Cardinal
Mazarin was born into a family of Italian courtiers, but became one of
the prime makers of modern France and, with it, modern Europe. Mazarin
began his career as a papal diplomat, in which capacity he came to the
attention of the de facto ruler of France, Cardinal Richelieu, whose
protege he became. Richelieu left his life's work - to establish secure
frontiers for France and centralize power in an absolutist monarchy -
unfinished. It was Mazarin who dealt with the series of uprisings
collectively known as the Fronde and guaranteed that the boy king Louis
XIV would grow up to be more than a figurehead. It was Mazarin who
negotiated peace with Austria and Spain. It was Mazarin who,
ultimately, bequeathed to France his library, which became the
Bibliotheque Nationale. Along the way he dealt with unremitting
hostility engendered by his influence and his foreign origin, as well as
scurrilous stories spread in pamphlets called
Mazarinades. Above all, he served as a surrogate father and teacher to the emerging Sun King.
Treasure is an excellent biographer, although the
narrative becomes extraordinarily dry in places. In part, this is
inevitable, due to the intricacies of seventeenth century French
politics, without which Mazarin's story would become unintelligible. It
is a common misconception that absolute monarchy was the norm in the
Middle Ages before being overthrown in the Enlightenment, this book
relates an indispensable chapter in the true story of how absolutism was
really established in France.
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