Cardinal Mazarin

It seems inevitable that Mazarin will always suffer by comparison with Richelieu. The latter, who has been described as the greatest political genius which France has ever produced, appeals to the imagination by the firmness and the success of his policy. The ability with which he managed the foreign affairs of France, and his creation of an administrative system which continued to the Kevolution, place Richelieu in the foremost rank of French statesmen. And yet his successor, though less i...