Mazarin’s Fall

The chapter examines the crisis of authority that had emerged in early 1650 between cardinal Mazarin and Condé, and provides a character assessment of the two protagonists. Mazarin’s decision to resolve the crisis by arresting and imprisoning Condé, his brother, and his brother-in-law generated a variety of damaging consequences, including military operations conducted against the royal armies by Turenne, while opposition progressively focused hostility on Mazarin and his style of government. During a crucial few weeks in January 1651, open condemnation of the cardinal, above all by the Parlement of Paris, undermined the remnants of Mazarin’s power and forced him to release the princes. Despite Mazarin’s hopes for a rapprochement with Condé, he was expelled from France and ultimately settled in exile at Brühl in the territory of the Archbishop-Elector of Cologne. The rest of the chapter explores Mazarin’s inability, both practical and psychological, to accept the permanence of his exile, and his attempts to exert maximum pressure, through correspondence and allies at court, on Anne of Austria, the queen mother, to recall him to France. The chapter concludes with the comprehensive failure of this policy when, on the eve of Louis XIII’s thirteenth birthday and the declaration of his official majority, the regency government promulgated an edict reiterating Mazarin’s criminal behaviour and his banishment in perpetuity (6 September 1651).