Armand-Emmanuel de Richelieu, Portrait by T. Lawrence from the collection of Elizabeth II (1818). Fragment.
Armand Emmanuel Sophie-Septimani de Vignereau du Plessis, Comte de Chinon, 5th Duke of Richelieu - full name Duke of Richelieu - was born in 1766 in Paris. With the beginning of the Great French Revolution, even before the proclamation of the First French Republic, his life in his homeland - with such and such a title - became unsafe.
He moved to Russia, where he quickly turned into Emmanuel Osipovich Richelieu, or simply Duke (from the French le duc - Duke) Richelieu. He entered the army, took the Izmail fortress, and wrote plans. In particular, he proposed to Catherine the Great to populate the Azov region with French emigrants.
The Empress, it seems, was not against it, only the emigrants themselves preferred Kuznetsky Most and other similarly comfortable and promising places. And in 1803 he received his fateful appointment - he became the third mayor of Odessa.
His first predecessor was Joseph de Ribas. It was he who founded this city, and it was in his honor that its main street, Deribasovskaya, was named. But what kind of city it was - it’s scary to imagine. Clay huts, several unfinished churches and impassable roads. There weren't even any trees. They were dropped off personally by de Ribas with the help of his three brothers.
Except that the name was proud - Odessa. So - Odessos - was the name of the ancient Greek colony, which, according to historians of that time, was located somewhere nearby.
True, scientists subsequently established that this ancient settlement was further south, where the Bulgarian city of Varna is now.
As a result, many Varna restaurants, shops and hotels are called “Odessos”, which completely disorients Russian and Ukrainian tourists who come to the budget Bulgarian coast to improve their health.
Alas, de Ribas died in 1800 (presumably poisoned by Count Peter Palen), and Pavel Vasilyevich Pustoshkin became the second mayor. Well, Pustoshkin and Pustoshkin, there’s nothing to say here. And then Duke Richelieu took office. Or simply Duke, as he was called in Odessa. Everyone immediately understood what we were talking about. And is it true - are there many Dukes in Odessa?
Odessa, old city port. Image from wikipedia.org
Even the telegraphic enumeration of all the good deeds and achievements of Duke Richelieu in the field of the Odessa mayor is impressive. Reduced taxes to an unimaginable minimum. Achieved free Russian and European transit for goods arriving in Odessa by sea. As a result, the local port in a matter of years became the largest in Novorossia.
He obtained permission to open (and, of course, opened) a commercial school and a gymnasium. Then private gymnasiums, a “noble institute” (the future Richelieu Lyceum), a city hospital and a magnificent theater, built according to the design of Richelieu’s talented fellow countryman, architect Jean Thomas de Thomon, began to appear. Duke establishes European financial institutions - a stock exchange, a commercial bank, an insurance company.
Foreign consulates are opening in the city - Richelieu is luring enterprising people from all over Europe in every possible way.
Greek gardeners settle on the outskirts. The German Miller opens a wool smelter. Order in the city is maintained by detachments of Zaporozhye Cossacks.
Over time, streets with eloquent names appeared in Odessa - Moldavanka, Greek, Polish, Bulgarian, Jewish. Boulevards – Italian and French. Lanes - Lutheran and Armenian. Big and Small Arnaut - Albanians were called Arnauts in those days.
Persians, Egyptians and British lived here. It was then that the multinational character of this unique Black Sea city was laid.
I.K. Aivazovsky, “View of Odessa on a moonlit night” (1846). Image from wikipedia.org
Duke Richelieu perceived his city as his own. Like your property, which needs to be constantly improved. He loved acacias very much - and used his own funds to buy seedlings to decorate city streets. When I had a free minute, I dropped them off myself. And he distributed seedlings to everyone, free of charge, on the promise to take care of them.
Duke could be very strict when necessary. In particular, when the plague epidemic began in Odessa, he immediately took safety measures and carefully monitored their compliance. The city was surrounded by an impenetrable cordon.
