For the Cardinal

I thought we might delve into just who the main antagonist in the Three Musketeers is and whether or not he truly is a bad guy. The basis of Cardinal Richelieu is all there in history. He was a massive schemer and was very power hungry. He has been noted to have even made deals with Protestants even though there were very uneasy tensions between them and the Catholics. One of the most interesting differences between history and the Three Musketeers is that Richelieu was not orchestrating a war against the English. Instead, most of his schemes involved helping the Deutch Republic fight against Spain and the Holy Roman Empire in the Eighty Years War. One similarity to the novel is that his schemes never worked out. In the novel, his plot to power is stopped by the Musketeers. In history, he was stopped by France almost going bankrupt. Another common theme is his poor reception among the people. In the novel, he is not liked by most people although it is not exactly said why. In real life, he was considered by many a traitor to the Catholic Church for his deals with Protestants. His biggest failure to the people is most likely sending France into near bankruptcy. Back in the 1600s, there was no middle class. Richelieu was part of the upper class, so when he raised taxes to pay for his war efforts, he exempted most of the high class from paying. This was not received well at all by the lower class. This led to revolts against the higher class that Cardinal Richelieu always stomped out with brute military action. We cannot say for sure, but there is a strong chance that a similar thing happened to the French lower class in the novel. The Cardinal is pretty accurately portrayed in the Three Musketeers.