Louis François Armand du Plessis, duc de Richelieu

Louis François Armand du Plessis, duc de Richelieu (March 13, 1696 - August 8, 1788) was a marshal of France and a grandnephew of Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal Richelieu.

Early life

He was born in Paris. Louis XIV of France was his godfather. In his early days he was thrice imprisoned in the Bastille: in 1711 at the instance of his stepfather, in 1716 in consequence of a duel, and in 1719 for his share in the Cellamare conspiracy of Giulio Alberoni against Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, regent for Louis XV of France.

Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a deplorably defective education, distinction as a diplomat and general. As the French ambassador to the court of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles VI, in Vienna from 1725 to 1729, he negotiated in 1727 the preliminaries of peace.

Military career

In 1733-1734 he served in a Rhine campaign. He fought with distinction at Dettingen and Fontenoy, where he directed the grapeshot upon the English columns, and three years afterwards he made a brilliant defence of Genoa; in 1756 he expelled the English from Minorca by the capture of the stronghold of San Felipe; and in 1757-1758 he closed his military career by those pillaging campaigns in Hanover which procured him the sobriquet of the "petit père de la maraude".

Political career and intrigue

His real public career began ten years after his service in the Rhine campaign. After the wars, he plunged again into court intrigue. Initially, He was the best friend of King Louis XV of France, whom he had known since the King was a child. The relationship later cooled a little, however, when he opposed Louis's mistress, Madame de Pompadour.

After de Pompadour's death in 1764, his position in court was restored and he developed an amiable friendship with the King's last mistress, Madame du Barry. However, he was again not welcome at court when Louis' grandson, Louis XVI, succeeded to the throne in 1774. This was due to the fact that the new Queen, Marie Antoinette, disliked both Madame du Barry and Richelieu's nephew, the overly ambitious Duc d'Aiguillon.

Marriages

The Duke was a lover so renowned, it is said Choderlos de Laclos based the character Valmont in "Les Liaisons dangereuses" on him.

He was thrice married: first, against his will, at the age of fourteen, to Anne Catherine de Noailles; secondly, in 1734, by the intrigues (according to the witty Frenchman's own account) of Voltaire, to Marie Elisabeth Sophie de Guise; and thirdly, when he was eighty-four years old, to an Irish lady.

Mme. de Polignac and the Marquise de Nesle fought a duel over him. In 1729 he began an affair with Émilie du Châtelet, and although it ended, they continued to be frequent correspondents for over a decade. He was also the lover of the famous courtesan and novelist Claudine Guérin de Tencin.

References

Marshal Richelieu's "Memoires", published by JL Soulavie in nine volumes (1790), are partially spurious. See H Noel Williams, "The Fascinating Duc de Richelieu" (1910).

*"First Gentleman of the Bedchamber: The Life of Louis-François-Armand, Maréchal Duc du Richelieu" by Hubert Cole (London, 1965).
*1911