The port was closed. Residents were prohibited from leaving their homes. Food was sold to them through windows, and this same food was brought only along one road, which was strictly controlled by sanitary doctors. When transferred, the money was immersed in a bowl with vinegar for disinfection.
View of Odessa from Cape Peresyp. 19th century. Image: masterok.livejournal.com
The dead were buried far outside the city. At the same time, Duke himself dug graves to bury the dead, setting an example for the frightened gravediggers.
As a result, Odessa escaped with “little blood.” Only one-eighth of the city's residents died - in other cities this sad percentage was much higher.
However, Richelieu loved and knew how to celebrate. The townspeople remembered the day when the first convoy of wheat was brought to the city. Duke arranged a rich festive dinner at his own expense, with both himself and everyone present sitting on large sacks of grain.
But for himself, Duke Richelieu did not buy either expensive clothes or luxurious furniture. He didn’t even build a decent mansion for himself - he lived all the time in some cramped rooms, furnished with simple stools.
Really, why does he need all this? He had a whole city. And he had no time to sybarize on soft sofas - from morning to evening Duke traveled around the city, constantly talking with merchants, then with artisans, then with sailors, then with doctors, then with teachers. He was omnipresent and accessible to everyone.
During the twelve years of Duke's reign, the population of Odessa quadrupled. Other indicators were no less impressive. Richelieu himself wrote, not without pride, to the Russian emperor: “Odessa and Novorossiya made such progress in the shortest possible time like no other state in the world.”
And he continued: “When I arrived in Odessa in 1803, I was able to get myself a dozen of the simplest chairs within six weeks, and even those I had to order from Kherson. In 1813, furniture worth 60,000 rubles was sent from Odessa to Constantinople, and no worse than what was made in Moscow or St. Petersburg. What country can boast of such results?
Odessa residents prayed for their mayor. One could not even dream of such a flourishing of the city. One of his contemporaries wrote: “Thirty thousand people live in Odessa and everyone, without exception, adore Duke.”
They tried to marry him to some well-born Novorossiysk beauty. But to no avail - Duke Richelieu was single, but nevertheless married. When he was fifteen years old, young Armand was married to the daughter of the Duke of Rochechouart, Rosalie Sabina. Immediately after his marriage, Richelieu went on a kind of honeymoon, and his wife remained in Paris - she was only thirteen, and there could be no adult relationship between the newlyweds.
A year and a half later, Richelieu returned, met his wife and was horrified. During his absence, an insidious disease completely changed the girl. She became completely ugly in appearance.
One of her contemporaries described this meeting as follows: “The old marshal and the Duke de Fronsac (Rosalia’s closest relatives) placed between them a small monster, hunchbacked in front and behind, only 4 feet tall, which they presented to the Comte de Chinon as the girlfriend of his life.
He retreated three pairs of steps and fell unconscious on the stairs. He was carried to his rooms.
He said he was too ill to appear at the salon, wrote to his relatives about his firm determination to never fully consummate this marriage, for which he felt a cruel disgust, already at night he demanded post horses, and they took the desperate man along the road to Germany.”
Nevertheless, Richelieu decides not to dissolve the marriage, no matter what. Formally, they remained spouses, and Richelieu remained faithful.
Another close relative of Rosalia recalls that she was: “humpbacked in front and behind, hunchbacked like a Polichinelle, with a huge nose, huge hands and very short stature.”
And here are the impressions of Alexander the First, to whom Rosalia was presented at the Elysee Palace: “I now understand the behavior of the Duke de Richelieu towards his wife. Oh! my dear, she is ugly and terrible. I believe him that she has a lot of soul and wonderful qualities, but at the age of twenty it took superhuman courage to see such ugliness.”
By the way, the words about spiritual qualities were not empty at all. Rosalia truly had an angelic character, an extraordinary mind and great fortitude. Richelieu's correspondence with his wife was sincere and tender.
That’s how they lived – Rosalia in Paris, and Arman in Russia. Richelieu could have filed for divorce, everyone would have understood him. But he considered himself not entitled to do this. So he lived his whole life as a straw widower, leaving no offspring.
