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Cardinal Richelieu

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Religious Figure

The Resume

    (September 9, 1585-December 4, 1642)
    Born in Paris, France
    Born Armand Jean du Plessis
    Chief minister under King Louis XIII

Why he might be annoying:

    He would to exercise by jumping over furniture.
    King Louis XIII's mother, Marie de Medici, hated him.
    He is portrayed as a villain in Alexandre Dumas, Pere's book 'The Three Musketeers.'
    He is also an antagonist in Ken Russell's film 'The Devils.'
    He imposed taxes on the peasants to finance French wars, which triggered peasant revolts.
    He believed in the concept of absolute monarchy.
    The Huguenots (French Protestants) rebelled against him.
    He tried to contain the power of the Habsburg dynasty by supporting the Protestant Germans against the Habsburg emperor. This earned him the anger of the Catholic church.
    He turned France into a police state, complete with press censorship and spies everywhere.
    Voltaire said that he started wars on purpose to make himself helpful to the King.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was the de facto ruler of France during Louis XIII's reign.
    He founded the Academie Francaise and had the Sorbonne rebuilt.
    Although he barred Huguenots from the military, he let them practice their religion.
    He stripped the French nobility of their power.
    He considered it his life's work to serve the French monarchy.
    He advanced the idea of a centralized nation, as opposed to a collection of feudal territories.
    Historian John Ralston Saul calls him the 'father of the modern nation-state, modern centralised power [and] the modern secret service.'

Credit: Truffle


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 90.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 4 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 12 Votes: 58.33% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 14 Votes: 64.29% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 11 Votes: 72.73% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 12 Votes: 58.33% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 19 Votes: 84.21% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 46 Votes: 71.74% Annoying