On 4th December 1642 Armand Jean du Plessis, a French nobleman and clergyman better known as Cardinal Richelieu, died.

Richelieu served in a number of posts in the French government, as well as being a clergyman in the Catholic church, with his first main one being Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in 1616.

In 1622, he became a Cardinal, one of the most powerful people in the Church, although he did alienate Urban VIII. In 1624 he became the chief minister of Louis XIII, which post he kept until his death. Richelieu greatly increased the power of the French nobility and crown with the aim of building a strong, centralised French state.

Image: Philippe de Champaigne [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons (commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cardinal_de_Richelieu.jpg)