Odessa. Cathedral Square in the middle of the 19th century. Image from wikipedia.org
In 1814, Armand Emmanuel Sophie-Septimani de Vignereau du Plessis returned to France. After the defeat of Napoleon and the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy, this became possible again, and the call of the homeland turns out to be stronger than attachment to Odessa.
Foma Koble, who has shown little success, takes over the post of mayor of Odessa (this, however, is not a tragedy; the next year he will be replaced by the legendary Alexander Langeron, Odessa will begin to prosper again). Richelieu accepts the offer of Alexander the First and becomes prime minister during the reign of Louis XVIII.
Seeing Duke off, the residents of Odessa carried him out to the carriage in their arms.
In 1818, Alexander the First arrived in the city. Of course, he knew about the successes of Odessa, but it is one thing to know, and another to see. The Emperor is amazed. A belated award is traveling from St. Petersburg to Paris - the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called, the highest order of the Russian Empire.
Monument to de Richelieu in Odessa. Image from wikipedia.org
In 1822, Duke died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Upon learning of this, Alexander the First burst into tears. “I mourn the Duke of Richelieu as the only friend who told me the truth. He was a model of honor and truthfulness,” the emperor admitted to the French ambassador.
Odessa residents decide to erect a monument to their beloved mayor. Alexander Longeron personally announces the collection of donations - there is money in the treasury, but the monument simply must be popular. The required amount is collected quickly - thanks to Richelieu, Odessa residents are rich.
Ivan Petrovich Martos, who by that time had already glorified himself with the Moscow monument to Minin and Pozharsky, began work. And in 1828 the statue was unveiled.
The monument to Duke Richelieu became the main symbol of Odessa. The second in a row was the same Opera House, which was built by Thomas de Thomon on the personal instructions of Duke. Another Odessa symbol - rather unofficial - has become a blooming acacia.
- “the home Duke of Odessa”, as the poet Yuri Mikhailik once very aptly called him. People came and went, time broke monuments, destroyed graveyards and houses, but this monument stood against all odds. Although, it must be admitted, there was a moment when the fate of “Duke” literally hung in the balance. An ardent fighter against “rootless cosmopolitans,” then director of the public library and “local historian,” V.A. Zagoruiko worked diligently to dismantle this symbol of the city.
Why did the mostly irresponsible and not overly grateful human memory make an exception for him? The answer to this question was directly and unequivocally voiced back in pre-revolutionary Russia:
“Humanity and culture - very rare in the highest administrative posts of the empire - precisely constituted the essence of Richelieu as a leader and a person.”
Nobody has done more for Odessa and Odessa residents than Duke. Even M.S. Vorontsov, who, despite all his scale, followed in line with the undertakings of his outstanding predecessor, developed and supplemented them. It was Richelieu who opened the city to Europe and the world, which says it all completely.
Taking advantage of unlimited powers, the friendly disposition of the monarch, and significant budgetary funds, Duke laid the foundations for the infrastructure of Odessa as the largest point of transit trade between East and West. It was he who established grain exports, invited and helped settle agricultural colonists from Germany, France, Switzerland and other countries, turned Odessa into a European city, freed it from exorbitant taxes, and formulated the idea of porto-franco, which was implemented under his successor, Langeron. Respecting the interests of both state and regional, Richelieu ensured that the grain trade between Russia and Turkey did not stop even when they were in a state of military conflicts! It was he who saved the city and the region from a fierce plague; Risking his life, he personally visited plague-ridden neighborhoods and houses, encouraging the townspeople and truly sharing his last piece of bread with them. It was Duke who gave all the money he earned while serving in Russia to create in Odessa the most significant educational institution in the South - the Lyceum, the second in the state after Tsarskoye Selo. It was he who built the city hospital and the theater, in which the best opera troupes in the empire performed. It can be argued that on this southern outskirts of Russia, at his instigation, a truly European port city arose with all the attributes - self-government, a stock exchange, a commercial court, quarantine, transport maritime offices, insurance and banking institutions, charitable, educational, cultural institutions, etc.
