Mazarin cardinal biography channel

Home / Historical Figures / Mazarin cardinal biography channel

Mazarinsucceeded his mentor, Cardinal Richelieu. His final triumph came with the Peace of the Pyrenees in November 1659. When this revolt was settled a year later, it was soon followed by the break with Condé. Walking in the garden this evening with Sir G. Carteret (age 53) and Sir J. Minnes (age 64), Sir G. Carteret told us with great contempt how like a stage-player my Lord Digby (age 50) spoke yesterday, pointing to his head as my Lord did, and saying, "First, for his head", says Sir G.

Carteret, "I know what a calf's head would have done better by half for his heart and his sword, I have nothing to say to them".

The country was bitter at the taxes imposed by Richelieu to support the war, and its mounting resentment found dangerous expression in the Parliament of Paris, whose opposition was supported by all classes in the city.

Once the Fronde was over, the country simply stagnated. Anne was known to have been Richelieu's enemy, and Mazarin, though acknowledged as his nominee, was universally regarded as soft, ingratiating, and harmless. Nobles who had reluctantly given way to Richelieu would not accept his successor, who was despised as a lowborn foreigner and thought to be weak-willed.

Also part of the negotiations was France's chief minister, Cardinal de Richelieu.

When Mazarin died on March 9, 1661, he had accomplished his task as he saw it.

Achievements

• He governed France from 1643 until his death and laid the foundations for the monarchy of Louis XIV. For the rest of his life Mazarin was the unchallenged master of France.

  He engineered a number of French victories near the end of the Thirty Years War and also played a leading role in the negotiations of the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the war.

  He was born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino on July 14, 1602, near the Italian settlement of Pascina. More humane than Richelieu, Mazarin imprisoned his enemies but did not put them to death, and as a result he could not make himself feared.

  Mazarin, who for several years wanted to end the war, got his chance, as peace negotiations began in Münster in 1644. Paris, led by its Parliament, had rebelled in 1648. 2nd July 1663. His father was Pietro Mazzarini, from a minor noble family of Sicily, and his mother was Ortensia Buffalini, a woman of a noble family of Città di Castello in Umbria, and goddaughter of Filippo I Colonna, the grand Constable of Naples.

  In this capacity he met Cardinal Richelieu in 1629 and decided to transfer his allegiance to him. " But, unlike Richelieu, he took no interest in the economic or cultural development of France. There, Mazarin worked directly with the famous Richelieu. To suppress the defiance that immediately arose in Paris, Mazarin had to call on the Prince de Condé, a cousin of the King and a very successful general.

  His memoirs have been published.