Marie de Medici's Regency: Testing the Restoration

The regency of Marie de Medici (1610-1617) tested whether Henry IV's restoration could survive without his personal authority. The queen mother, lacking her husband's military reputation and political skill, faced immediate challenges from great nobles seeking to exploit royal minority. Her regency demonstrated both the restored monarchy's resilience and persistent structural weaknesses requiring further reform.

The Estates General of 1614, the last before 1789, revealed competing visions of political order. The nobility demanded restoration of traditional privileges eroded by royal centralization. The clergy sought enforcement of Tridentine reforms and Protestant restriction. The Third Estate, dominated by royal officers, supported strong monarchy as protection against aristocratic oppression. Marie's government satisfied none completely while preventing united opposition, showing defensive competence if not creative leadership.

Noble rebellions, led by princes like Condé claiming to liberate the king from evil counselors, combined traditional aristocratic resistance with new ideological justifications. The régency's response—buying off rebels with pensions and governorships—secured temporary peace at the cost of royal authority and finances. The Spanish marriages (Louis XIII to Anne of Austria, his sister to the future Philip IV) reversed Henry IV's anti-Habsburg orientation while promising international stability.

The rise of Richelieu began during this period. The young bishop of Luçon, representing clergy at the Estates General, impressed observers with his eloquence and royalist dedication. His appointment as Secretary of State (1616) marked the beginning of his governmental career. Though temporarily eclipsed by Louis XIII's coup against his mother (1617), Richelieu had demonstrated the political skills that would transform French monarchy.