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118-407: Laura was the eldest daughter of Baron Lorenzo Mancini, brother-in-law of Cardinal Mazarin through his wife Girolama Mazzarini . She received the name Vittoria honour of her paternal grandmother, Vittoria Capoccii. The eldest of ten children, through the influence of her uncle, the personal advisor of Louis XIII of France , Laura and her family were invited to France, leaving Rome in 1653 following

236-561: A legitimised prince of the blood , Laura was allowed the style of Serene Highness . However, she had a lower rank than that of her cousin the Princess of Conti who had married a legitimate prince. The older duke was instantly enamoured with his wife and his affections were returned. Three sons followed in quick succession the eldest of which being a famous commander in the wars of the Grand Alliance and Spanish Succession . Laura died as

354-655: A Spanish annus mirabilis . However, following the end of the Fronde and an English intervention on the side of France, the course of the war largely changed in France's favour, and it ultimately achieved some territorial gains in the Peace of the Pyrenees . The French word fronde means "sling" ; Parisian crowds used slings to smash the windows of supporters of Cardinal Mazarin. Jean François Paul de Gondi , Cardinal de Retz, attributes

472-671: A chamberlain in the family of Filippo I Colonna , the Grand Constable of Naples . His father became a citizen of Rome in 1608. His mother Ortensia Bufalini (1575–1644) was a native of Rome, from the Bufalini family of nobility whose origins were in Città di Castello in Umbria . The family had moved to Rome in the Middle Ages. She was the goddaughter of Filippo I Colonna, her husband's employer. Giulio

590-568: A charter, inspired by the writ of Habeas Corpus in England, which revoked the authority of the King's justice officials, forbade any new taxes without the approval of the parlement , and declared that no royal subjects could be imprisoned without due process of law. Mazarin recommended to the Queen that she listen to the parlement and modify her decrees, but she was furious at their opposition. She waited until

708-547: A guardian of French interests in Rome, and then of papal interests in France. In 1632, he was named papal vice-legate at Avignon , appointed a prelate , and began to wear ecclesiastical dress, though he was not and never became a priest. While in Rome, Mazarin sent regular gifts of flowers, perfumes and delicacies to the women of the French court, and more valuable gifts, including statues and Renaissance paintings, to Richelieu. In 1634 he

826-701: A military expedition to capture Geneva , the fortress of the Protestant movement, but the King, who had good relations with the Swiss cantons, rejected the idea. Mazarin returned to Rome in November 1632, and made a new friend and ally, Antonio Barberini , the nephew of the Pope and one of his chief diplomats, and his older brother, Francesco Barberini, the Cardinal Secretary of State . With their assistance, he established himself as

944-472: A new Calais , to be held by England forever, gave the next campaign a character of certainty and decision which was entirely wanting in the rest of the war. Dunkirk was besieged promptly in great force and when Don Juan of Austria and Condé appeared with the relieving army from Fumes, Turenne advanced boldly to meet them. The Battle of the Dunes , fought on 14 June 1658, was the first real trial of strength since

1062-618: A refusal to pay but also a condemnation of earlier financial edicts and a demand for the acceptance of a scheme of constitutional reforms framed by a united committee of the parlement (the Chambre Saint-Louis), composed of members of all the sovereign courts of Paris. The military record of the Parlementary Fronde is almost blank. In August 1648, feeling strengthened by the news of Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé 's victory at Lens (20 August 1648), Mazarin suddenly arrested

1180-499: A remark that displayed the feudal arrogance which ironically led to the iron-handed absolutism of Louis XIV. After Bléneau, both armies marched to Paris to negotiate with the parlement , de Retz and Mlle de Montpensier, while the archduke took more fortresses in Flanders , and Charles, duke of Lorraine , with an army of plundering mercenaries, marched through Champagne to join Condé. As to

1298-685: A respectful time in exile. He made his return to Paris in February 1653. He was welcomed with a triumphal banquet at the Hotel de Ville, where crowds earlier had demanded his downfall. Once he was restored to power, Mazarin began arranging for his nieces, known as the Mazarinettes , to marry powerful French and Italian noblemen. In order to entice the prospective grooms to marry them despite their lower rank, Mazarin provided large dowries . Among his seven nieces, Laura Mancini and Anne Marie Martinozzi married into

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1416-812: A result of childbirth to Jules César, named after his grandfather and the Cardinal, in 1657. Born on 27 January, the Duchess died a fortnight later on 7 February. Buried in Paris, her husband retired from public life to become a cardinal , ensuring his children's upbringing to Laura's sister the Duchess of Bouillon . [REDACTED] Media related to Laura Mancini at Wikimedia Commons Cardinal Mazarin Jules Mazarin (born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino or Mazarini ; 14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661), from 1641 known as Cardinal Mazarin ,

1534-451: A sense of humor, and when the Fronde was finished, he had the best Mazarinades collected and performed in a concert at his palace. The rebellion lasted for three years. It took its popular name, Fronde , from the children's slings ( frondes ) which were used by the mobs in the Paris streets to hurl stones. It combined the anger of the Parisians against the new taxes with the resentment of

1652-692: A series of major diplomatic victories. In 1657 he made a military alliance with England. In 1658 he unveiled the League of the Rhine . The same year, Marshal Turenne decisively defeated the army of Condé at the Battle of the Dunes in Flanders. On 7 November 1659, Spain signed the Treaty of the Pyrenees , which added three new provinces to France. In 1660 Mazarin arranged the marriage of Louis XIV to Maria Theresa of Spain , which ended

1770-456: A young ruler with the experience of the Fronde, came to reorganize French fighting forces under a stricter hierarchy, whose leaders ultimately could be made or unmade by the king. Cardinal Mazarin blundered into the crisis but came out well ahead at the end. The Fronde represented the final attempt of the French nobility to confront the king, and ended in its humiliation. In the long run, the Fronde served to strengthen royal authority, but weakened

