Word: richelieu
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...they were wrong. And he has had little to complain of since Couve de Murville moved into the Quai d'Orsay to help dispense the classic diplomacy that is both the invention and one of the glories of France. The tone and tradition were set by Cardinal Richelieu in the 17th century, when he served as Foreign Minister (and, later, Chief Minister) to King Louis XIII, and was the first to formulate such diplomatic axioms as 1) the art of negotiation must be a permanent activity and not merely a hurried operation, 2) the national interest must be primary...
...Richelieu raised France to be the first nation of Europe; his agents were everywhere, and almost
...everything that happened on the Continent was ascribed to his malign influence. When Richelieu died, a British rival wrote, "He was the torment and the ornament of his age," and added that it was strange that Richelieu "is shut up dead in so small a space, whom, when living, the whole earth could not contain." Richelieu and his successor, Cardinal Mazarin, left Louis XIV so remarkable a diplomatic organization that French gradually displaced Latin as the diplomatic language of Europe...
...paradox that has fascinated all historians-of reason beside unreason, of rationalism beside blind faith-was never more sharply apparent than in the century (1558-1648) from Elizabeth to Richelieu and from Shakespeare to Descartes. It was a time when superstition was rampant; a king's touch would cure scrofula, corpses bled in the presence of the murderer, comets signified disaster-although Galileo was calmly regarding the heavens through a telescope that magnified 1,000 times. Witchcraft (in which Kepler believed) was widespread: the Archbishop of Trier found it necessary to burn 120 of his fellow Germans...
...When Richelieu decided to take over the duchy of Lorraine, the army of France marched on Nancy, and after a cruel struggle the city fell in 1633. It was this that inspired the Miseries and Misfortunes of War. At a time when war was considered heroic, Callot showed it as it was. His series begins with a majestic parade and then a savage combat scene wreathed in smoke. But the horror is in the aftermath. Churches go up in flames, men are set on fire in their castles, tiny firing squads claim victim after victim, a man is broken...