Eleven years (1803 - 1814) Richelieu lived in small rooms, at the first stage “furnished” with stools and trestle beds without varnish, in an environment devoid of a hint of luxury. His working day lasted almost 17 hours. He actually carried out all the paperwork himself, and he drafted response documents in the languages in which he was addressed. Duke ate very modestly, and maintained a small office at his own expense. Walking or driving around the city every day, he delved into all the smallest matters, talking with merchants, contractors, military men, doctors, artisans, guests of the city, foreign consuls, common people, and attended all public and private balls. Seriously concerned about the problem of landscaping Odessa and the surrounding waterless territories, Richelieu personally ordered expensive seedlings from abroad and then constantly inspected literally every planted tree, strictly punishing those responsible for negligence.
All the information presented takes on a different meaning if we consider that Duke is a refined representative of an aristocratic family as noble as he is ancient, and that one of his ancestors is the famous cardinal, the all-powerful minister of Louis XIII, somewhat compromised, however, by Dumas’s father in “The Three Musketeers” " Upon the death of Cardinal de Richelieu in 1642, his family castle on the banks of the Loire and the duchy passed to his great-nephew, Armand Richelieu, who was a peer of France, commander of the fleet and troops stationed throughout the Levant. This circumstance gave rise to confusion with two different Armand de Richelieu. In any case, as you understand, our Duke simply did not physically exist in 1642, since he was born 124 years later, in 1766.
What kind of family ties, in turn, connect these two different Armans?
Everything here is quite simple. The cardinal's great-nephew transferred all his regalia and possessions to his son, Louis Francois de Richelieu, a French marshal widely known for his numerous alcove adventures. This loving marshal left the title to his son, Duke Fronsac, and he left the title to his heir, Count Chinon, our Odessa Duke. Thus, Duke Armand-Em Manuel du Plessis de Richelieu simultaneously bore the titles of Count of Chinon and Duke of Fronsac. So it turns out that Duke is the great-great-great-nephew of Cardinal Richelieu.
Such a grandiose and enviable pedigree did not prevent the Kherson military governor and the first Odessa mayor from being, perhaps, the most humane of all the administrators Odessa knew. Apparently, France did not know a better prime minister than Richelieu, and it was this primary post that he occupied after returning to Paris. When Duke died (1822), Emperor Alexander Pavlovich, who sincerely considered Richelieu a close person and confidant, said to the French ambassador:
“I mourn the Duke of Richelieu as the only friend who told me the truth. He was a model of honor and truthfulness."
At the same time, the words were heard in the French Academy: “He did not call for good, but knew how to prepare and bring it closer.”
I would like to emphasize another extremely significant point in the biography of our city. If Duke had not chosen the then nondescript and seedy Odessa as the administrative center of a huge region - and yet it could well have settled on the then much more developed Nikolaev, Kherson or, say, on any of the ports of Crimea, its brilliant future would have been in big question...
Armand Emmanuel Sophia-Septimani de Vignereau du Plessis, the fifth Duke of Richelieu, known throughout the post-Soviet space as the Duke of Odessa, was the great-great-grandnephew of the famous cardinal, the all-powerful minister during the reign of Louis XIII. The cardinal, having no direct heirs due to his spiritual title, bequeathed all the titles received from the king to the grandson of his sister, whose direct descendant was the Duke.
Armand Emmanuel Sophie Septemanie de Vignerot du Plessis, Comte de Chinon, 5th Duke of Richelieu (French: Armand Emmanuel Sophie Septemanie de Vignerot du Plessis, 5eme duc de Richelieu; September 14, 1766, Paris - May 17, 1822). Portrait by T. Lawrence from the collection of Elizabeth I
Photo: sco.wikipedia.org
The fifth Duke of Richelieu was born in Paris on September 25, 1766. Due to his noble origin, at the age of 17 he received the high court position of chamberlain. But the brilliance of the big world attracted little attention to the young scion of the famous family. Perhaps he felt that honors came too easily to him. Therefore, he did not strive to live in Paris, and the events of the Great French Revolution found him far from the French capital. In 1790, Richelieu was in Vienna, where he received news of the Russian command's intention to storm Ishmael, a powerful Turkish fortress at the mouth of the Danube. The Duke immediately expressed a desire to enter the Russian service and take part in this glorious undertaking.
