Changes

Cardinal Richelieu was one of the most important statesmen in French if not European history. He was chief minister to Louis XIII and he changed the nature of French government and society. Today he is best known as a character in Dumas’, The Three Musketeers. Richelieu was a master politician and diplomat, who because of his influence over the monarch laid the foundations of an ‘absolute monarchy’ in France. Richelieu was also able to use the Thirty Years War to further the national interests of France and he, more than anyone else made France the greatest power in Europe by the second half of the seventeenth century. He was also a very important figure in the development of the French Empire. However, these achievements, while significant resulted in death and misery for millions of French people.