The Rise of Richelieu

This is a study devoted to the pre-ministerial career of Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII, who led France to become the foremost power in Europe. Drawing on original sources, some used for the first time, Joseph Bergin discusses Richelieu's family history, his reasons for choosing the church as a vocation, his university studies, his record as a bishop, his writings, and the milieux that he frequented both as a student and as a bishop. While not denying Richelieu's very considerable intellectual and political gifts, Bergin emphasizes that it was a combination of slowly gained experience and external circumstance that allowed a cleric lacking in riches and influence to become the highest political official in the realm.