1888-696: Is now found in the Institut de France , across the Seine from the Louvre. Giulio Mazzarino was born on 14 July 1602 in Pescina in the Abruzzo province of Italy, about one hundred twenty kilometers from Rome. His parents were residents of Rome, spending the summer in Pescina to escape the summer heat. His father, Pietro Mazzarino (1576–1654), had moved to Rome from Sicily in 1590 to become

2006-523: The Duke of Épernon , the match did not take place and she was instead married to Louis de Bourbon, Duke of Mercœur when she was 14. 38-year-old Louis was the son of the Duke of Vendôme , himself an illegitimate son of Henri IV of France and the famous Gabrielle d'Estrées . Laura married Louis at the Palais Royal in the French capital on 4 February 1651 and was thus became Duchess of Mercœur. Having married

2124-618: The Fronde and led by the nobles of the Parlement of Paris , broke out in Paris in 1648, followed by a second Fronde, led by Louis, Grand Condé , who had turned from his chief ally to his chief enemy. Mazarin took Anne of Austria and Louis XIV out of Paris and then shifted his base to Germany for a time. Turenne , a general loyal to Louis XIV and Mazarin, defeated Condé, and Mazarin made a triumphal return to Paris in 1653. The last years of Mazarin's life, between 1657 and his death in 1661, were marked by

2242-425: The Parlement of Paris , and had his will annulled. She was declared Regent on 18 May. The Queen had a particular dislike of de Chavigny, the other chief advisor chosen by Louis XIII. He had been close to Richelieu and was the only real rival in experience to Mazarin. The evening that she became regent, she declared that Mazarin would be her chief minister and head of her government. The management style of Mazarin

2360-534: The Spanish Netherlands , but peasants of the countryside rose against the invaders; the royal army in Champagne was in the capable hands of César de Choiseul, comte du Plessis-Praslin , who counted 52 years of age and 36 of war experience; and the little fortress of Guise successfully resisted the archduke's attack. At that point Mazarin drew upon Plessis-Praslin's army for reinforcements to be sent to subdue

2478-512: The centre of gravity was soon transferred, the Frondeurs were commanded by intriguers and quarrelsome lords, until Condé's arrival from Guyenne. His bold leadership made itself felt in the Bléneau (7 April 1652) in which a portion of the royal army was destroyed, but fresh troops came up to oppose him. From the skillful dispositions made by his opponents, Condé felt the presence of Turenne and broke off

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2596-506: The formulary controversy , more for its political implications than out of theology. On his deathbed he warned young Louis XIV "not to tolerate the Jansenist sect, not even their name." After his death, Louis XIV did not appoint a new principal minister and instead governed himself, marking the beginning of a new era of centralized government in France. Mazarin's long war against the Habsburgs,

2714-601: The Army of the North. Fouquet, drawing upon his wealthy relatives, was able to provide the money. In 1659 he provided another loan of five million livres. One effect of the enormous amount of money in the market during the period of the Regency of Anne of Austria and Mazarin was a decline in the value of the Livre tournois , the French royal unit of account, lost twenty percent of its value against

2832-620: The Bastille, and were suppressed with great difficulty. The Presidents of the Parlement , now allies of Mazarin, demanded that the violence be stopped and that Condé take his army out of Paris. Reluctantly, Condé left the city, going to the Spanish Netherlands, pursued by Turenne. Louis XIV, now of age to claim his throne, re-entered Paris in October 1652, accompanied by his mother and by Turenne. Mazarin had to wait longer to make his return, which

2950-582: The Crown needed to recover from its expenditures in the recent wars. The costs of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) constrained Mazarin's government to raise funds by traditional means, the impôts , the taille , and the occasional aides . The nobility refused to be so taxed, based on their old liberties, or privileges, and the brunt fell upon the bourgeoisie . The movement soon degenerated into factions, some of which attempted to overthrow Mazarin and to reverse

3068-683: The French Army, commanded by the Prince de Condé was far from Paris, fighting the Austrians. Mazarin quickly sent an envoy to the Emperor in Vienna, calling for a truce and peace conference. The Peace of Westphalia , ending the war, was signed 24 October 1648. Despite the peace, disturbances continued in the streets of Paris. During the night of January 6, 1649, Mazarin secretly took the young Louis XIV, Anne of Austria and

3186-637: The French army across the Alps into Italy. On 26 October 1630 the French and Spanish armies met outside the walls of the French-held town of Casale, ready to fight. Suddenly, a man on horseback with a flag appeared, galloping toward them, crying "Pace! Pace!" ("Peace! Peace!") It was Mazarin, carrying an agreement from the Spanish commander to evacuate their soldiers from the town if the French would leave Montferrat to Charles Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua . Mazarin brought together

3304-473: The Fronde paved the way for the absolutism of Louis XIV. Meanwhile, the Franco-Spanish war continued in Flanders, Catalonia , and Italy wherever a Spanish and a French garrison were face to face. Condé, along with the remnant of his army, defiantly entered the service of the king of Spain. In 1653, France was so exhausted that neither invaders nor defenders were able to gather supplies to enable them to take

3422-429: The Fronde was still not finished. Many frondeurs were unhappy with the compromise reached in 1649. Once in Paris, Condé made endless demands on Anne of Austria until she finally angrily dismissed him. One of the other leaders of the Fronde, Jean François Paul de Gondi , soon persuaded Condé to join him in bringing down both Mazarin and Anne of Austria. Mazarin had an excellent network of agents, and immediately learned of

