Richelieu

Also known as: Armand Duplessis / Armand Jean Duplessis / Cardinal Richelieu / Cardinal de Richelieu / Monseigneur / Monsieur Cardinal / Monsieur Duke / cardinal / his Eminence / monseigneur / the Red Duke / the cardinal / the cardinal duke / the cardinalist / the duke / the great cardinal · Family: Cardinal's Guards · Role: cardinal · First appears: Chapter 2

In chapter 2, Richelieu and Louis XIII are portrayed as powerful rivals who competed to gather celebrated swordsmen. Through a spy identified with Comte de Rochefort, Richelieu obtained correspondence that led to Chalais’s execution, while ballads linked him with Mme. d’Aiguillon, his mistress, and Mme. Cambalet, his niece. By chapter 14, he used M. Bonacieux as a spy upon his wife, then released him with a purse of one hundred pistoles; he also sent Vitray to London with orders for Milady to steal two of Buckingham’s diamond studs.

Richelieu continued to pursue Anne of Austria politically and personally. He exposed her correspondence with Madame de Chevreuse, revealed Buckingham’s stay in Paris to Louis XIII, and backed the search for the queen’s papers. At the fête in chapter 22, his attempt to implicate Anne of Austria failed when she appeared wearing all twelve studs, and she pointed out that the two he supplied had cost as much as the others together. His hostility toward Anne of Austria was connected with her refusal of his tender feeling, while accounts also linked him romantically with Mme. d’Aiguillon and Marion de Lorme.

At the Palais-Cardinal, Richelieu summoned D’Artagnan, offered him an ensign’s commission, and warned him of the danger of losing his protection. He used De Wardes as an instrument, directed Milady in her dealings with Buckingham, and discussed a scheme in which Buckingham might be assassinated. He ordered Athos, Porthos, and Aramis to accompany him, later arranged for D’Artagnan to serve with them, and ordered M. de Tréville to receive him into the same company. In 1627, Athos forced Milady to surrender Richelieu’s signed authorization connected with the proposed assassination of Buckingham and the promised attack on D’Artagnan.

In 1628 at La Rochelle, Richelieu resolved to continue the war alone and rely on the dyke to starve the city, while deciding that D’Artagnan, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis “must positively be mine.” By chapter 67, he had accepted D’Artagnan among his friends, granted him a lieutenant’s commission in the Musketeers, and provided for M. Bonacieux so that he would never want.