Cardinal Richelieu - Legacy

Legacy

Richelieu's tenure was a crucial period of reform for France. Earlier, the nation's political structure was largely feudal, with powerful nobles and a wide variety of laws in different regions. Parts of the nobility periodically conspired against the King, raised private armies, and allied themselves with foreign powers. This system gave way to centralized power under Richelieu. Local and even religious interests were subordinated to those of the whole nation, and of the embodiment of the nation — the King. Equally critical for France was Richelieu's foreign policy, which helped restrain Habsburg influence in Europe. Richelieu did not survive until the end of the Thirty Years' War. However, the conflict ended in 1648, with France emerging in a far better position than any other power, and the Holy Roman Empire entering a period of decline.

Richelieu's successes were extremely important to Louis XIII's successor, King Louis XIV. He continued Richelieu's work of creating an absolute monarchy; in the same vein as the Cardinal, he enacted policies that further suppressed the once-mighty aristocracy, and utterly destroyed all remnants of Huguenot political power with the Edict of Fontainebleau. Moreover, Louis took advantage of his nation's success during the Thirty Years' War to establish French hegemony in continental Europe. Thus, Richelieu's policies were the requisite prelude to Louis XIV becoming the most powerful monarch, and France the most powerful nation, in all of Europe during the late seventeenth century.

Richelieu is also notable for the authoritarian measures he employed to maintain power. He censored the press, established a large network of internal spies, forbade the discussion of political matters in public assemblies such as the Parlement de Paris (a court of justice), and had those who dared to conspire against him prosecuted and executed. The Canadian historian and philosopher John Ralston Saul has referred to Richelieu as the "father of the modern nation-state, modern centralised power the modern secret service."

Richelieu's motives are the focus of much debate among historians; some see him as a patriotic supporter of the monarchy, while others view him as a power-hungry cynic (Voltaire even argued that Richelieu started wars to make himself indispensable to the King). The latter image gained further currency due to Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers, of which Richelieu is a major character and one of the main villains. The novel, and subsequent film adaptations, depicts Richelieu as a power-hungry, unscrupulous, and avaricious minister.

Despite such arguments, Richelieu remains an honoured personality in France, particularly for his stubborn refusal to let courtly intrigues and foreign interests dominate the government. He has given his name to a battleship and a battleship class. The French government planned to use his name for an aircraft carrier but the ship was finally named after Charles de Gaulle.

His legacy is also important for the world at large; his ideas of a strong nation-state and aggressive foreign policy helped create the modern system of international politics. The notions of national sovereignty and international law can be traced, at least in part, to Richelieu's policies and theories, especially as enunciated in the Treaty of Westphalia that ended the Thirty Years' War.

One aspect of his legacy which has remained less renowned is his involvement with Samuel de Champlain, and his fledgling colony along the St. Lawrence River. The retention and promotion of Canada under Richelieu allowed it — and through the settlement's strategic location, the St. Lawrence – Great Lakes gateway into the North American interior — to develop into a French empire in North America—parts of which would eventually become modern Canada and Louisiana.