she listen to the parlement and modify her decrees but she was furious at their opposition She waited until the right moment to strike back The occasion she chose was the celebration of a major victory of the French Army over the Spanish at the Battle of Lens in Belgium on 26 August 1648 On the day that a special mass was held at the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris to celebrate the victory she gave orders to the Captain of her guards to arrest the leaders of the parlement including the popular Pierre Broussel News of the arrest quickly spread in Paris and crowds came out into the street to protest and to build barricades That evening Mazarin wrote in his journal the parlement has performed the functions of the King and the people have deferred to it entirely 28 During the Fronde the anti Mazarin crowds of Paris enjoyed listening to Mazarinades popular songs with verses mocking the Cardinal Dozens were written and published accusing him of virtually all possible faults and crimes Mazarin had a sense of humor and when the Fronde was finished he had the best Mazarinades collected and performed in a concert at his palace The rebellion lasted for three years It took its popular name Fronde from the children s slings frondes which were used by the mobs in the Paris streets to hurl stones It combined the anger of the Parisians against the new taxes with the resentment of the nobility against the reduction of their ancient privileges It was led over time by an odd assortment of allies Gaston d Orleans the brother of Louis XIII Louis II de Bourbon Prince de Conde a brilliant general but poor politician and the Cardinal Paul de Gondi a consummate intriguer Each of them had different goals but all agreed that Mazarin should fall 29 When the Fronde began the French Army commanded by the Prince de Conde was far from Paris fighting the Austrians Mazarin quickly sent an envoy to the Emperor in Vienna calling for a truce and peace conference The Peace of Westphalia ending the war was signed 24 October 1648 Despite the peace disturbances continued in the streets of Paris During the night of January 6 1649 Mazarin secretly took the young Louis XIV Anne of Austria and the court to the safety of the Chateau de Saint Germain en Laye just west of Paris Mazarin then set to work intriguing to divide the different factions of the Fronde His goal was to separate the members of the Parlement and the more radical Parisian street demonstrators who were united only by their dislike of Mazarin and Anne of Austria 30 As soon as the war was concluded he brought Conde and his army back to Paris and placed the city under blockade He then persuaded the Parlement that they had more to fear from an uprising of the Parisiens than they did from him On 14 March 1649 Mazarin accepted many of the reforms demanded by the Parlement In return the Parlement supporters laid down their weapons and allowed Anne of Austria the young Louis XIV and Mazarin to return to Paris 31 The Fronde of the Princes Edit Louis the Prince de Conde leader of the second Fronde The Parlement accepted Mazarin and his government but the Fronde was still not finished Many frondeurs were unhappy with the compromise reached in 1649 Once in Paris Conde made endless demands on Anne of Austria until she finally angrily dismissed him One of the other leaders of the Fronde Jean Francois Paul de Gondi soon persuaded Conde to join him in bringing down both Mazarin and Anne of Austria Mazarin had an excellent network of agents and immediately learned of the plot On 18 January 1650 Mazarin had Conde Conde s brother Armand de Bourbon prince de Conti and his brother in law Henri II d Orleans duc de Longueville arrested 31 The agreements of 1649 had brought peace to Paris but the unrest of the Fronde continued in other parts of France Opponents of Mazarin disrupted tax collection and administration As the rebellion grew Mazarin observed that the rebels were only united in opposition to him He decided it was wisest to resign his position and leave France while he could He had Conde freed from prison and after a long journey to different cities settled in Bruhl near Cologne as the guest of the Archbishop Elector of Cologne 31 From Germany he sent daily instructions to Anne of Austria and to his agents in France The strategy was to sow distrust among the different factions of the Fronde Mazarin s instructions were carried out meticulously by Anne of Austria His intrigues succeeded in preventing the proposed marriage between one of the leading Frondeurs the Armand de Bourbon Prince of Conti with Princess Charlotte Marie of Lorraine Mademoiselle de Chevreuse another of his principal enemies in Paris He was greatly