3540-597: The Habsburg rulers of Austria and Spain. Mazarin wrote later that he had done his best to persuade Richelieu to avoid a war. He wrote that in March 1635 he gave Richelieu all his reasons to maintain the peace. "His Eminence told me, as he stood up," Mazarin wrote, "that I courted Peace as if she were the woman of my dreams. Then he shook my hand, and concluded, 'You are no longer on the side of France.'" Mazarin returned to Avignon on 7 April 1636. During all of his negotiations, Mazarin

3658-555: The Habsburgs, building a network of French influence as a buffer in the western part of the Empire. In 1657, he made an attempt to get Louis XIV elected as Holy Roman Emperor. In 1658 he formed the League of the Rhine , which was designed to check the House of Austria in central Germany. In 1659 he made peace with Habsburg Spain in the Peace of the Pyrenees , which added to French territory Roussillon and northern Cerdanya—as French Cerdagne —in

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3776-414: The Habsburgs. His financial counselor was Michel Particelli d'Emery , also Italian. When taxes, loans, and the sale of titles did not bring in enough, he sought new sources of income. He discovered an old law dating to Henry IV which forbade Parisians to build houses outside the city limits. Since the city had grown well outside its old boundaries, in 1644 he imposed heavy fines on all those who lived outside

3894-460: The King. Cinq-Mars was arrested, Gaston was disgraced, and another conspirator, the Duke of Bouillon, was granted a pardon on the condition of revealing all the details of the plot to Mazarin, and surrendering the important fortress of Sedan to the King. Mazarin did not reveal the participation of the Queen in the conspiracy, but his knowledge gave him even greater leverage at the court. The destruction of

4012-406: The Pope refused to send him back to France, or to represent the papacy at a peace conference, he wrote: "I am not a subject of the King of France, but I believe I can truly say that the declarations of the Spanish have declared me to be French, so that with justice one can say that France is my country." His position in Rome was increasingly difficult. He had the affection of Pope Urban VIII, but he

4130-423: The Queen and in his will had refused to make her his regent, was furious; de Noyers was forced to resign on 10 April 1643. Louis XIII died 14 May 1643, just five months after Richelieu. His successor, Louis XIV , was just four years old. The King had specifically instructed that his wife, Anne of Austria, not rule in his place as regent. However, as soon as he was dead, she applied to the body of nobles known as

4248-471: The Queen, commanded by Turenne , were waiting, and trapped Condé's army against the walls of Paris. An ally of Condé, the Grande Mademoiselle , ordered the gates of the city opened to rescue Condé's army. The battle was witnessed from the hills of Charonne by the young Louis XIV. As soon as Condé's soldiers entered Paris, he demanded an immediate purge of Mazarin's supporters. Riots broke out around

4366-463: The Spanish and French commanders and explained the terms of the agreement, which were readily accepted by both sides. Mazarin had achieved his first diplomatic success. The result of Mazarin's first diplomatic efforts was the Treaty of Cherasco, 6 April 1631, in which the Emperor and the Duke of Savoy recognized the possession of Mantua and part of Monferrat by Charles Gonzaga and the French occupation of

4484-415: The action. The royal army did likewise. Condé invited the commander of Turenne's rearguard to supper, chaffed him unmercifully for allowing the prince's men to surprise him in the morning, and by way of farewell remarked to his guest, "Quel dommage que de braves gens comme nous se coupent la gorge pour un faquin" ("It's too bad decent people like us are cutting our throats for a scoundrel")—an incident and

4602-481: The ancient liberties from royal encroachments and to defend the established rights of the parlements – courts of appeal rather than legislative bodies like the English parliaments – and especially the right of the Parlement of Paris to limit the king 's power by refusing to register decrees that ran against custom. The liberties under attack were feudal, not of individuals but of chartered towns, where they defended

4720-500: The arrest quickly spread in Paris, and crowds came out into the street to protest and to build barricades. That evening Mazarin wrote in his journal, "the parlement has performed the functions of the King, and the people have deferred to it entirely." During the Fronde, the anti-Mazarin crowds of Paris enjoyed listening to Mazarinades , popular songs with verses mocking the Cardinal. Dozens were written and published, accusing him of virtually all possible faults and crimes. Mazarin had

4838-516: The astute intriguer Jean François Paul de Gondi , the future Cardinal de Retz. The military operations fell into the hands of war-experienced mercenaries, led by two great, and many lesser, generals. The peace of Rueil lasted until the end of 1649. The princes, received at court once more, renewed their intrigues against Mazarin. On 14 January 1650, Cardinal Mazarin, having come to an understanding with Monsieur Gondi and Madame de Chevreuse, suddenly arrested Condé, Conti, and Longueville. This time, it

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4956-444: The aunt of Charles Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua , had been granted in marriage to Władysław IV of Poland . She and her family did not have enough money to pay the agreed upon dowry of 2,100,000 livres . As a result, they went deeply in debt to Louis XIV, and their duchies of Mayenne , Nevers , and Rethel were mortgaged for this purpose. The negotiations, begun by Chancellor Séguier , were taken over by Mazarin, probably because Séguier

5074-508: The battle of the Faubourg St Antoine. Successes on one wing were compromised by failure on the other but in the end Condé drew off with many losses, the success of his cavalry charges subverted by the defeat of the Spanish right wing among the dunes. Here the " red-coats " made their first appearance on a continental battlefield, under the leadership of Sir William Lockhart , Cromwell's ambassador at Paris. They astonished both armies by

5192-538: The campaigns against the first Fronde and against Condé, and also had to pay for the continual travels of the Regent and the young King, and the elaborate festivities, parades, and cavalcades that accompanied their travel and every major event. The royal budget for 1653 was about 109 million livres , which amounted to eight hundred tons of silver or sixty tons of gold. Expenditures were the greatest between 1656 and 1659. Twenty-seven agreements were made with bankers, who loaned