It should be noted that neither staying in Vienna nor joining a foreign army was at that time political emigration, in the full sense of the word. In 1790, the flywheel of the revolution had not yet gained momentum; most French aristocrats did not consider life in their homeland dangerous. Many expected changes for the better. Louis XVI himself was on the throne, and did not fully realize that he was, in fact, a prisoner of his subjects. Revolutionary events began to take truly harsh forms only after the king’s attempt to escape in 1792.
But long before the storming of the Bastille, which took place, as we know, on July 14, 1789, many French nobles were looking for careers abroad. The reign of Louis XVI seemed boring and unpromising to the aristocrats, for whom war was considered the only worthy occupation. Many entered foreign service. Small-scale nobles hoped to make a career, those whose career was determined by their pedigree were looking for self-realization. Thus, the Marquis Lafayette and Count Langeron fought for the independence of America, many rushed to the expanding Russian Empire. There were also more exotic options, for example, Turkey. Who to serve was not so important. Count de Dama, in response to the question why, in fact, he offered his sword to the Russian and not the Turkish government, replied: “Because if I do something wrong in Russia, they will cut off my head; and if I do something wrong in Turkey, then I will be imprisoned.” count". Some of his compatriots were not afraid of such considerations. In the memoirs of Alexandra Osipovna Smirnova-Rosset, daughter of the Chevalier de Rosset, an associate of Richelieu during his Novorossiysk governorship, the following facts can be gleaned from the biography of her father: “... benefactors advised him to accept the position of dragoman at the Porte. The Porte then paid with a generous hand and rewarded the dragomans with precious stones, pearls and shawls... Three years later, my father got tired of this position, and he came to Kherson and joined the Black Sea Rowing Flotilla, commanded by the famous, intelligent and respected Admiral Mordvinov and Vice- Admirals Lambro and de Galeto." It is important to emphasize that the Besançon nobleman Chevalier de Rosset was by no means a rogue, ready at any moment to sell his sword to anyone who would pay the most. In the Russian service, he established himself as a selfless person, and, more importantly, highly responsible, completely devoted to the laws of honor. Odessa residents owe him a lot. But the above change of duty station was not in insoluble contradiction with the ethics of that time.
However, during the second Russian-Turkish war, the sympathies of the majority of the French were not on the side of the Turks. In France at the end of the 18th century. there was a certain fashion for Russia. The rulers of thought, Voltaire and Diderot, widely advertised the enlightened Russian empress, with whom they were in correspondence. There was also some commonality of political interests. Thus, France supported America against England during the War of Independence. England was counting on Russian support, but Catherine categorically refused to violate her neutrality. There was also an opinion that Russia is a real Eldorado for anyone who knows their business well. In general, there was nothing unusual in Richelieu’s decision to fight the Turks in the ranks of the Russian army. In addition, at that moment his friend Count Langeron was in Vienna, having already fought under Russian banners in Sweden. Having learned about the upcoming assault on Izmail, the young people, not sparing their horses, rushed to Bendery, where Prince Potemkin’s headquarters was located. Nine days later they appeared before the eyes of His Serene Highness and were enlisted in the Russian service, with the rank of colonels.
During the storming of the fortress, both young aristocrats showed their best side and were awarded the St. George Crosses of the 4th degree and the excellent courage shown during the storming of the Izmail fortress, with the destruction of the army that was there.” Richelieu also received the rank of lieutenant general in the Russian army. But after the end of the military campaign, the Duke resigns and returns to Paris to settle his personal affairs. In his absence, the family's financial situation was greatly shaken.