aided by the political ineptitude of Conde who offended many of his natural allies Mazarin urged Anne of Austria to bring him back to Paris as soon as possible to correct the greatest attack ever made against the royal authority 32 Battle between the Fronde forces of the Prince de Conde and the army loyal to Anne of Austria and Mazarin Once back in Paris Mazarin soon made an alliance with his old enemy Cardinal Jean Francois Paul de Gondi Conde departed to Bordeaux to gather reinforcements He raised an army of Spanish and French soldiers and marched on Paris arriving on 2 July The soldiers loyal to the Queen commanded by Turenne were waiting and trapped Conde s army against the walls of Paris An ally of Conde the Grande Mademoiselle ordered the gates of the city opened to rescue Conde s army The battle was witnessed from the hills of Charonne by the young Louis XIV 32 As soon as Conde s soldiers entered Paris he demanded an immediate purge of Mazarin s supporters Riots broke out around the Bastille and were suppressed with great difficulty The Presidents of the Parlement now allies of Mazarin demanded that the violence be stopped and that Conde take his army out of Paris Reluctantly Conde left the city going to the Spanish Netherlands pursued by Turenne Louis XIV now of age to claim his throne re entered Paris in October 1652 accompanied by his mother and by Turenne Mazarin had to wait longer to make his return which was carefully orchestrated with his help The Parlement de Paris was first transferred by Anne of Austria from Paris to Pontoise to see how many members would accept her authority A majority appeared at the meeting Following the prepared plan the Parlement respectfully asked that Mazarin be dismissed and Anne of Austria agreed Mazarin knowing this was the plan accepted this decision and waited a respectful time in exile He made his return to Paris in February 1653 He was welcomed with a triumphal banquet at the Hotel de Ville where crowds earlier had demanded his downfall 33 Financing the Kingdom Fouquet and Colbert Edit Nicolas Fouquet the Superintendent of Finances Finding money was a primary preoccupation for Mazarin throughout his entire time as first minister His new taxes on Parisians and the nobility had provoked the first Fronde but the end of the Fronde did not resolve the problem The government had borrowed huge amounts to finance the campaigns against the first Fronde and against Conde and also had to pay for the continual travels of the Regent and the young King and the elaborate festivities parades and cavalcades that accompanied their travel and every major event The royal budget for 1653 was about 109 million livres which amounted to eight hundred tons of silver or sixty tons of gold Expenditures were the greatest between 1656 and 1659 Twenty seven agreements were made with bankers who loaned the government 98 million livres to supplement the money collected through ordinary taxes 34 Following the death of his first finance minister La Vieuville on 2 February 1653 Mazarin chose a new minister Nicolas Fouquet At the age of twenty five Fouquet had inherited a very large fortune after the death of his young first wife and an even greater fortune when he married the second time to Marie Madeleine de Castille whose family was one of the wealthiest in Europe Fouquet began as a master of receipts at age twenty then an intendant to the army then Procuror General for the Parliament of Paris at the age of thirty five 35 Through his family connections Fouquet had amassed a fortune of three to four million livres One of the reasons for Fouquet s rapid rise was his willingness to lend very large sums to Mazarin for his various projects In November 1657 Mazarin needed 11 8 million livres to pay the Army of the North Fouquet drawing upon his wealthy relatives was able to provide the money In 1659 he provided another loan of five million livres 34 Jean Baptiste Colbert the enemy and successor of FouquetOne effect of the enormous amount of money in the market during the period of the Regency of Anne of Austria and Mazarin was a decline in the value of the Livre tournais the official coin of the realm lost twenty percent of its value against the Florin However without the money lent by Fouquet and other aristocratic financiers Louis XIV could never have accomplished his early military and diplomatic successes 36 The great rival of Fouquet was Jean Baptiste Colbert who was also recommended to Louis XIV and brought into the government by Mazarin Soon after he became an assistant to Mazarin he wrote a memoire to Mazarin claiming that of the taxes paid by the people not one half reached the King The paper also accused Fouquet of using royal