Louis XIII of France
Louis XIII ruled France from 1610 to 1643 and, with Cardinal Richelieu, laid the foundations of the absolutist state his son inherited. Born in 1601, the son of Henry IV and Marie de' Medici, he became king at eight when his father was assassinated, and his mother governed as regent, reversing the anti-Habsburg policy and marrying him to Anne of Austria. He was a reserved and stammering man with a passion for hunting, music and military engineering. In 1617, at fifteen, he ended the regency by having his mother's favourite Concino Concini shot on a bridge at the Louvre and exiling her to Blois. He appointed Richelieu to his council in 1624, and the partnership lasted eighteen years. Their relationship was not warm, and the king repeatedly resisted the cardinal before backing him — decisively on the Day of the Dupes in November 1630, when the court believed Richelieu had fallen and Louis instead exiled his mother permanently. The policy had three aims. Against the Huguenots, he besieged La Rochelle in 1627-28 for fourteen months, taking it and stripping the Protestants of their fortified towns while leaving their freedom of worship intact under the Peace of Alès. Against the nobility, he demolished castles, banned duelling and executed grandees including Montmorency and Cinq-Mars. Against the Habsburgs, he subsidised Sweden and the German Protestants and entered the Thirty Years' War openly in 1635, despite being a Catholic power. He extended the use of intendants to govern the provinces directly, and founded the Académie française in 1635. His long-childless marriage produced an heir in 1638. He died in 1643, months after Richelieu.
- Lived: 1601 CE – 1643 CE
- Nationality: French
- Roles: king, head_of_state
