Mazarin, Jules, Cardinal

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Mazarin, Jules, Cardinal (1602–61) French cardinal and statesman, b. Italy. He was the protégé of Cardinal Richelieu and chief minister under Anne of Austria from 1643. During the civil wars of the Frondes, he played off one faction against another and, although twice forced out of France, emerged in full control. As a former papal diplomat, he was a skilful negotiator of the treaties that ended the Thirty Years' War.