5310-460: The city limits. In addition, he taxed all merchandise being brought into the city. One measure caused particular resentment among the nobility; he imposed a special tax on all the nobles who served on the various royal courts and councils, amounting to four years of their fees. The center of resistance was the Paris parlement , an ancient assembly of nobles which served as a high court of appeals. It

5428-532: The city under blockade. He then persuaded the Parlement that they had more to fear from an uprising of the Parisiens than they did from him. On 14 March 1649 Mazarin accepted many of the reforms demanded by the Parlement . In return, the Parlement supporters laid down their weapons and allowed Anne of Austria, the young Louis XIV and Mazarin to return to Paris. The Parlement accepted Mazarin and his government, but

5546-567: The civil war ceased, but in the several other campaigns of the Franco-Spanish War that followed, the two great soldiers were opposed to one another, Turenne as the defender of France, Condé as a Spanish invader. The début of the new Frondeurs took place in Guyenne (February–March 1652), while their Spanish ally, the archduke Leopold Wilhelm, captured various northern fortresses. On the Loire , where

5664-482: The closed gates of Paris. The royalists attacked all along the line and won a signal victory in spite of the knightly prowess of the prince and his great lords, but at the critical moment Gaston's daughter persuaded the Parisians to open the gates and to admit Condé's army. She herself turned the guns of the Bastille on the pursuers. An insurrectionist government appeared in Paris and proclaimed Monsieur lieutenant-general of

5782-428: The combined opposition of the princes, the nobility, the noble regional court assemblies ( parlements ), as well as much of the French population, and managed to subdue them all. The dispute started when the government of France issued seven fiscal edicts, six of which were to increase taxation. The parlements resisted, questioned the constitutionality of the king's actions, and sought to check his powers. The Fronde

5900-469: The conspiracy against the King was one of the last acts of Cardinal Richelieu. He fell ill and died on 4 December 1642. The succession of Mazarin to the position of chief minister of Louis XIII was not automatic or immediate. Despite the accounts of some later historians, Richelieu did not name Mazarin as his successor. Richelieu did, according to Mazarin himself, advise the King to employ Mazarin, who until that time had no official position at court. After

6018-487: The court to the safety of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye , just west of Paris. Mazarin then set to work intriguing to divide the different factions of the Fronde. His goal was to separate the members of the Parlement and the more radical Parisian street demonstrators, who were united only by their dislike of Mazarin and Anne of Austria. As soon as the war was concluded, he brought Condé and his army back to Paris and placed

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6136-647: The court underestimated Mazarin's skills, energy and determination. Mazarin continued Richelieu's costly war against the chief rivals of France in Europe, the Habsburgs of Austria and Spain. The victories of Condé and Turenne finally brought Austria to the bargaining table and ended the Thirty Years' War with the Peace of Westphalia (1646–48) Mazarin's policies also added Alsace (though not Strasbourg ) to France. He settled Protestant princes in secularized bishoprics and abbacies in reward for their political opposition to

6254-419: The death of Richelieu, Louis XIII named three prominent figures to advise him; François Sublet de Noyers , Léon Bouthillier, comte de Chavigny and Mazarin. Mazarin and de Chavigny immediately joined together to get rid of de Noyers. They hinted to the King that de Noyers had secretly made an agreement with Anne of Austria to make her the regent of France after the King's death. The King, who had little love for

6372-446: The death of her father along with their cousins Laura and Anna Maria . The family resided in the Palais Royal in Paris, home of Queen Anne and her sons Louis XIV and Philippe, Duke of Orléans . Laura's four sisters were: The Mancini also had three brothers: Paul (1636-1652), Philippe, Duke of Nevers (1641-1707), and Alphonse (1644-1658). Originally engaged to Louis Charles de Nogaret de La Valette, Duke of Candale, son of

6490-413: The defeat of Arras by storming Turenne's circumvallation around Valenciennes (16 July) but Turenne drew off his forces in good order. The campaign of 1657 was uneventful and is only to be remembered because a body of 6,000 English infantry, sent by Oliver Cromwell in pursuance of his treaty of alliance with Mazarin, took part in it. The presence of the English contingent and its purpose of making Dunkirk

6608-613: The far south as well as part of the Low Countries . Towards Protestantism at home, Mazarin pursued a policy of promises and calculated delay to defuse the armed insurrection of the Ardèche (1653), for example, and to keep the Huguenots disarmed: for six years they believed themselves to be on the eve of recovering the protections of the Edict of Nantes , but in the end they obtained nothing. There

6726-405: The field until July. At one moment, near Péronne , Condé had Turenne at a serious disadvantage but could not galvanize Spanish General Count Fuensaldaña , who was more solicitous to preserve his master's soldiers than to establish Condé as mayor of the palace to the king of France and the armies drew apart again without fighting. In 1654 the principal incident was the siege and relief of Arras . On

6844-466: The final part of the Thirty Years' War , was successful, but the cost was enormous. Resentment grew against the Spanish Queen and her Italian prime minister, and culminated in the Fronde , a rebellion against the government by members of the nobility and discontented citizens of Paris, which lasted from 1648 until 1653. Mazarin was forced to raise money by any means possible to support the war against

6962-436: The gold Florentine Florin coin. However, without the money lent by Fouquet and other aristocratic financiers, Louis XIV could never have accomplished his early military and diplomatic successes. The great rival of Fouquet was Jean-Baptiste Colbert , who was also recommended to Louis XIV and brought into the government by Mazarin. Soon after he became an assistant to Mazarin, he wrote a mémoire to Mazarin, claiming that of

7080-447: The government 98 million livres to supplement the money collected through ordinary taxes. Following the death of his first finance minister, La Vieuville, on 2 February 1653, Mazarin chose a new minister, Nicolas Fouquet . At the age of twenty-five, Fouquet had inherited a very large fortune after the death of his young first wife, and an even greater fortune when he married the second time, to Marie-Madeleine de Castille, whose family

