Louis XIII (1601–43), king of France (1610–43),
born in Fontainebleau. He succeeded his father,
Henry IV, under the regency of his mother,
Marie de' Medici. He was the first of the
Bourbon kings of France. He married Anne
of Austria; daughter of Philip III, king
of Spain, in 1615. Even after being declared
of age in 1614, he was excluded from affairs
of state by his domineering mother. In 1617
he caused the assassination of her minister
Concino Concini, with the aid of his own
favorite, Charles d'Albert, duc de Luynes,
and Marie de' Medici was forced into retirement.
He was reconciled to her in 1622 and entrusted
(1624) the government to her protégé, Cardinal
Richelieu. In 1630, urged by his mother to
discharge Richelieu, he instead sent his
mother again into exile. He gave full support
to Richelieu and his successor, Cardinal
Mazarin. Richelieu strengthened royal authority
and centralized government control.
Under Richelieu's anti-Habsburg foreign policy,
France entered (1635) the Thirty Years' War
as an ally of Sweden and the Protestant princes
of Germany. Louis's reign was marked also
by occasional religious strife between Roman
Catholics and the French Protestants, or
Huguenots, and by the many conspiracies against
Richelieu. Richelieu died in 1642.
Louis was succeeded by his son Louis XIV.
Louis's reign was remarkable for the establishment
of the French Academy; and for the work of
St. Francis of Sales, and St. Vincent de
Paul in religion; René Descartes in philosophy;
and Pierre Corneille in literature.
