RICHELIEU, CARDINAL DE. 



RICHTER, JEAN PAUL FRIEDRICH. 



dominions, which were seized by the French. The queen-mother, 

 who had quarrelled with the cardinal and supported his jenemies, was 

 obliged to quit France. She retired to Cologne, where she died, in 

 1642, in great distress. 



Richelieu accomplished the second object which he had in view, 

 namely, the extirpation of the Calvinist party, by besieging In person 

 and taking La Rochelle, the stronghold of the Calvinists, in 1628. 

 But the motives of Richelieu appear to have been more political than 

 religious : at all events he did not show himself after his victory a 

 fanatic or a persecutor. He secured religious tolerance to the Calvinists 

 by a royal edict in 1629; and when the faculty of theology of Mon- 

 tauban, which was then, as it is now, the Calviniat university of France, 

 went to visit the cardinal, he told them courteously that he could not 

 receive them as a body of divines, but that he should always be 

 willing to see them as men of learning. 



The third great object of Richelieu was that of humbling the 

 House of Austria, which, since the time of Charles V., had been the 

 preponderating power in Europe. For this purpose, setting aside all 

 clerical scruples, he supported, first secretly and afterwards openly, 

 the Protestants of Germany against the emperor. His almoner, a 

 Capuchin friar named Pere Joseph, was his confidant and trusty agent 

 in all his diplomatic intrigues. The history of this singular character 

 has been published, ' Histoire du veritable Pere Joseph,' and is a most 

 curious biography. The friar repaired to Germany, to the camp of the 

 Protestant princes and of Gustavus, and also to that of Wallenstein. 

 After the death of the two great leaders, Gustavus and Wallenstein, 

 the French troops carried on the war on the Rhine in concert with 

 the Swedes against the emperor. At the same time Richelieu was 

 assisting the Protestant Grisons against the Roman Catholic insurgents 

 of Valtelina, who were supported by the Spaniards. He also allied 

 himself with the States-General of the Netherlands to attack the 

 Spanish dominions in Belgium, which he had in view to annex to 

 France as far as Antwerp, a scheme in which however he failed. On 

 the side of Spain the French took Roussillon, and supported the 

 Catalonians in their revolt against Philip IV. Richelieu is also said 

 to have meddled, by means of Pere Joseph and the French ambassador 

 in London, in the first stirring of the Covenanters and Puritans which 

 led to the great revolution. Charles I., ever wavering in his foreign 

 policy, had disappointed Richelieu in his proposal of a defensive league 

 between France and England, and seemed to lean towards a Spanish 

 alliance. "The king and queen of England," said Richelieu, "will 

 repent the rejection of the treaty before the year is over." (Pere 

 Orleans; D'Estrade; President He"nault.) In 1639 arms and ammu- 

 nition were sent from France to Leith for the use of the disaffected. 



In Italy the French invaded Piedmont, which however they evacu- 

 ated by a treaty with the princes of Savoy. The principal result of 

 all these wars was to circumscribe the imperial power in Germany, and 

 to weaken the influence of Spain in the general politics of Europe. 



In 1642 Richelieu fell ill, and died in December, at his house at 

 Paris, at the age of fifty-eight. The king repaired to his bedside 

 shortly before his death, when the cardinal recommended to him 

 Mazarin and others, and told his majesty that he left the kingdom at 

 the highest pitch of glory, and protested to him that all his "doings 

 as a minister had been for the good of religion and of the state," an 

 assertion rather startling from such a man, but which he may possibly 

 have believed. His funeral was magnificent ; but the people of Paris 

 rnade bonfires in token of rejoicing. He had become unpopular of 

 late years, on account of the fresh burdens which he had laid on the 

 people. A splendid mausoleum, by Girardon, was raised to his 

 memory in the church of La Sorbonne. He left a considerable pro- 

 perty, which however had not been altogether accumulated at the 

 expense of the state, but was in great part the proceeds of his vast 

 church preferment. 



Mary de' Medici had died at Cologne a few months before Richelieu, 

 and Louis XIII. died five months after his minister. 



Richelieu established the royal printing-presses ; he was the founder 

 of the French Academy ; he built the Palais Royal, which was then 

 called Palais Cardinal ; and he rebuilt La Sorbonne. He was well 

 informed for his age, and has left several works, some on religious and 

 controversial subjects, and others on politics. His ' Testament Poli- 

 tique ' has been considered by some as apocryphal, but Foncemagne 

 has defended its authenticity in the edition of 1764, by his Letters to 

 Voltaire, and apparently upon sufficient grounds. The ' Mdmoires du 

 Cardinal de Richelieu,' written by himself, have been published in 

 several volumes, in 1822-23, by Petitot, from a manuscript corrected 

 in the cardinal's own hand, which existed in the archives of the 

 department of Foreign Affairs at Paris. 



Cardinal Richelieu ranks among the greatest ministers of the old 

 French monarchy. He had extended views, great perseverance and 

 acuteness, and a lofty mind ; but he was also revengeful, cruel, and 

 unprincipled. He laboured strenuously to make the authority of the 

 crown absolute, and by so doing he paved the way for the subsequent 

 despotism of Louis XIV. Montesquieu says that Richelieu made his 

 master the second man in the monarchy, but the first in Europe ; 

 that he depressed the king, but ennobled his reign. 



His grand-nephew, Louis FRANCOIS DU PLESSIS DE RICHELIEU, 

 marshal of France, figured under Louis XV., and acquired a name 

 for his bravery in war and some ability in negotiation, and also for 



BIOG. DIV. VOL. V. 



his libertinism, court intrigue, and overbearing disposition. He died 

 in 1788, at a very advanced age. A grandson of Marshal Richelieu 

 entered the Russian service during the French revolution, was made 

 governor of Odessa, a town which he greatly improved, and became, 

 after the Restoration, minister of Louis XVIII. He was known by 

 the title of Due de Richelieu. He died in 1821, with the reputation of 

 an honourable and loyal statesman. 