The descendant of the great cardinal managed to visit his homeland and leave it again with a legal passport, before the stormy waves of revolutionary changes finally overwhelmed France. During this period, the Duke participated in political life very moderately. Perhaps it was difficult for him to decide on his sympathies. Judging by a number of statements in the years preceding the revolution, he adhered to liberal views, but later remained faithful to the circle to which he belonged by birth.
In 1892, having arrived in St. Petersburg, Richelieu tried to arrange the fate of French emigrants, many of whom by that time were experiencing financial difficulties. He initiated the so-called Crimean project, which consisted of transferring the army of Prince Condé to the newly conquered Crimea. The Russian government allocated 630,000 acres of land to the French emigration on the shores of the Sea of Azov. It was supposed to form two colonies. Each colony was divided into ten districts, each district into five villages. “Forty musketeers-nobles and twenty musketeers-non-nobles were to settle in each village. Each musketeer-nobleman was allocated sixty acres of land, a non-nobleman - thirty (officers - three hundred each). In addition, each settler, regardless of origin, was given two mares , two cows, six sheep. The colonists, according to the project, also received a salary. The Prince of Condé himself was appointed inspector general of the emigrant colony, and the Duke of Richelieu was appointed its governor.
The Duke's initiative did not delight his compatriots. The royalists, expelled from their homeland, did not want to raise sheep in the southern Russian steppes; they wanted to fight the French Republic. And it was not entirely unreasonable to believe that it was the duty of every European monarch to support them in this endeavor, including financially. However, the Russian public found their government's offer very generous and was offended by the pickiness of the French. By that time, the wave of sympathy for the emigrants had already subsided, and at European courts they were increasingly treated as annoying beggars. The Count of Provence, the younger brother of the executed King Louis XVI, who found temporary shelter in Prussia in 1896, was forced to rent three rooms in the brewer’s house. Meanwhile, since 1795, he was proclaimed the legitimate king of France by Louis XVIII and the Prussian king recognizes his status.
In 1799, Emperor Paul I, who replaced Catherine II on the Russian throne, offered the exiled king his hospitality. Paul turned out to be more generous than the Prussian government. He puts at the disposal of Louis a palace in Mitava (modern Jelgava in Latvia) and gives him the opportunity to maintain a court of 100 nobles. Soon, Princess Maria Theresa, the daughter of the executed Louis XVI, the only one of his family to survive the years of terror, also arrives in Mitau.
By his origin, the fifth Duke of Richelieu had every right to be with the king, but he chose to stay in St. Petersburg. At first he was in active service, but serving under Paul was not an easy task. The nervous, unbalanced emperor sent his officers and officials into retirement in droves, and even to Siberia. The staff turnover under him was colossal. Richelieu, like many others, did not avoid resignation, which, however, he himself desired, and for some time he lived in St. Petersburg as a private person, experiencing significant financial difficulties. He was again called up for Russian service in 1803, in the third year of the reign of Alexander I.
Alexandra Osipovna Rosset, Richelieu’s goddaughter, describes his return to service this way: “Emperor Alexander was quick-witted and immediately, recognizing Duke Richelieu, said to him: “Dear Duke!” You know, I feel remorse. I inherited the south of Russia. This region is rich and fertile, but landowners use their rights to ruin it. “I give you unlimited powers and ask you to establish connections between Little Russia, Turkey and the ports of the Mediterranean Sea as soon as possible.” “Sire,” Richelieu answered, “I will do everything possible to justify your trust. I ask you only one condition: let my sword never be directed against the French.” - “Go, dear Duke. I'm letting you go."
Thus, according to Alexandra Osipovna, the Duke (Duke) of Richelieu was appointed mayor of Odessa and governor-general of the Novorossiysk region. Perhaps her story does not exactly correspond to historical facts in everything, but, in any case, it is documentary evidence of what Duke was like in the eyes of public opinion.
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Armand Jean du Plessis, duc de Richelieu, Cardinal Richelieu, nickname "Red Duke" (French: Armand-Jean du Plessis, duc de Richelieu). Born September 9, 1585 in Paris - died December 4, 1642 in Paris. Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, aristocrat and statesman of France.
