Jules Mazarin

Jules Mazarin , 1602-61, French statesman, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, b. Italy. His original name was Giulio Mazarini. After serving in the papal army and diplomatic service and as nuncio at the French court (1634-36), he entered the service of France and made himself valuable to King Louis XIII's chief minister, Cardinal Richelieu, who brought him into the council of state. Although he had received only minor orders and had never been ordained a priest, he was raised to cardinal upon the recommendation of Louis XIII (1641). After the deaths of Richelieu (1642) and Louis XIII (1643), Mazarin was the principal minister of the regent Anne of Austria . The theory that Mazarin was secretly married to the widowed queen has been widely credited. He won favorable terms for France in the Peace of Westphalia (1648), but his attempts to raise money through taxation and his centralizing policy provoked the troubles of the Fronde (1648-53), during which he was several times forced to leave France. After the defeat of the Fronde, Mazarin was securely in control of France. By clever diplomacy he strengthened the crown and negotiated the favorable Peace of the Pyrenees at the end of the war with Spain (1659).

Bibliography: See J. B. Perkins, France under Mazarin (1886); A. Hassall, Mazarin (1903, repr. 1970); W. F. Church, The Impact of Absolutism in France (1969).

Mazarin, Jules (1602–61), statesman. In the service of Urban VIII, he went to Avignon. In 1639 he became a naturalized Frenchman and in 1640 entered the service of Louis XIII, at whose instigation he was made a cardinal in 1641. In 1642 he succeeded A. J. du P. Richelieu as chief minister; he practically ruled France until his death. At the Peace of Westphalia (1648) he enlarged France's territory, but he could not prevent the country's economic crisis or the civil wars of the Fronde (1648–53). He pursued a policy of reconciliation towards the Huguenots. He continued the war with Spain and eventually secured the victorious Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659).