funds for his own enrichment Mazarin did not defend Fouquet shortly before his own death he agreed that Fouquet had to go Shortly after Mazarin s death Fouquet was accused by Colbert of misuse of state funds his property was confiscated and he was put into prison until his death with Colbert eventually taking his place The personal fortune of Mazarin at the time of his death was immense amounting to 35 million livres not counting the sums he left to his nieces It exceeded the second greatest personal fortune of the century that of Richelieu worth some 20 million livres About one third of the personal fortune of Mazarin came from some twenty one abbeys around France each of which paid him an annual share of their revenue 37 Unlike members of the nobility he did not have any large estates his only real estate was the palace in Paris which he purchased in 1649 and added several surrounding houses It was valued at 1 2 million livres Thirty seven percent of his fortune was in easily transportable jewels and cash Within the ebony cabinets of his rooms at the Louvre his heirs found 450 pearls of high quality plus quantities of gold chains and crosses and rings with precious stones altogether adding another 400 000 livres 35 He left to his family jewels worth an estimated 2 5 million livres and gave a collection of diamonds worth 50 000 livres to the new Queen and a 14 carat diamond called The Rose of England valued at 73 000 livres to the Queen Mother The most valuable legacies of all including a set of eighteen diamonds known as the Mazarins worth two million livres were given to the young Louis XIV 35 Patron of the arts Edit Mazarin seated within the Gallery of his Palace 1659 Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione by Raphael purchased by Mazarin from Richelieu Torelli s set design for Act 5 of Pierre Corneille s Andromede as performed at the Petit Bourbon in 1650 Carved coat of arms of Mazarin on a bookcase in the Bibliotheque Mazarine in ParisMazarin was second only to Louis XIV as a patron of the arts in France in the 17th century 38 In 1648 he founded the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture 39 After his death in 1661 the inventory of his art collection at the Mazarin Palace recorded 858 paintings 128 statues 185 busts plus 150 carpets 514 pieces of jewelry and fine silver and 317 precious stones not counting the famous Mazarin diamonds which he left to Louis XIV 38 40 His collection included works by most of the major French and Italian artists of his time and before going back to the Renaissance His acquisitions included works by Poussin Rubens Corregio Van Dyck Titian and many others as well as the famous Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione by Raphael which had belonged to Charles I of England and had been bought by Richelieu Just before his death he visited his gallery for the last time with his deputy Brienne and told him Ah my poor friend I must leave all this Farewell dear paintings which cost me so much and which I so much loved Many of the paintings he owned are now in the Louvre 41 The Palais Mazarin Mazarin Palace was created by Mazarin beginning in 1643 soon after he became first minister when he rented four adjacent hotels on the north side of the Rue Neuve des Petits Champs between the Rue Vivienne to the east and the Rue de Richelieu on the west and across from the Palais Royal which was the King s residence He commissioned Francois Mansart to add a garden wing with two superimposed galleries running north from the west end of the easternmost building the Hotel Tubeuf where he could display his art Between 1645 and 1647 he commissioned the Italian painter Giovanni Francesco Romanelli to create scenes from the works of Ovid on the ceiling of the upper gallery although much modified now known as the Galerie Mazarine 42 In 1721 the Palais Mazarin became the site of the King s Library Bibliotheque du Roi now the Richelieu site of the Bibliotheque nationale de France 43 Mazarin spent little time in his Palace he lived most of the time in the Palais Royal when Louis XIV was in residence there or in the Louvre Near the end of his life he resided in the Chateau de Vincennes where he decorated a suite of rooms He also had the moats of the chateau turned into a kind of zoo with lions tigers bears and other exotic animals for the amusement of the young King 38 Mazarin also played an important role in bringing Italian music to Paris Before Mazarin Italian opera was very little known or appreciated in Paris Louis XIII Catherine de Medici and Marie de Medici had all brought Italian musicians to Paris but Mazarin did it more systematically and on a much larger scale After his arrival as a