Marie de Medicis had showed little sign of political acumen or ability before the assassination in 1610 of her husband, Henry IV of France.

Confirmed as Regent by the Parlement of Paris just hours after Henry's assassination in 1610, she has proven not very bright and extremely stubborn.

Growing obese, she has for some years now been entirely under the influence of her maid Leonora "Galigai" and the latter's unscrupulous Italian husband, Concino Concini, Count della Penna, a Florentine native who had arrived France in the Queen’s train, had combined his court connections with wit and boldness to make his fortune.

He had in 1610 purchased the marquisate of Ancre and the position of first gentleman-in-waiting.

He had then obtained successively the governments of Amiens and of Normandy, governor of Péronne, Roye and Montdidier and in 1613 the baton of marshal of France, despite never having fought a battle.

The Queen had become Regent of France when the nine-year old Louis ascended the throne; although her son had reached the legal age of majority in 1614, she remains the effective ruler of the realm.

Under the Regent's lax and capricious rule, the princes of the blood and the great nobles of the kingdom had revolted, and the queen, too weak to assert her authority, had consented on May 15, 1614) to buy off the discontented princes.

The opposition is led by Henry II de Bourbon-Condé, Duc d'Enghien, the third Prince of Condé, who has pressured Marie into convoking the Estates General. (This will turn out to be the last time they are to meet in France until the opening events of the French Revolution.)

Through Concini and the Regent, Italian representatives of the Roman Catholic Church hope to force the suppression of Protestantism in France.

Half Habsburg herself, Marie has abandoned the traditional anti-Habsburg French policy.

Throwing her support to Habsburg Spain, she arranges the marriage of her 13-year-old daughter, Elisabeth, to the future Philip IV of Spain.

The construction and furnishing of the Palais du Luxembourg in Paris, which the queen refers to as her Palais Médicis, forms her major artistic project.

The site had been purchased in 1612 and construction begins in 1615, to designs of Salomon de Brosse.

Concini, as the first minister of the French realm, has from 1613 abandoned the policy of Henry IV, compromised his wise legislation, allowed the treasury to be pillaged, and drawn upon himself the hatred of all classes.

The nobles are bitterly hostile to him, particularly Condé, with whom he negotiates the Treaty of Loudun in 1616, which agreement officially ends the revolts that many nobles in France have established.

Based on the terms of the treaty, the Huguenots are allowed to unite their churches in France with those in Béarn.

Moreover, the treaty grants amnesty to the princes of Condé.

The amnesty not withstanding, Concini, through Queen Marie, has Henry II arrested on September 3, 1616.

This is done on the advice of Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu, Bishop of Luçon, who in 1614 had at the age of 29 been elected by the clergymen of Poitou as one of their representatives to the States-General.

Here, Richelieu had been a vigorous advocate of the Church, arguing that it should be exempt from taxes and that bishops should have more political power.

He is the most prominent clergyman to support the adoption of the decrees of the Council of Trent throughout France; the Third Estate (commoners) is his chief opponent in this endeavor.

At the end of the assembly, the First Estate (the clergy) chooses him to deliver the address enumerating its petitions and decisions.

Soon after the dissolution of the States-General, Richelieu had entered the service of King Louis XIII's wife, Anne of Austria, as her almoner.

Richelieu has advanced politically by faithfully serving Concini.

Made Secretary of State in 1616, he is given responsibility for foreign affairs.

Like Concini, the Bishop is one of the closest advisors of Louis XIII's mother, Marie de Medicis.

However, her policies, and those of Concini, have proved unpopular with many in France.

As a result, both Marie and Concini have become the targets of intrigues at court; their most powerful enemy is Charles d'Albert, Duke of Luynes, the favorite of King Louis.

The first son of Honoré d'Albert (d. 1592), seigneur de Luynes, who had served the three last Valois kings and of Henry IV of France, Charles had been brought up at court and attended the dauphin.

The king shares his fondness for hunting and has rapidly advanced him in favor.

He had in 1615 been appointed commander of the Louvre and counselor, and the following year Grand Falconer of France.

Anne of Austria, born at Benavente Palace in Valladolid, Spain, and baptized Ana María Mauricia, is the daughter of Habsburg parents, Philip III of Spain and Margaret of Austria.

She holds the titles of Infanta of Spain and of Portugal and Archduchess of Austria.

Anne had been betrothed at age 11 to Louis XIII.

Her father, Philip, had given her a dowry of five hundred thousand crowns and many beautiful jewels.

For fear that Louis XIII would die early, they said that if this was the case, she would return to Spain with her dowry, jewels, and wardrobe.

The pecuniary arrangements being thus satisfied, Anne had been saluted as the Queen of France.

Following the tradition of cementing military and political alliances between France and Spain that had begun with the marriage of Philip II of Spain to Elisabeth of Valois in 1559 as part of the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, Louis and Anne had been married by proxy in Burgos on November 24, 1615, while Louis's sister, Elizabeth, and Anne's brother, Philip IV of Spain, were married by proxy in Bordeaux.

Anne and Elisabeth had both been exchanged on the Isle of Pheasants, between Hendaye and Fuenterrabía.

Anne and Louis, both fourteen years old, had been pressured to consummate the marriage in order to forestall any possibility of future annulment, but Louis has ignored his bride.

Louis's mother, Marie de' Medici, continues to conduct herself as Queen of France, without any deference to her daughter-in-law.

Anne, surrounded by her entourage of highborn Spanish ladies-in-waiting, continues to live according to Spanish etiquette and failed to improve her French.

The accession of Richelieu to the Regent’s councils has strengthened her policy, but her son Louis XIII, at sixteen already several years into his legal majority, asserts his authority in 1617.

Incited by Charles d'Albert, duc de Luynes, the king overturns the pro-Habsburg, pro-Spanish policy by ordering the assassination of Concini, who maintains a personal army of seven thousand soldiers and important supporters and contacts among the aristocrats of France.

The baron de Vitry, Nicolas de L'Hospital, head of the royal guards, receives in the king's name the order to imprison him.

Concini, apprehended on the bridge of the Louvre on April 26, is killed by guards after allegedly calling out À moi! ("To me!") for help, which is interpreted as resistance.

After his murder, the Queen Mother is ordered to retire to the Château de Blois.

Concini's wife, Leonora, is arrested, imprisoned in Blois and accused of sorcery.

She is beheaded and her body subsequently burned at the stake on July 8 of the same year in Place de Grève, Paris.

The Concinis' chattels and estates, in particularly the castle of Lésigny and the palace of Rue de Tournon are confiscated by King Louis XIII and given to the Duke of Luynes.

Luynes is in the same year appointed captain of the Bastille and lieutenant-general of Normandy, and marries Marie de Rohan, daughter of the duke of Montbazon.

Richelieu, his patron having died, also loses power; he is dismissed as Secretary of State, removed from the court, and appointed to his bishopric.

The duc de Luynes is made governor of Picardy in 1619.

In his attempts to remedy the formal distance between Louis and his queen, Luynes has sent away the Spanish ladies and replaced them with French ones, notably the princesse de Conti and Marie de Rohan-Montbazon, his wife, and organizes court events that bring the couple together under amiable circumstances.

Anne has begun to dress in the French manner, and in 1619 Luynes presses the King to bed his Queen: some affection develops, to the point where it is noted that Louis is distracted during a serious illness of the Queen.

Luynes’s rapid rise to power has made him a host of enemies, who look upon him as but a second Concini.

In order to justify his newly won laurels, Luynes has undertakenan expedition against the Protestants, but on December 15, 1621, dies of a fever in the midst of the campaign, at Longueville in Guienne.