7198-671: The kitchen of the abbey. However, he did not send Mazarin on the mission that he most wanted, as delegate of France to a Europe-wide peace conference. Richelieu's attention was devoted to making war; Richelieu, who was elderly and in poor health, took the King, who was also in poor health, the court and Mazarin on a series of long military expeditions, to suppress a rebellion in Catalonia , to capture Roussillon , and, in January 1642, to lay siege to Narbonne . On 11 June 1642, while in Tarascon on one of

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7316-403: The latter, Turenne maneuvered past Condé and planted himself in front of the mercenaries, and their leader, not wishing to expend his men against the old French regiments, consented to depart with a money payment and the promise of two tiny Lorraine fortresses. A few more manœuvers, and the royal army was able to hem in the Frondeurs in the Faubourg St. Antoine (2 July 1652) with their backs to

7434-424: The leaders of the parlement, whereupon Paris broke into insurrection and barricaded the streets. The noble faction demanded the calling of an assembly of the Estates General , which had last been convoked in 1615. The nobles believed that in the Estates-General, they could continue to control the bourgeois element, as they had in the past. The royal faction, having no army at its immediate disposal, had to release

7552-407: The legal equality among states, have remained the basis of international law to this day. In addition to his diplomacy, Mazarin was an important patron of the arts. He introduced Italian opera on a grand scale to Paris and assembled a remarkable art collection, much of which today can be seen in the Louvre . He also founded the Bibliothèque Mazarine , the first true public library in France, which

7670-443: The long and costly wars between the Habsburgs and France. Exhausted by his diplomatic efforts, Mazarin died in 1661. Mazarin, as the de facto ruler of France for nearly two decades, played a crucial role in establishing the Westphalian principles that would guide European states' foreign policy and the prevailing world order. Some of the principles, such as the nation state 's sovereignty over its territory and domestic affairs and

7788-426: The long military expeditions, Mazarin was presented with evidence that Gaston, Duke of Orléans , the brother of Louis XIII, and the Marquis of Cinq-Mars , one of the King's closest advisors, had made a secret agreement with the King of Spain, without the knowledge of Richelieu or the King. It appeared probable that the Queen, Anne of Austria, was also aware of this secret betrayal of Richelieu, but did not tell him or

7906-423: The national economy. The Fronde facilitated the emergence of absolute monarchy . The Spanish Empire promoted the Fronde to the point that without its support, it would have had a more limited character; it benefited from the internal upheaval in France, as it contributed to the Spanish military's renewed success in its war against the French between 1647 and 1653, so much so that the year 1652 could be considered

8024-422: The night of 24/25 August the lines of circumvallation drawn round that place by the prince were brilliantly stormed by Turenne's army and Condé won equal credit for his safe withdrawal of the besieging corps under cover of a series of bold cavalry charges led by himself as usual, sword in hand. In 1655, Turenne captured the fortresses of Landrecies , Condé and St Ghislain . In 1656 the prince of Condé avenged

8142-402: The nobility against the reduction of their ancient privileges. It was led over time by an odd assortment of allies; Gaston d'Orleans , the brother of Louis XIII; Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé a brilliant general but poor politician, and the Cardinal Paul de Gondi , a consummate intriguer. Each of them had different goals, but all agreed that Mazarin should fall. When the Fronde began,

8260-426: The nobility of actual power was a result of those events in his childhood. The term frondeur was later used to refer to anyone who suggested that the power of the king should be limited and has now passed into conservative French usage to refer to anyone who shows insubordination or engages in criticism of the powers in place. In May 1648 a tax levied on judicial officers of the Parlement of Paris provoked not merely

8378-673: The noble party submitted to the government and received concessions. From then on the Fronde became a story of intrigues, half-hearted warfare in a scramble for power and control of patronage, losing all trace of its first constitutional phase. The leaders were discontented princes and nobles: Gaston, Duke of Orleans (the king's uncle); the great Louis II, Prince de Condé and his brother Armand, Prince of Conti ; Frédéric, Duke of Bouillon , and his brother Henri, Viscount of Turenne . To those must be added Gaston's daughter, Mademoiselle de Montpensier ( La grande Mademoiselle ) ; Condé's sister, Madame de Longueville ; Madame de Chevreuse ; and

8496-466: The place, fell back hurriedly. But he was a terrible opponent, and Plessis-Praslin and Mazarin himself, who accompanied the army, had many misgivings as to the result of a lost battle. The marshal chose nevertheless to force Turenne to a decision, and the Battle of Blanc-Champ (near Sommepy-Tahure ) or Rethel was the consequence. Both sides were at a standstill in strong positions, Plessis-Praslin doubtful of

8614-406: The plot. On 18 January 1650 Mazarin had Condé, Condé's brother, Armand de Bourbon, prince de Conti and his brother-in-law, Henri II d'Orléans, duc de Longueville arrested. The agreements of 1649 had brought peace to Paris, but the unrest of the Fronde continued in other parts of France. Opponents of Mazarin disrupted tax collection and administration. As the rebellion grew, Mazarin observed that

8732-506: The policies of his predecessor, Cardinal Richelieu (in office 1624–1642), who had taken power for the crown from great territorial nobles, some of whom became leaders of the Fronde. When Louis XIV became king in 1643, he was only a child, so France was ruled by Anne of Austria and though Richelieu had died the year before, his policies continued to dominate French life under his successor Cardinal Mazarin. Most historians consider that Louis's later insistence on absolutist rule and depriving