minister in 1643 he invited the famous soprano Leonora Baroni and the castrato Atto Melani Melani doubled as a diplomat Mazarin sent him on several secret missions to other courts in Europe 44 Due to Mazarin s efforts seven Italian operas were performed in Paris between 1645 and 1662 In 1645 Mazarin brought to Paris the famous scenery designer Giacomo Torelli who staged Sacrati s opera La finta pazza 45 In 1647 for Carnaval he staged a lavish production of the premiere of Orfeo by Luigi Rossi Later on Torelli became involved more in the ballet de cour than in opera reflecting the passion of the king for dancing Torelli s career in France came to a definitive end in 1661 when he worked on sets for Moliere s Les facheux presented by Nicholas Fouquet as part of his grand fete at Vaux le Vicomte in honor of the King the overly ostentatious display which ultimately led to Fouquet s imprisonment 46 Mazarin was also a famous collector of books In 1646 he brought to Paris his collection of nine thousand volumes which he installed in his residence It was the second largest library in Paris second only to the library of the King However when Mazarin was forced to leave Paris during the Fronde his library was seized by the Fronde leaders and was dispersed He then began a second library with what was left of the first The library grew to over 25 000 volumes and was open to all scholars after 1643 It is recognized as the first true public library in France In his will he gave his library to the College des Quatre Nations which he had founded in 1661 The original bookcases of his library were transferred to the reading room of the College of Quatre Nations when it was built 47 Educator of Louis XIV Edit The wedding of Louis XIV and Maria Theresa Mazarin is at their right From the eighth birthday of the young Louis XIV Mazarin took the title Superintendent of the Royal Education and managed every aspect of the young King s studies All of the King s activities were governed and scheduled by Mazarin his time of rising his prayers his physical exercise paume fencing and dance followed by a morning lesson in politics with Mazarin himself In the afternoons he was charged to write an essay each day for Mazarin on what he had learned The education he gave Louis was purely practical not theoretical Among other topics he instructed the King in the fine art of dissimulation or lying when needed and always when making an agreement to leave a way out 48 Beginning in 1659 as the King reached the age of twenty one and Mazarin approached the end of his life he wrote a series of guidelines in political affairs for the King When the King set off on his journey to Spain to be married Mazarin wrote to him Remember I ask you what I have had the honor to tell you when you asked me the way to take to become a great King it is necessary to begin by making the greatest efforts to not be dominated by any passion because otherwise if any misfortune arrives regardless of what good will you have you will not be able to do what has to be done 49 Despite Mazarin s instructions Louis XIV continued to correspond with Mazarin s niece Marie with the tacit collusion of his mother Mazarin immediately adopted a stricter tone God established Kings for watching over the well being safety and peace of their subjects and not to sacrifice this well being and safety for their personal passions you must remember your responsibilities to God for your actions and for your safety and to the world for the support of your glory and your reputation Mazarin also threatened to depart France with his family if the King did not agree to stop communicating with Marie In response Louis wrote a new letter to his mother promising that henceforth he would forget Marie and concentrate exclusively on the great occupation of King Grand metier du Roi 49 Final military and diplomatic accomplishments 1658 1661 EditThe last years of Mazarin s life between 1658 and his death in 1661 were marked by a series of major diplomatic victories including the marriage of Louis XIV In 1658 after long and intense preparation Mazarin unveiled the League of the Rhine a new group of fifty small German principalities which were now linked by a treaty with France They promised not to allow enemy forces pass through them to invade France This treaty weakened both the old Holy Roman Empire and the Austrian Empire of the Habsburgs This gave a new measure of security to France s eastern border 50 In the same month Marshal Turenne decisively defeated the army of Conde at the Battle of the Dunes in Flanders This marked the end of the threats to France from the north from the Spanish Netherlands 50 Negotiation of a draft peace treaty between France