Introduction

Abstract With one or two exceptions, serious historical studies devoted to the ministry of Cardinal Richelieu only began in the Third Republic, thanks especially to the Herculean efforts of Avenel in gathering together and publishing many of the cardinal’s more accessible papers. Though far from complete—the archives of the Quai d’Orsay were originally closed to Avenel-his editorial labours made it possible for the first scholarly biographies to be written. The most notable of these was the six-volume monument to Richelieu that began issuing from the pen of Gabriel Hanotaux in 1893, the year before he became France’s foreign minister. The verdict of French historians like Hanotaux at the turn of the twentieth century on Richelieu’s ministry was unequivocal. The cardinal was one of the truly great figures, not just in the history of France but in the history of Europe. At home, Richelieu laid the foundations for the French absolute monarchy by taming the great nobility, subduing the military might of the Huguenots, and centralizing the state bureaucracy under the all-seeing eye of the royal council and its intendants.