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Illustrated portrait of Cardinal Richelieu

A character in The Three Musketeers

Cardinal Richelieu

Louis XIII's first minister, thirty-six or thirty-seven and already grey, who runs the state and the plot from behind a table.

What they want

To keep France in his hands, which means the queen humbled, Buckingham removed and four inconvenient swordsmen bound to him.

The book

Cover of The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
The Three MusketeersAlexandre Dumas, 1844

Four swordsmen, a queen's twelve diamonds and a branded woman, told to Paris in daily newspaper parts in the spring of 1844.

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At a glance

Age
Thirty-six or thirty-seven in 1625
Residence
The Palais-Cardinal, later the Palais-Royal
Agents
Milady de Winter and the Comte de Rochefort
Campaign
The siege of La Rochelle, 1627 to 1628
The real person
Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal de Richelieu · 1585–1642 · Paris

Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal de Richelieu, was the real ruler of France under Louis XIII, and the novel presents him at the height of his powers rather than as the sick old man of the portraits. D'Artagnan first sees him through the eyes of the mercer Bonacieux: a man of middle height with piercing eyes, a soldier's bearing, a pointed beard and dusty riding boots, standing before a map of La Rochelle.

He wants the queen compromised, Buckingham dead and the four friends in his service, and he pursues all three with the same patience. Dumas gives him wit, a tragedy in five acts, and the last word: the commission he writes for the man who has just told him Milady is dead.

How Cardinal Richelieu Is Portrayed

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

  • The portrait, Chapter XIVA man of middle height, haughty and proud, with piercing eyes, a large brow and a thin face lengthened by a pointed royal beard. Though scarcely thirty-six or thirty-seven, his hair, moustache and beard are going grey. He has been on horseback that day; his buff boots are still dusty.
  • The letter to Milady, Chapter XIVThe chapter ends on his order: be at the first ball Buckingham attends, get near him, cut two of the twelve diamond studs from his doublet, and report.
  • The poet, Chapter XXXIXSummoned to the Palais-Cardinal, d'Artagnan is shown into a room where a man is writing. The manuscript is titled Mirame, a Tragedy in Five Acts. The poet raises his head and d'Artagnan recognises the cardinal.
  • The stovepipe, Chapters XLIV and XLVIn an upstairs room at the Red Dovecot he tells Milady to see that Buckingham dies. He signs a paper stating that the bearer has done what he has done by the cardinal's order and for the good of the state. Athos, listening through the stove pipe below, takes the paper from her within the hour.
  • Four men must be mine, Chapter LIRiding back to camp after the four have outwitted him again, he murmurs into his moustache that these four men must positively be his.
  • The commission, Chapter LXVIIHe has d'Artagnan arrested, hears that Milady is dead, reads his own paper, tears it slowly, and writes a lieutenant's commission with the name blank. He calls the young man a brave youth and taps him on the shoulder.

Cardinal Richelieu quotes

Lines spoken by or about Cardinal Richelieu, each verified verbatim against the text and located in the book.

It is by my order and for the good of the state that the bearer of this has done what he has done.
— Cardinal Richelieu (written) · Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers (1844), anonymous nineteenth-century translation
These four men must positively be mine.
— Cardinal Richelieu (dialogue) · Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers (1844), anonymous nineteenth-century translation
Their ending, and the commentary — spoilers aheadHow the book leaves them, what happened after, and what the record says. Open when you're ready.

He never learns that Milady was a branded criminal until d'Artagnan tells him, and the news relieves him of an accomplice he had begun to fear. He tears up the paper, makes d'Artagnan a lieutenant and orders Rochefort to count him a friend.

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