and Spain took place between February and June 1659 but many critical details remained unresolved Mazarin and Spain s Dom Luis de Haro personally took charge of the negotiations on 13 August Their conferences which continued for three months were held on the French Spanish border on the island of Faisans midway between French Hendaye and Spanish Fuenterrabia in the river Bidassoa 51 The resulting Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed on 7 November 1659 and added Artois Cerdanya and Roussillon as new provinces of France It also provided for an even more important diplomatic event carefully arranged by Mazarin the marriage of Louis XIV with Maria Theresa of Spain the French celebration of which followed in June 1660 in nearby Saint Jean de Luz The couple made a triumphant entry into Paris on 26 August 1660 This marriage and accompanying agreements ended at least for a time the long and costly wars between the Austrians and France 50 Mazarin as the de facto ruler of France played a crucial role in establishing the Westphalian principles that would guide European states foreign policy and the prevailing world order Some of these principles such as the nation state s sovereignty over its territory and domestic affairs and the legal equality among states remain the basis of international law to this day Death Edit Tomb of Mazarin in the Institut de France In his last months Mazarin resided mainly in the Louvre Palace A large fire broke out in the Gallery of Apollo the main picture gallery of the Louvre and destroyed many pictures greatly upsetting Mazarin It was the beginning of his decline When his doctor informed him that his end was near Mazarin asked How long The Doctor replied two months Mazarin responded That s enough 52 Mazarin had already prepared several wills Knowing that his enemies at court were telling Louis XIV that he was taking money that belonged rightfully to the King his first will which he made public cleverly left all of his fortune to Louis XIV Mazarin probably calculated that the King would be too embarrassed to take all of his mentor s and chief Minister s wealth The King waited for three days then refused to accept it Mazarin had also prepared a different will which left a large sum for the establishment of the College des Quatre Nations which he had founded for students from the four new provinces which he had added to the territory of France by the Treaty of Westphalia The college now the Institut de France was eventually built directly across the Seine from the Louvre where it is visible from the Palace Mazarin asked that his remains be interred there where they rest today in a marble monument beneath the dome The college is home to the five French academies including the Academie Francaise The Mazarinettes EditMain article Mazarinettes Laura Mancini Duchess of Mercœur Anne Marie Martinozzi Princess of Conti Olympia Mancini by Pierre Mignard Laura Martinozzi Duchess of Modena Marie Mancini whom Louis XIV wished to marry Hortense Mancini Duchess Mazarin Marie Anne Mancini who became Duchess of Bouillon Mazarin did not have children but he did have seven nieces five from the Mancini family daughters of his sister Girolama and two from the Martinozzi family daughters of his sister Laura The nieces all moved to Paris and Mazarin devoted care to arranging marriages for them always with wealthy and aristocratic families The nieces were known for their beauty wit and ambition and became known as the Mazarinettes Laura Mancini was the eldest of the five famous Mancini sisters She married Louis de Bourbon Duke of Vendome grandson of King Henry IV and was the mother of the great general the Duke of Vendome Both Olympia Mancini and Marie Mancini had romantic relationships with the young Louis XIV He wished to marry Marie but was prevented by his mother and by Mazarin who had greater plans to marry Louis to a princess of Spain In 1657 Olympia was married to Prince Eugene of Savoy and became the mother of Eugene of Savoy a famous general for the Austrians Marie became the wife of the Italian nobleman Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna of the same family that had employed Mazarin s father as an intendant 53 Hortense Mancini was married shortly before Mazarin s death to a nephew of Cardinal Richelieu who thereafter took the title Duke Mazarin After fleeing from her abusive marriage Hortense became for a time the mistress of King Charles II of England Marie Anne Mancini married the Duke of Bouillon soon after the death of Mazarin 53 As for the two Martinozzi sisters Anne Marie Martinozzi married the Prince de Conti in 1654 Her sister Laura Martinozzi married Alfonso IV d Este Duke of Modena and was the