CLEP Western Civ I

Answer: B - Cardinal Richelieu’s program to centralize the French government did not involve conspiring to have Louis XIII’s mother exiled during an aristocratic rebellion in 1619. When Louis XIII overthrew his mother, Marie de Medicis, who was acting as his regent until he came of age, she tried to lead an aristocratic rebellion against him, until her former advisor, Cardinal Richelieu, negotiated a peace between mother and son. However, when she tried to convince Louis to remove Richelieu as his Chief Minister in 1630, Richelieu outmaneuvered her, and the king’s mother was subsequently exiled. The cardinal was instrumental in centralizing French government in an absolute monarchy. At the onset of Louis’ reign, France was often on the verge of overthrow at the hands of the empowered feudal lords. Richelieu broke the power of the nobility by razing their castles and starting the end of feudalism in France. He fought in battles against the Huguenots and later abolished their political rights, but he didn’t hesitate to make political alliances with Protestants, if they were advantageous to France, regardless of how it affected his standing with the pope. During the Thirty Years’ War, hoping to put an end to the Hapsburgs’ extensive power, he enlisted France in the conflict, though it made him an opponent of the Holy Roman Empire. His work to centralize French government paved the way for his king’s successor, Louis XIV, the “Sun King,” and the 17th century period in which France was the leading power in Europe.