Cardinal Richelieu was Secretary of State from 1616 and head of government ("chief minister of the king") from 1624 until his death.
The father's family belonged to the noble nobility of Poitou. The father, François du Plessis de Richelieu, was a prominent statesman during the reign of Henry III, and after his tragic death served Henry IV.
Armand's mother, Suzanne de La Porte, was by no means of aristocratic origin. She was the daughter of the lawyer of the Parisian Parliament, François de La Porte, that is, in essence, the daughter of a bourgeois, who was granted nobility only for his length of service.
Armand was born in Paris, in the parish of Saint-Eustache, on the Rue Boulois (or Bouloir). He was the youngest son in the family. He was baptized only on May 5, 1586, six months after his birth, due to his “frail, sickly” health.
Armand's godfathers were two marshals of France - Armand de Gonto-Biron and Jean d'Aumont, who gave him their names. His godmother was his grandmother, Françoise de Richelieu, née Rochechouart.
In 1588, Armand's father became one of the organizers of the flight of Henry III from the rebellious Paris. The mother and children also left Paris and settled in the family estate of Richelieu's husband in Poitou. After the assassination of the king, Armand's father continued to successfully serve the new king Henry IV of Bourbon. François du Plessis-Richelieu died unexpectedly of a fever on July 19, 1590 at the age of 42, leaving behind only debts. The family began to experience significant financial difficulties. To organize a worthy funeral, Suzanne was even forced to lay the chain of the Order of the Holy Spirit, of which her late husband was a holder. King Henry IV, in recognition of the merits of the late provost, twice allocated funds to the widow totaling 36 thousand livres.
A few years later, Armand returned to Paris, where he was enrolled in the College of Navarre, where both Henry III and Henry IV studied. At college, Armand studied grammar, art and philosophy. After graduating from college, Arman, by family decision, entered the Pluvinel Military Academy. But suddenly circumstances change, since Armand Richelieu must now take the place of Bishop of Luzon, an ecclesiastical diocese granted to the Richelieu family by Henry III. Arman is forced to change his military uniform to a cassock, since this diocese is the only source of income for his family. At this time he is 17 years old. Armand, with his characteristic ebullient energy, begins to study theology.
He was consecrated Bishop of Luzon on April 17, 1607 by Cardinal Givry. Henry IV personally interceded for Richelieu with the Pope, asking permission to be ordained a bishop. Thus, Armand became a bishop at a very early age, which caused a storm of fables and gossip. He defended his dissertation at the Sorbonne for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology on October 29, 1607.
On December 21, 1608, he assumed the office of bishop in Luzon. The diocese of Luzon was one of the poorest in France. Richelieu made great efforts to correct this situation. Under his leadership, the Luzon Cathedral was restored, the bishop's residence was restored, he personally considers the requests of his flock and, to the best of his ability, helps those who turn to him.
The time of his stay in Luzon also included the writing of a number of interesting theological works addressed to the common people - “Admonitions to the Christian,” where Richelieu sets out the main aspects of Christian teaching in a form accessible to the people.
Among other works: “Fundamentals of the Catholic Faith”, “Treatise on the Perfection of a Christian”, “On the Conversion of Heretics”, “Synodal Ordinances”.
In Luzon, Richelieu’s first meeting took place with Father Joseph du Tremblay, a Capuchin monk; later Father Joseph would receive the nickname “gray cardinal” and would play a huge role in Richelieu’s domestic and especially foreign policy.
Richelieu became a member of the clergy at the Estates General of 1614, convened in Paris. He advocated strengthening royal power. This was the time of the regency of Marie de Medici. The Queen Mother actually ruled together with her favorite Concino Concini, and Louis XIII, the King of France, did not participate in governance due to his youth. Richelieu actively spoke at meetings of the States, and his activities were noticed. He became popular. True, Arman himself was disappointed by the States: in his opinion, they were useless, because the orders of the estates and representatives were not studied and taken into account, and economic issues and issues of government were not resolved at all. The court and the Queen Mother were busy preparing marriages: the French princess Elizabeth was given in marriage to the Spanish heir, and the Spanish Infanta Anna was planned to marry Louis XIII.