RICHTER, JEAN PAUL FRIEDRICH, commonly called JEAN 

 PAUL, was born on the 21st of March 1763, at Wunsiedel, in the 

 neighbourhood of Baireuth, where his father held the office of tertius 

 or under-schoolmaster and organist. Shortly after the birth of his 

 son, he was made pastor of the village of Jodiz, whence he was trans- 

 ferred to Schwarzenbach on the Saale. Owing to the very limited cir- 

 cumstances of his parents, as well as to the want of a good schoolmaster, 

 the boy had hitherto been educated and taught at home by his father. 

 At Schwarzenbach however he was sent to school, and continued the 

 study of Latin and Greek, to which Hebrew and some other branches 

 of learning were added. His stay at this school was short, and he 

 was sent to the gymnasium at Hof, where he continued his studies 

 for two years, notwithstanding the death of his father, which hap- 

 pened shortly after his arrival there, and left his family almost in a 

 state of destitution. The young scholar however was in some degree 

 supported by his grandfather on his mother's side. In 1781 he went 

 to the University of Leipzig ; for his family wished that he should 

 follow the example of his father, and study theology. He hoped to 

 obtain some support from the university, but he found the difficulties 

 greater than he had anticipated ; and he was thrown entirely on his 

 own resources. He had to contend with extreme want, and was 

 sometimes even unable to obtain necessary food and clothing. The 

 circumstances of his mother likewise grew worse, and she was unable 

 to supply him with any money. Notwithstanding this painful 

 situation, he persevered in his studies, and he remained cheerful. 



Soon after his arrival at Leipzig he had given up the study of 

 theology, which he found ill-suited to his taste, and now seeing no 

 other possibility of satisfying his most urgent wants, he wrote a book 

 called ' Gronlandische Processe,' 2 vols., Berlin, 1783. The pittance 

 which he received for his work, small as it was, determined him hence- 

 forth to try to support himself by writing. A second book, ' Auswahl 

 aus des Teufels Papieren,' was soon written, but no publisher could 

 be found, as his first work had not met with a favourable reception. 

 After many disappointments, he quitted Leipzig in 1785, and went 

 to Hof to reside with his mother, who, with her family inhabited a 

 house containing one apartment. All that he possessed was a number 

 of manuscripts containing extracts from the various works which he 

 had read. At Hof his poverty rather increased than diminished, but 

 the unconquerable vigour of his mind and the benevolence of a few 

 friends kept him up. He engaged himself as a tutor in a family, and 

 in 1788 he succeeded in finding a publisher for his ' Auswahl aus des 

 Teufels Papieren.' The little income which he thus gained was how- 

 ever not sufficient to support him and his family. In 1793 several 

 families of Schwarzenbach united to invite him to come and under- 

 take the education of their children, an offer which he gladly accepted. 

 Here he tried and developed the principles of education which he 

 afterwards (1807) published in his ' Levana.' His circumstances now 

 began to improve, especially after 1793, when, through the mediation 

 of a friend, he found a publisher for a new work called ' Die Unsicht- 

 bare Loge,' 2 vols., Berlin. This work attracted the attention of the 

 public and brought the author into notice. A fair prospect of success 

 as a writer being thus opened to him, he left Schwarzenbach (1794) 

 and returned to Hof, where in the course of a few years he wrote 

 some of his most admired works : 'Hesperus,' 4 vols., Berlin, 1794 ; 

 ' Quintus Fixlein,' Baireuth, 1796 (this work was the first which 

 appeared under his full name, for in the preceding ones he had only 

 called himself Jean Paul) ; ' Biographische Belustigungen unter der 

 Gehirnschale einer Riesin,' Berlin, 1796; 'Siebenksas, oder Blumen- 

 Frucht-und Dornenstiicken,' &c., 4 vols., Berlin, 1796-97, and 'Der 

 Jubelsenoir,' ibid., 1797. In this year his mother died, after having 

 for a short time enjoyed the happiness of seeing her son appreciated, 

 and Jean Paul now returned to Leipzig. His name was now favour- 

 ably known, and the most distinguished among his countrymen, such 

 as Gleim, Herder, Schiller, Wieland, and others, esteemed the man 

 no less than his works. In 1798, in which year his work called 'Das 

 Campanerthal, oder die Unsterblichkeit der Seele,' was published at 

 Erfurt, he was induced by Herder, whom he revered more than any 

 other of his friends, to take up his abode at Weimar. It was about 

 this time that he became acquainted with the Duke of Saxe-Hildburg- 

 hausen, who afterwards honoured him with the title of councillor of 

 Legation (Legationsrath). In 1801 he married Charlotte Maier, the 

 daughter of a distinguished physician of Berlin. He first settled at 

 Meiningen, which in 1803 he exchanged for Coburg; but after a short 

 stay in this town he took up his permanent residence at Baireuth. 

 During this period of wandering he wrote ' Briefe und Bevorstehender 

 Lebenslauf,' Gera, 1799 ; ' Titan,' 4 vols., Berlin, 1800-3 ; ' Die 

 Flegeljahre,' 4 vols., Tubingen, 1804-5. 



At Baireuth he enjoyed the well deserved fruits of his indefatigable 

 zeal the esteem and admiration of the most illustrious and best 

 among his countrymen. In 1809 the Prince Primate, Carl von 

 Dalberg, granted him a pension of 1000 florins per annum. In 1815 



n 



