King's Minion

The King's Minion: Richelieu, Louis XIII, and the Affair of Cinq-Mars by Philippe Erlanger, translated by Gilles and Heather Cremonesi, 240 pages

As the Thirty Years' War stumbled to its exhausted close, it became increasingly clear that the power of France would dominate the Continent, and that the director and architect of that power was the Red Eminence, Armand Jean de Plessis, Cardinal de Richelieu.  If to some he seemed nearly omnipotent, canny observers - and there were none more canny than the Cardinal himself - understood how precarious his position truly was, for he was deeply unpopular and served only at the pleasure of the king.  Louis XIII, for his part, personally loathed the man who had forced him to send his beloved mother into exile and thrown France into a murderous war for which he would have to answer before God, yet Louis also recognized his minister's genius and found him irreplaceable.  In an effort to ensure that this did not change, Richelieu went to great lengths to introduce Louis to the charming young Henri Coiffier de Ruze, Marquis de Cinq-Mars.  As Richelieu hoped, Cinq-Mars captivated the king, swiftly replacing his quarrelsome mistress Marie de Hautefort in his affections.  The proud, impetuous Cinq-Mars chafed under Richelieu's patronage, however, and soon found himself embroiled in a series of conspiracies against the Cardinal, eventually leading to a tragic end for the royal favorite.

Erlanger walks breezily through the backroom intrigues of the baroque court, following the interwoven plots with a clear narrative and such memorable sketches of the various personalities involved that even minor figures are easily distinguished.  If at times this leads him to go beyond the facts and to presume to know the hearts and minds of his subjects, it is easy enough to recognize this as the informed speculation it is.