8850-505: The political ineptitude of Condé, who offended many of his natural allies. Mazarin urged Anne of Austria to bring him back to Paris as soon as possible, "to correct the greatest attack ever made against the royal authority". Once back in Paris, Mazarin soon made an alliance with his old enemy, Cardinal Jean François Paul de Gondi . Condé departed to Bordeaux to gather reinforcements. He raised an army of Spanish and French soldiers, and marched on Paris, arriving on 2 July. The soldiers loyal to

8968-403: The prerogatives accorded to offices in the legal patchwork of local interests and provincial identities that was France. The Fronde in the end provided an incentive for the establishment of royalist absolutism , since the disorders eventually discredited the feudal concept of liberty. The pressure that saw the traditional liberties under threat came in the form of extended and increased taxes as

9086-634: The prisoners and to promise reforms; on the night of 22 October, it fled from Paris. However France's signing of the Peace of Westphalia (Treaty of Münster, 24 October 1648) allowed the French army to return from the frontiers, and by January 1649, Condé had put Paris under siege. The two warring parties signed the Peace of Rueil (11 March 1649) after little blood had been shed. The Parisians, though still and always anti-cardinalist, had refused to ask for Spanish aid, as proposed by their princely and noble adherents under Armand de Bourbon, prince de Conti , and having no prospect of military success without such aid,

9204-426: The realm. Mazarin, feeling that public opinion was solidly against him, left France again, and the bourgeois of Paris, quarreling with the princes, permitted the king to enter the city on 21 October 1652. Mazarin returned unopposed in February 1653. The Fronde as a civil war was now over. Tired of the turmoil and disgusted with the princes, the country came to look to the king and his party as representing order. Thus,

9322-498: The rebellion had everywhere collapsed. Then followed a few months of hollow peace and the court returned to Paris. Mazarin, an object of hatred to all the princes, had already retired into exile. His absence left the field free for mutual jealousies, and for the remainder of the year anarchy reigned in France. In December 1651, Cardinal Mazarin returned to France with a small army. The war began again, and this time, Turenne and Condé were pitted against each other. After that campaign,

9440-462: The rebellion in the south forcing the royal general to retire. Then Archduke Leopold Wilhelm decided that he had spent enough of King Philip IV of Spain 's money and men in the French quarrel. His regular army withdrew into winter quarters, and left Turenne to deliver the princes with a motley host of Frondeurs and Lorrainers. Plessis-Praslin by force and bribery secured the surrender of Rethel on 13 December 1650 and Turenne, who had advanced to relieve

9558-508: The rebels were only united in opposition to him. He decided it was wisest to resign his position and leave France while he could. He had Condé freed from prison, and, after a long journey to different cities, settled in Brühl near Cologne , as the guest of the Archbishop-Elector of Cologne. From Germany, he sent daily instructions to Anne of Austria and to his agents in France. The strategy

9676-581: The right moment to strike back. The occasion she chose was the celebration of a major victory of the French Army over the Spanish at the Battle of Lens in Belgium on 26 August 1648. On the day that a special mass was held at the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris to celebrate the victory, she gave orders to the Captain of her guards to arrest the leaders of the parlement , including the popular Pierre Broussel . News of

9794-485: The royal House of Bourbon ; Olympia Mancini married into the House of Savoy ; and Laura Martinozzi married Duke Alfonso IV d'Este of Modena. Finding money was a primary preoccupation for Mazarin throughout his entire time as first minister. His new taxes on Parisians and the nobility had provoked the first Fronde , but the end of the Fronde did not resolve the problem. The government had borrowed huge amounts to finance

9912-528: The strategic stronghold of Pinerolo , the gate to the valley of the Po , to the great satisfaction of Richelieu and King Louis XIII of France . The Pope sent Mazarin to Paris at the beginning of 1631 to work out the final details of the agreement. He returned to France again from April to July 1632. He had his first interview with Lous XIII and with the Queen, Anne of Austria, in May 1632. He tried to persuade Louis XIII to send

10030-550: The stubborn fierceness of their assaults. Dunkirk fell and was handed over to the English Protectorate , as promised, flying the St George's Cross until Charles II sold it to Louis XIV in 1662. One last half-hearted campaign followed in 1659—the twenty-fifth year of a conflict between France and Spain which had begun during the Thirty Years' War —then the peace of the Pyrenees was signed on 5 November. On 27 January 1660

10148-515: The tangled political affairs there: the regency of Christine , the Duchess of Savoy, and sister of Louis XIII, was challenged by her brothers-in-law, the princes Maurice and Thomas of Savoy. (See Piedmontese Civil War ) Mazarin successfully secured Christine's position, and established a solid alliance between Savoy and France. This task kept him away from Paris for nine months, until June 1641. On 16 December 1641, though he had not reached his fortieth birthday, he received what he most desired, he

10266-473: The taxes paid by the people, not one-half reached the King. The paper also accused Fouquet of using royal funds for his own enrichment. Mazarin did not defend Fouquet; shortly before his own death, he agreed that Fouquet had to go. Shortly after Mazarin's death, Fouquet was accused by Colbert of misuse of state funds, his property was confiscated, and he was put into prison until his death, with Colbert eventually taking his place. In 1645, Marie Louise Gonzaga ,

10384-513: The throne in 1643. Mazarin acted as the head of the government for Anne of Austria , the regent for the young Louis XIV, and was also responsible for the king's education until he came of age. The first years of Mazarin in office were marked by military victories in the Thirty Years' War , which he used to make France the main European power and establish the Peace of Westphalia (1646–1648). A major uprising against Anne of Austria and Mazarin, called

10502-596: The trust of as many decision-makers as possible. During this time he came to know Cardinal Francesco Barberini , the head of diplomacy for the papacy, and, more important, Cardinal Richelieu of France, his future mentor, whom he first met in Lyon on 29 January 1630. Richelieu was aloof and confrontational; he wrote afterwards: "This Mazarini is here more to spy than to negotiate....He is so Spanish and so Savoyard that what he says shouldn't be taken as gospel truth." Richelieu at first decided to ignore Mazarin's diplomacy and to send

