Victor-Lucien Tapié (1900–1974)

Seventeenth-century France is dominated by Louis XIV, with far less attention (outside of retellings of The Three Musketeers) paid to his predecessor and father, Louis XIII. Inheriting the throne on the heels of his own father's assassination, Louis XIII ruled France with the aid of Cardinal Richelieu, a talented administrator. Much of this book is concerned with the political machinations in European politics, but the author also discusses the domestic implications of many policies (or lack show more thereof) which often left the ordinary people of France in dire circumstances. An interesting read on an under-covered subject. show less

4896. France in the Age of Louis XIII and Richelieu, by Victor-L. Tapie translated and edited by D. McN. Lockie (read 18 Jan 2012) This is an excellent study of the time, 1610 to 1643, in France. The author is a French historian and first published the book in 1952. He died in 1974 which is when the English translation was published in Britain. The author does a good job showing that absolutism may have been helpful to France as a nation, although certainly not to the ordinary people of show more France. And the author shows that Richelieu was a very able man and Louis XIII was lucky to have him. Certainly the history of Europe would have been very different if Richelieu had not been running France in the years involved. show less

Bruxelles