mother of Mary of Modena who became Queen Consort of England as the wife of King James II In fiction EditMazarin is a major character in Alexandre Dumas novels Twenty Years After and Le Vicomte de Bragelonne In them Mazarin is portrayed as greedy and devious as well as the Queen s lover Mazarin plays a significant part in Letitia Elizabeth Landon s historical novel Francesca Carrara He acts as uncle to his niece Marie Mancini and her fictional sister Henriette both of whom have important roles Cardinal Mazarin is an important supporting character in Rafael Sabatini s novel The Suitors of Yvonne His plans set the main plot of the book in progress He is portrayed fairly accurately as being ambitious and ruthless but very protective of his family Mazarin is a character of some importance in 1634 The Galileo Affair by Eric Flint and Andrew Dennis and also in 1636 The Cardinal Virtues by Eric Flint and Walter H Hunt A diamond called the Mazarin stone is searched for in a 1921 Sherlock Holmes short story by Arthur Conan Doyle The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone Mazarin is a major character in the 2005 series Young Blades portrayed by Michael Ironside Mazarin played by Gerard Depardieu serves as the mastermind antagonist in the Hallmark movie La Femme Musketeer Personality and ambition wise he is nearly identical to Cardinal Richelieu Umberto Eco s novel The Island of the Day Before takes place just after the transition from Richelieu s rule to Mazarin s Its protagonist witnesses the death watch for Richelieu and is subsequently forced by Mazarin to undertake a bizarre mission to the other side of the world Mazarin plays a central role in the play Vincent in Heaven which tells the story of St Vincent DePaul Mazarin is a character in the French TV series of the 1960s Le Chevalier Tempete shown in the UK as The Flashing Blade He was played by the Belgian actor Giani Esposito Mazarin is claimed to be the actual biological father of Louis XIV in Edward Rutherfurd s novel Paris 2013 54 Mazarin is the antagonist of the novel Enchantress of Paris 2015 by Marci Jefferson Mazarin uses the wiles of his niece Marie Mancini in an attempt to secure his power over the king Notes and citations Edit Mazarin Collins English Dictionary HarperCollins Archived from the original on 29 July 2019 Retrieved 29 July 2019 Mazarin Jules Lexico UK English Dictionary Oxford University Press dead link Mazarin The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 5th ed HarperCollins Retrieved 29 July 2019 Mazarin Merriam Webster Dictionary Retrieved 29 July 2019 For Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino or Mazarini see Dethan 1991 p 979 For Giulio Mazzarino see Poncet 2018 p 24 For the surname Mazarini see Dethan 1959 p 9 Dethan 1977 p 11 Treasure 1995 p 404 Some sources give his surname as Mazzarini for example Buelow 2004 p 158 Archived 2016 05 28 at the Wayback Machine or Viaggio del Cardinale Mazzarini a St Jean de Luz l anno 1659 Archived 2021 06 27 at the Wayback Machine others as Mazarino Dizionario italiano multimediale e multilingue d Ortografia e di Pronunzia Archived 2015 09 23 at the Wayback Machine or Il cardinale Mazarino Archived 2021 06 27 at the Wayback Machine Poncet 2018 p 24 a b c d Dethan 1959 p 10 Parlett 1991 pp 88 89 Dethan 1959 p 11 Poncet 2018 p 32 Dethan 1959 p 13 Dethan 1959 p 14 a b Dethan 1959 p 16 Dethan 1959 p 22 a b Dethan 1959 p 38 a b Dethan 1959 p 24 Poncet 2018 p 118 Dethan 1959 pp 42 43 a b c Dethan 1959 p 45 Dethan 1959 pp 45 49 Dethan 1959 pp 47 49 a b c Dethan 1959 pp 50 51 Bourbon Busset 1959 p 53 O Connor 1978 p 5 9 Jones Colin 1994 10 20 The Cambridge Illustrated History of France 1st ed Cambridge University Press p 196 ISBN 978 0 521 43294 8 This section draws upon the chapter Le vaincu de la Fronde deviant monarque absolu by Jacques de Bourbon Busset in Mazarin edited by Georges Mongredien Bourbon Busset 1959 pp 53 81 Bourbon Busset 1959 p 54 a b Bourbon Busset 1959 p 56 Bourbon Busset 1959 pp 56 58 Bourbon Busset 1959 pp 59 60 a b c Bourbon Busset 1959 pp 60 61 a b Bourbon Busset 1959 p 75 Bourbon Busset 1959 p 76 a b Goubert 1990 p 434 a b c Goubert 1990 p 439 Goubert 1990 p 439 443 Goubert 1990 p 478 a b c Poncet 2018 p 92 Georges Dethan Mazarin Jules Cardinal in The New Encyclopaedia Britannica 15th edition Chicago 1991 vol 7 p 979 Cosnac Les richesses du palais Mazarin 1884 Archived 2018 12 28 at the Wayback Machine Colombier 1959 p 113 Thackray Anne 1996 Mazarin family 1 Cardinal Jules Mazarin Giulio Mazarini vol 20 pp 895 896 Archived 2018 12 29 at the Wayback Machine in The Dictionary of Art 34 vols edited by Jane Turner New York Grove ISBN 9781884446009 Braham Allan Smith Peter 1973 