10620-527: The trustworthiness of his cavalry, but Turenne was too weak to attack, when a dispute for precedence arose between the French Guards Regiment and the Picardie regiment. The royal infantry had to be rearranged in order of regimental seniority, and Turenne, seeing and desiring to profit by the attendant disorder, came out of his stronghold and attacked with the greatest vigour. The battle (15 December 1650)

10738-579: The usage to a witticism in Book II of his Memoirs : "Bachaumont once said, in jest, that the Parlement acted like the schoolboys in the Paris ditches, who fling stones [ frondent , that is, fling using slings], and run away when they see the constable, but meet again as soon as he turns his back." He goes on to state that emblems based on that nickname became quite popular and were placed on hats, fans and gloves and even were baked onto bread. The insurrection did not start with revolutionary goals but aimed to protect

10856-486: Was Turenne, before and afterwards the most loyal soldier of his day, who headed the armed rebellion. Listening to the promptings of Madame de Longueville, he resolved to rescue her brothers, particularly Condé, his old comrade in the battles of Freiburg and Nördlingen . Turenne hoped to do that with Spanish assistance; a powerful Spanish army assembled in Artois under Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria , governor-general of

10974-528: Was a period of rebellion against monarchs across Europe; independence movements appeared in the Spanish provinces of Catalonia and Portugal , a revolutionary seized power in Naples , and Charles I of England , the brother-in-law of Louis XIII, was deposed and executed in 1649. In Paris, the members of the parlement called a special session to debate Mazarin's measures. The meeting was forbidden by Regent, Anne of Austria, but went ahead anyway. The parlement issued

11092-610: Was also a member of the Colonna family , commanded a new regiment of the Papal army, and invited Giulio to become a lieutenant in the regiment. Since neither the regiment nor Giulio had any military experience, they were assigned to a town far from the front line. Giulio knew little of military discipline. He received a message from Rome informing that his mother was seriously ill. Without asking permission from his commander, he immediately rode to Rome, and stayed there until his mother had recovered. He

11210-508: Was an Italian Catholic prelate, diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Louis XIII and Louis XIV from 1642 to his death. After serving as a papal diplomat for Pope Urban VIII , Mazarin offered his diplomatic services to Cardinal Richelieu and moved to Paris in 1640. After the death of Richelieu in 1642, Mazarin took his place as first minister of Louis XIII, and then of Louis XIV, when he succeeded to

11328-498: Was at this time pregnant with her second child, and it was already anticipated that she would be the regent when King Louis XIII died. Mazarin advised Richelieu on both political and cultural matters. He recommended artists to bring from Rome to Paris, and in 1640 he commissioned a bust of Richelieu from the sculptor Bernini in Rome, sending Bernini pictures of Richelieu. The bust of Richelieu arrived in August 1641. Mazarin declared that it

11446-405: Was carefully orchestrated with his help. The Parlement de Paris was first transferred by Anne of Austria from Paris to Pontoise, to see how many members would accept her authority. A majority appeared at the meeting. Following the prepared plan, the Parlement respectfully asked that Mazarin be dismissed, and Anne of Austria agreed. Mazarin, knowing this was the plan, accepted this decision, and waited

11564-433: Was chosen to play the part of the newly sainted Ignatius of Loyola in a religious pageant. He also acquired the habit of gambling at cards, and was frequently in debt. A particular favourite game of his was a variant of Hoc named after him: Hoc Mazarin . When he was twenty his father decided to send him away from the bad influences of Rome. Giulio accompanied Girolamo Colonna , one of the sons of Filippo I Colonna, who

11682-448: Was confirmed by letters patent , issued by the young Louis XIV, as duke and peer of France. Fronde The Fronde ( French pronunciation: [fʁɔ̃d] ) were a series of civil wars in the Kingdom of France between 1648 and 1653, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War , which had begun in 1635. The government of the young King Louis XIV confronted

11800-561: Was constant friction with the pontificate of the Spanish Cardinal Pamphilj, elected pope on 15 September 1644 as Innocent X . Mazarin protected the Barberini cardinals, nephews of the late pope, and the bull against them was voted by the Parlement of Paris "null and abusive"; France made a show of preparing to take Avignon by force, and Innocent backed down. Mazarin was more consistently an enemy of Jansenism , in particular during

11918-432: Was disliked by Cardinal Barberini, the chief of Papal diplomacy, and by the large contingent of Spaniards in the papal household. He spent his time collecting sculpture and other works of art which he sent to Richelieu for the Cardinal's new palace in Paris. He considered serving the rulers of Savoy, Poland, or Queen Henriette of England, but in the end he decided to enter the service of Richelieu and France. However, Richelieu

12036-579: Was divided into two campaigns, the Parlementary Fronde and the Fronde of the Princes . The timing of the outbreak of the Parlementary Fronde, directly after the Peace of Westphalia (1648) that ended the Thirty Years' War , was significant. The nuclei of the armed bands that terrorized parts of France under aristocratic leaders during that period had been hardened in a generation of war in Germany, where troops still tended to operate autonomously. Louis XIV, impressed as

12154-626: Was eighteen, to the Complutense University of Madrid (then located in Alcalá de Henares ) in Spain. He studied law with Girolamo during the daytime and in the evenings continued to gamble and again was in debt. A notary who had advanced some cash to cover gaming debts urged the charming and personable young Mazarino to take his daughter as bride, with a substantial dowry , and Giulio accepted. Girolamo Colonna wrote urgently to his father in Rome, and Giulio

