Cardinal Mazarin
Cardinal Jules Mazarin, born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino (1602-1661) was a French cardinal and statesman who controlled the French government while Louis XIV was young. He was born in Pescina, Italy on July 14, 1602. He was educated by Jesuits at Rome and was named papal envoy of France in 1634. There he met Cardinal Richelieu and secretly aided him in the Thirty Years' War against Austrian and Spanish Habsburgs. Mazarin was made a cardinal by the pope as a reward for his service to France from King Louis XIII. After the death of Richelieu in 1642, Mazarin succeeded him as the Prime Minister of France. In 1643, the cardinal became chief minister and tutor to the young Louis XIV after the death of Louis XIII. Having kept Richelieu's policies of centralization, Mazarin was blamed for the civil disturbances of the Fronde, and was forced to leave Paris twice. He returned to the kingdom in 1653 when the nobles' revolts had ended.
In terms of foreign policy and diplomatic relations, Mazarin ended the Peace of Westphalia, which brought the Thirty Years' War to a conclusion and brought French prestige, and concluded the Peace of the Pyrenees, which ended the Franco-Spanish conflict. He was also an avid art collector and gambler, making a massive fortune. He founded the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture (1648), introduced Italian opera at court, and established an important library in Paris.