Francois Mansart p 71 London A Zwemmer ISBN 9780302022511 Ayers Andrew 2004 The Architecture of Paris p 58 Stuttgart London Edition Axel Menges ISBN 9783930698967 Sauval Henri 1724 Histoire et recherches des antiquite s de la ville de Paris vol 2 pp 172 180 Archived 2022 06 01 at the Wayback Machine Paris Charles Moette Jacques Chardon Banham Martin 1995 The Cambridge Guide to the Theatre second edition Cambridge England Cambridge University Press ISBN 9780521434379 James R Anthony 1992 Mazarin Cardinal Jules Mazzarini Giulio Raimondo Archived 2018 12 28 at the Wayback Machine Grove Music Online Aronson Arnold Roy Donald 1995 Torelli Giacomo pp 1116 1117 in The Cambridge Guide to the Theatre second edition edited by Martin Banham Cambridge England Cambridge University Press ISBN 9780521434379 Poncet 2018 p 92 93 Mongredien 1959 pp 256 258 a b Mongredien 1959 p 260 a b c Mongredien 1959 p 292 Bluche 1990 p 86 This section draws mainly upon Chapter VI Le vieille homme et le jeune Roi by Jean d Ormesson in Mazarin Ormesson 1959 pp 201 225 a b Colombier 1959 pp 130 143 Paris novel pp 458 460 and p 493 Ballantine Books Trade Paperback Edition 2014 Books cited in text EditBluche Francois 1990 Louis XIV New York Franklin Watts ISBN 9780531151129 Buelow George J 2004 A history of baroque music Bloomington Indiana University Press ISBN 978 0 253 34365 9 Bourbon Busset Jacques de 1959 Chapitre II Le vaincu de la Fronde devient monarque absolu In Mongredien Georges ed Mazarin in French Paris Hachette pp 53 81 OCLC 742625187 Colombier Pierre du 1959 Chapitre IV Le Premier ministre se fait l ambassadeur de l art italien In Mongredien Georges ed Mazarin in French Paris Hachette pp 113 151 OCLC 742625187 Dethan Georges 1959 Chapitre I Le jeune Monsignore a la conquete de Richelieu In Mongredien Georges ed Mazarin in French Paris Hachette pp 7 51 OCLC 742625187 Dethan Georges 1977 The Young Mazarin Translated by Baron Stanley London Thames and Hudson ISBN 9780500870044 Dethan Georges 1991 Mazarin Jules Cardinal The New Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 7 15th ed Chicago Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc pp 979 980 ISBN 0 85229 529 4 Goubert Pierre 1990 Mazarin in French Paris Fayard ISBN 2 213 01650 X Mongredien Georges 1959 Chapitre VIII Le rideau s est leve sur le Grand Siecle In Mongredien Georges ed Mazarin in French Paris Hachette pp 255 292 OCLC 742625187 O Connor John T 1978 Negotiator Out of Season Career of Wilhelm Egon Von Furstenberg 1629 1704 Athens GA U of Georgia Press ISBN 978 0 8203 0436 6 Ormesson Jean d 1959 Chapitre VI Le vieil homme et le jeune Roi In Mongredien Georges ed Mazarin in French Paris Hachette pp 201 225 OCLC 742625187 Parlett David 1991 A History of Card Games Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 282905 X Poncet Olivier 2018 Mazarin l Italien in French Paris Tallandier ISBN 979 10 210 3105 0 Treasure Geoffrey 1995 Mazarin The Crisis of Absolutism in France London Routledge ISBN 0 415 014573 Further reading Edit Biography portalBonney R The Paradox of Mazarin History Today 32 Feb 1982 18 24 Bonney Richard Cardinal Mazarin and the great nobility during the Fronde English Historical Review 96 381 1981 818 833 Bonney Richard Society And Government In France Under Richelieu And Mazarin 1624 61 Springer 1988 Ekberg Carl J Abel Servien Cardinal Mazarin and the Formulation of French Foreign Policy 1653 1659 International History Review 3 3 1981 317 329 Haffemayer Stephane Mazarin Information and Communication During the Fronde 1648 1653 Media History 22 3 4 2016 386 400 Hassall Arthur Mazarin 1903 Perkins James Breck 1886 France Under Mazarin 2 volumes New York Putnam Vols 1 amp 2 at Internet Archive Sonnino Paul Mazarin s Quest The Congress of Westphalia and the Coming of the Fronde Harvard UP 2008O 307 pp Wilkinson Richard Cardinal Mazarin History Today April 1996 46 4 pp 39 45 External links Edit Wikisource has original text related to this article a brief biography of Mazarin Media related to Jules Cardinal Mazarin at Wikimedia Commons Herbermann Charles ed 1913 Jules Mazarin Catholic Encyclopedia New York Robert Appleton Company Mazarin and the FrondeCatholic Church titlesPreceded byArmand de Bourbon Prince of Conti Abbot of Cluny1654 1661 Succeeded byRinaldo d EstePolitical officesPreceded byCardinal Richelieu Chief Minister to the French Monarch1643 1661 Succeeded byJean Baptiste ColbertFrench royaltyPreceded byCharles III Gonzaga Duke of Nevers1659 1661 Succeeded byPhilippe Jules Mancini Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Cardinal Mazarin amp oldid 1131992163, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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