12272-457: Was entirely different from that of Richelieu. The contrast was described by Cardinal Retz , the future enemy of Mazarin, in his Memoires: "One saw on the steps of the throne, where the sharp and fearsome Richelieu had thundered rather than governed the people, a leader who is gentle, benevolent, and demands nothing...He has the spirit, the insinuation, the playfulness, the manners, but also a certain laziness...." Cardinal Retz and other rivals in

12390-410: Was formally made a Cardinal. He had established a cordial relationship with Richelieu; Richelieu jokingly referred to him as Rinzama (an anagram of his name), or Nunzinicardo ("dear little envoy"), or, most frequently, Colmarduccio , or Colmardo . When was asked what it meant, he translated into French as Frère Coupechou , the term for a junior candidate monk who was assigned to chop cabbage in

12508-406: Was in no hurry to bring him to Paris; he valued the diplomatic contributions Mazarin was making in Rome, as well as the art treasures he was acquiring. He kept Mazarin in Rome for two more years. Richelieu did one important favor for Mazarin; in October 1638 he put forward Mazarin's name as a candidate for Cardinal when the next vacancy opened up. In December 1638, when a sitting Cardinal died, Mazarin

12626-622: Was named nuncio extraordinary to Paris by Urban VIII, and entrusted with the mission of persuading Louis XIII to undertake a grand naval crusade against the Turks. The goal was to create a combined fleet of the ships of Christian nations to seize the Turkish ports around the Mediterranean. Mazarin, a realist, knew that, given the rivalries between European powers, this project would never take place. A new crisis arrived on 19 May 1635; France declared war on

12744-505: Was nominated as a Cardinal. He had to wait the entire year of 1639 before his new position was confirmed. Then on 14 December 1639, he departed Rome for the port of Civitavecchia , boarded an armed French ship to Marseille, and then traveled from Lyon to Paris, where he arrived on 5 January 1640. When he arrived in Paris, Mazarin was welcomed warmly by the King, by Richelieu, and by the Queen, Anne of Austria , to whom Mazarin had regularly sent perfumes, fans, gloves and other gifts. The Queen

12862-478: Was one of the wealthiest in Europe. Fouquet began as a master of receipts at age twenty, then an intendant to the army, then Procuror-General for the Parlement of Paris at the age of thirty-five. Through his family connections, Fouquet had amassed a fortune of three to four million livres. One of the reasons for Fouquet's rapid rise was his willingness to lend very large sums to Mazarin for his various projects. In November 1657 Mazarin needed 11.8 million livres to pay

12980-572: Was ordered to return immediately to Rome, without his fiancée. Upon his return to Rome, he resumed his studies, this time in law. In 1628 he received the title of doctor in utroque jure , meaning he could practice both civil and canonical law . In the same year Ferdinand II , the Habsburg emperor, laid claim to a papal territory, the Valtellina , in the Italian alps. Pope Urban VIII raised an army to defend his territory. The Prince of Palestrina , who

13098-498: Was perfect, so lifelike that, as he wrote, "it seemed about to speak", but French tastes did not approve of the Baroque style. The other members of the Court condemned the work, and Mazarin wrote back to Bernini, sending him more pictures of Richelieu and asking him to try again. Richelieu sent Mazarin on several delicate diplomatic missions, including a long trip to Savoy to straighten out

13216-450: Was severe and for a time doubtful, but Turenne's Frondeurs gave way in the end, and his army, as an army, ceased to exist. Turenne himself, undeceived as to the part he was playing in the drama, asked and received the young king's pardon, and meantime the court, with the maison du roi and other loyal troops, had subdued the minor risings without difficulty (March–April 1651). Condé, Conti, and Longueville were released, and by April 1651

13334-421: Was summoned before the Pope, Urban VIII, to explain why he had deserted his post. He threw himself at the feet of the Pope, and pleaded to be pardoned for his excess of loyalty to his family. The Pope was impressed by Giulio's spontaneity and eloquence, forgave his desertion, and invited him to become a Papal emissary. In 1628 Mazarin was named the secretary to Jean-François Sacchetti, a senior papal diplomat, who

13452-548: Was the eldest of six children, two boys and four girls. Through the influence of the Colonnas, Giulio was admitted at the age of seven to the Jesuit College in Rome, the most respected school in the city. Though he declined to join their order, he excelled in his studies. In 1618, at the age of sixteen, he gave a public lecture on theories explaining Halley's comet , which appeared in that year. He also excelled in theatrics; he

13570-462: Was to sow distrust among the different factions of the Fronde. Mazarin's instructions were carried out meticulously by Anne of Austria. His intrigues succeeded in preventing the proposed marriage between one of the leading Frondeurs, the Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti with Princess Charlotte-Marie of Lorraine, Mademoiselle de Chevreuse , another of his principal enemies in Paris. He was greatly aided by

13688-488: Was trying to prevent the impending War of the Mantuan Succession between the armies of France and Spain for dominance of that region of northern Italy. Throughout 1629 and 1630 he shuttled between Milan, Mantua, Turin, Casale and France, trying to find a solution to the crisis before the fighting began. This became, throughout his career, his standard method of diplomacy; traveling continually, getting to know and win

13806-440: Was unable to put together enough money. Through various machinations, Mazarin and Colbert were eventually able to force Charles to pay off these debts by selling to Mazarin in 1654, the duchy of Mayenne (for 756,000 livres), and in 1659, that of Nevers (valued at 1,800,000 livres, at a discount of 1,534,675 livres), as well as the duchies of Donzy and Rethel. Thus, on 18 October 1660, less than five months before his death, Mazarin

13924-454: Was very careful not to be too critical of the French court and Richelieu, and they remained in contact. In November 1636 he left Avignon to return to Rome, carrying instructions from Richelieu that made him a discreet ambassador for the king of France. The atmosphere within the papal curia was hostile to France and to Richelieu; Spanish priests occupied many positions in the hierarchy and they considered him, with reason, an agent of France. When

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