France towards national consciousness and expan-
sion--played an important part in the creation of
the French monarchy, it is difficult to imagine
quite how these forces would have found expres-
sion under other guidance than that of Cardinal
Richelieu. It is the measure of his greatness that
it should be so difficult to imagine the growth
of the French monarchy, or the development
of Europe in the seventeenth century, without
him.

The Cardinal was a personality so dominating
and so impressive that in his life-time almost
every event in Europe, however remote, would be
ascribed to his secret interference. He was
credited wrongly by the English with having
provoked the Scots Wars of 1638 and 1640, and
rightly by the Spaniards with organising the
Portuguese and Catalan revolts of the same
period. His spies and agents covered Europe no
less than his police system covered France. In the
imagination of his contemporaries he was the
cunning spider seated all-powerful in the midst of
an enormous web of intrigue.

We are more inclined today to recognise that
such dominating personalities are not necessarily
the dominating forces of history, that beneath the
spectacular but superficial achievements of an
astute diplomat and perspicacious politician, the
threads of millions of other lives make up the
colour-pattern of a period. Richelieu indeed could
not have done what he did but for opportunities

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