Alexandre Dumas gave Cardinal Mazarin the epithet "Richelieu's shadow". This is a partly true observed property, but equally a common cliche used in relation to this French statesman of Italian origin of the Baroque era. During his lifetime, the name of this great man was stained with the mud of slander, which he did not deserve at all.
The main difficulty in recreating the appearance of Mazarin, which historians face, is that the heir to the great cardinal, unlike his predecessor as the first minister, did not leave memoirs, but only numerous business correspondence. Therefore, for biographers Mazarin - to use political terminology - is still a "dark horse". A diplomat of the Pope, a secret agent of two states, he was at the helm of French and European politics for 18 years and prepared a replacement for himself in the person of the Sun King, under which France became the most powerful power on the continent.
Cardinal Richelieu, who saw himself as a replacement only and only in this clever Italian prelate, said to him before his death: "Giulio, if it were necessary to deceive the devil, I would have resorted to your talents." Indeed, something rogue is already felt in the very sound of the name of the cardinal, whose surname in Italian was pronounced as "Mazzarino" or "Mazzarini". In France, he will be called Jules Mazarin.
His very birth is shrouded in mystery. Evil tongues during the turmoil called the Fronda spread rumors that his father was the influential Roman aristocrat Filippo Colonna, and not his majordomo, Pietro Mazarino, or Mazzarino, or Mazzarini.
There were good reasons for such statements: his mother, the flirty Ortensia Bufalini, accepted the courtship of her godfather, Giulio was conceived in Rome, and Colonna took care of him all his life and cared about his career. However, the characters of the official father and son turned out to be very similar, and historians explain the benevolence of the Column, on the one hand, by his political views, and, on the other, by gratitude for the services of the father-major dom and subsequently the son-diplomat.
Mazarin's partly negative image is the fruit of the Italians' rule in France. More precisely, two Italians: Catherine and Maria Medici. We have already written about Ekaterina. Not so much time has passed - and again an Italian becomes the head of state. Isn't it a mockery of fate?
“Already on the day of Richelieu's death, Louis XIII summoned Mazarin to him and announced that he was appointing him head of the Royal Council,” writes the cardinal's biographer Lyudmila Ivonina. - No one still has accurate data on when exactly Anna of Austria became Mazarin's beloved. A number of historians suggest that this happened as early as 1640 or 1641 during the conspiracy of Saint-Mar. Others - after the queen became regent: at the same time Mazarin and Anna allegedly entered into a secret marriage. There is information about this in the memoir literature. But the ubiquitous d'Artagnan, on the contrary, believed that the queen and the cardinal had nothing but good relations."
If we draw historical parallels, Anna of Austria entrusted the administration of the state to her favorite Mazarin, just as Catherine the Second entrusted Potemkin. Not only because of a strong feeling, but also because both of these figures had a mind of a state scale.
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So what are the results of Mazarin's rule, which lasted (with a short break - the cardinal was forced to spend a year in retirement and exile) for 18 years? It should be noted that this period cannot be called the quietest in the history of France, since from 1648 to 1652 the state was torn to pieces by the civil war, which was named after the "Fronde". However, the reason for this confusion was not at all the appointment of Mazarin as the first minister or his short-sighted policy.
Rather, Fronde was caused by his excessive philanthropy - after the death of Louis XIII, the cardinal pardoned all nobles and aristocrats who fell into disgrace during the years of Richelieu's reign. However, he did not intend to give them any important government posts, since he remembered well their destructive role during the previous reign. As a result, the nobility, dying of idleness (in whose ranks there were many relatives of the young king), staged a rebellion, the purpose of which was to overthrow Mazarin. At the same time, the most shameless slander against the Prime Minister was launched, which was believed by the French townspeople and the provincial nobility. In a word, the mercy of Mazarin left him the most that neither could he eat.
However, the Prime Minister was not taken aback and began to fight against the rebels. And, it should be noted, he coped with them even more effectively than Richelieu would have done. He preferred subtle intrigue to active hostilities. As a result, Mazarin managed to quarrel all the fronders with each other and win over the most outstanding rebellious commanders to his side. Thus, the Fronde ended by itself and, please note, without a single execution - all its participants saved not only their lives, but also their property.
After the civil war, the French economy was in a state of collapse. However, in just three years, thanks to the decisive measures of the cardinal, the situation changed - the empty treasury was replenished, trade and production flourished, and agriculture was also on the rise. Mazarin skilfully conducted tax increases, trying to distribute the burden equally among all taxpayers. In addition, he cut the maintenance of many aristocrats (citing the fact that they participated in the rebellion) and reduced the court staff.
All these measures have had a positive effect. In addition, during the reign of Mazarin, the treasury was pretty much replenished with income from the sale of positions (which was officially prohibited, but the cardinal knew how to bypass the laws that he himself approved) and interest paid by tax farmers (the prime minister here followed the course that Richelieu had outlined). Also, the cardinal helped revive trade by establishing a number of benefits for the merchants. To encourage industrial production, Mazarin limited the import of a number of goods into the country - and after a few years the French learned to produce them themselves.
Much time Mazarin, like his predecessors, spent to defeat corruption and embezzlement. And he, unlike the same Richelieu, almost succeeded - Louis XIV (who, by the way, was not so hostile to his prime minister, as many believe after reading Dumas's novels) was surprised to find that even judges in France do not take bribes! True, this did not last long - already in the middle of the reign of the Sun King, corruption again began to corrode the state apparatus. But this happened only because the monarch stopped following the rules of Mazarin, who made them especially for Louis shortly before his death.
As for foreign policy, to be honest, never before the reign of Mazarin could France be so successful in this difficult endeavor. The cardinal, however, managed to become one of the peacekeepers who extinguished the fire of the Thirty Years War (and not for free - a number of empire lands were ceded to France). Of course, this immediately raised the prestige of the state in Europe. Under him, relations were settled with the eternal enemies of France - England and Spain, as well as the eternal dispute with the latter in a number of provinces in the southern part of Flanders was resolved. And all this happened without bloody and devastating wars (for which Richelieu's reign was rich) and with minimal use of force.
The economical and tight-fisted cardinal did not spare money when it came to art and education. It was Mazarin who first invited the Italian opera troupe to France, laying the foundation for the national opera. And the collection of the Prime Minister's books formed the foundation of the oldest public library in France, now known as the Mazarin Library. It is also surprising that the person who held the highest post in the church hierarchy in France was distinguished by extreme religious tolerance. During his reign, there was not a single conflict with the Huguenots and not a single trial over heretics or sorcerers! Moreover, under Mazarin there was virtually no censorship in France - many freethinkers like Pascal and Gassendi calmly published their works.
So, as you can see, Mazarin really can be considered the greatest statesman of his time. It is very regrettable that the name of this man turned out to be stained with dirt, which slanderers of all stripes poured on him with tubs. That is why they rarely remember him now. And in vain - modern politicians could learn a lot from Cardinal Giulio Mazzarini, an Italian who devoted his whole life to France, which repaid him with black ingratitude.
ANTON EVSEEV, IGOR BOKKER
