The Recklessness of the Duc de Richelieu

Armand-Jean de Vignerot du Plessis was destined for a sparkling destiny from his youth. As the eldest male heir of Cardinal Richelieu, he stood to inherit the cardinal's immense wealth, ducal title and personal collection of priceless objets d'art. His own father, the marquis de Pont-Courlay, brought with him the governorship of Havre for his son to succeed; his mother, Marie-Françoise de Guémadeuc held to baronies in her own right.

The young man was connected to the all-powerful cardinal through his father's side. His father was the son of Françoise du Plessis de Richelieu - sister to the cardinal. Thus, to the young Armand-Jean, the future looked very bright indeed.

Armand-Jean would be called upon to take up his destiny sooner than he might have imagined. At the age of just 13, Armand-Jean inherited both the post of General of the Galleys from his father, and the dukedom of Richelieu, when he died in 1642.

Perhaps it was the youth of Armand-Jean, the loss of his father at such impressionable an age or sheer bad luck but Armand-Jean turned out to be an uncommonly poor decision-maker. When the Fronde tore the French court apart, Armand-Jean joined the forces of the Grand Turenne which placed him on the losing side of history. Possibly due to his youth, he was pardoned by the king and accepted into the fold of royal favour.

Having thus reclaimed his place at court - and married a suitable lady - the young, rich heir set about enjoying himself. Unfortunately for him, the word moderation was not in his vocabulary. Leading a spendthrift lifestyle, the young duke liked nothing better than high stakes gambling, pretty mistresses and the finer things in life. 

At the age of 28, he could add the title of Duc de Richelieu to his name which brought him even further prestige at court. Hitherto, he had not legally held the title as it had not been registered at parliament as his title had been conditioned on him assuming both the name and coat-of-arms of the du Plessis-family.

Yet, such an expensive lifestyle came at a high cost. Constantly in debt, Armand-Jean found himself obliged to sell off some of the family's most lucrative posts. The first to go was his father's inheritance of General of the Galleys in 1661 - that fetched in 200.000 livres. Despite such a staggering sum, his demanding mistresses soon returned him to a state of penury. He also relinquished his governorship of Havre in exchange for an obscure post as colonel.

Armand-Jean

His own sense of financial risk was apparently not great. By 1665, he was enjoying the company of the youthful Louis XIV with whom he often played a bout of tennis - in that year, he parted ways with no less than 25 priceless pieces of art. The king purchased these pieces at the outrageously low price of 50.000 livres - a price set by the ever-obliging Colbert. If Armand-Jean had had even the slightest of financial acumen, he would have realised that he had been deeply cheated. Another version claim that the paintings were lost in a game of tennis - either way, the price was massively disproportionate to the possible gains.

If Armand-Jean hoped to recover his luck, he was sorely disappointed. His estate of Pont-l'Abbé in Brittany became a prime target during a revolt in 1675 which saw the castle not only pillaged but put to the torch afterwards. Thus, Armand-Jean could only watch from afar as another piece of his inheritance literally went up in flames. 

Royal favour did all it could to restore the unfortunate Duc de Richelieu to a more stable existence but to little avail. After becoming Chevalier d'Honneur to the new dauphine in 1679, his debts were once again so pressing that he was obliged to sell this latest honour. This time, he earned 300.000 livres by the sale but it was apparently not enough to keep his creditors at bay - the following year (1685) he had to sell his mother's barony of du Pont. 

Even such desperate measures were not enough. In an effort to ingratiate himself with Madame de Maintenon he became "as devout as he had previously been libertine" but any hope of royal favour was not forthcoming. Perhaps the king thought he had already been more than generous towards this seemingly incorrigible man. Towards the end of his life, Armand-Jean's finances reached a truly desperate state and his assets were seized. This forced him into a pitiable exile far from court where he existed on a meagre pension.