Soon, Marie de Medici appointed Richelieu as confessor to Anne of Austria. A little later, in November 1616, she appointed him to the post of Minister of War. Richelieu was resolutely opposed to the government's then existing policy aimed at an unequal alliance with Spain and neglect of the national interests of France, but then the Bishop of Luzon did not dare to openly confront the government. The state's finances were also in a deplorable state, and there was a constant threat of further riots and civil war.
On April 24, 1617, the queen's favorite K. Concini was killed. The presumptuous favorite is defeated, and King Louis XIII, who was at the head of this conspiracy, assumes his legal rights. The Bishop of Luson has been removed from his post; Louis does not want to see anyone associated with his mother.
Richelieu will follow Marie de' Medici, who was exiled to the castle of Blois. In Blois, Richelieu begins his most famous written work - Political Testament (French testament politique), which is a work of genius and a textbook on government. The bishop soon returned to Luzon, from where he was then exiled to Avignon in April 1618. But soon the king orders him to follow Maria de Medici in order to reason with her (the queen mother wanted to rebel against her own son). Richelieu copes brilliantly with this mission. Peace has been restored in the kingdom. The bishop's disgrace has been lifted.
In 1622 he was elevated to the rank of cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He began to actively appear at court and participate in political intrigues. Meanwhile, the situation in the state remained deplorable. King Louis XIII needed a man who could find a way out of the impasse, and Richelieu turned out to be that man. On August 13, 1624, Armand de Richelieu became the first minister of Louis XIII.
In his “Political Testament” Richelieu writes about the situation in France at that time: “When Your Majesty deigned to call me to your Council, I can certify that the Huguenots shared power in the state with you, the nobles behaved as if they were not your subjects, and the governors felt like sovereigns of their lands... alliances with foreign states were in a state of disrepair , and self-interest was preferred to personal benefit.”
Richelieu understood that the main enemies in the international arena were the Habsburg monarchies of Austria and Spain. But France was not yet ready for open conflict. Richelieu knew that the state lacked the necessary resources for this; it was necessary to solve internal problems. Meanwhile, he rejects an alliance with England and its first minister and, according to Richelieu, a great charlatan and adventurer, the Duke of Buckingham.
Inside the country, Richelieu successfully uncovers a conspiracy against the king, aimed at eliminating the monarch and placing his younger brother Gaston on the throne. Many noble nobles and the queen herself participate in the conspiracy. The assassination of the cardinal was also planned. It is after this that the cardinal gets a personal guard, which will later become the cardinal’s guard regiment.
War with England and the siege of La Rochelle:
According to the Edict of Nantes, the Huguenots had their own organization, their own fortresses (the garrisons of which were paid by the king) and their own cities. This allowed the Huguenots to very effectively defend their privileges; for example, La Rochelle not only had self-government, but also paid practically no taxes.
The presence in the kingdom of such an independent organization as the Huguenots contradicted Richelieu's ideas about the centralization of the country. Therefore, the Cardinal began a fight against the Huguenots, including laying siege to La Rochelle.
In 1627, the English fleet captured the island of Re. The attack was led by the Duke of Buckingham. Buckingham seeks to incite a Huguenot uprising in France, the center of which is located in the fortified fortress of La Rochelle, and the Duke also incites the Duke de Rohan, the leader of the Huguenot opposition in France, to revolt. De Rohan managed to create a “state within a state” in the west of the country, where Huguenots predominated. In London, where the main goal was to prevent France from becoming a strong maritime power, they hoped to take advantage of this situation. La Rochelle demanded exceptional tax privileges for itself. Richelieu wanted to place all ports and all trade under strict control to ensure transparent control over taxes; special control was to be introduced in La Rochelle. These were the main reasons for the conflict, which should not be called religious: Richelieu acted exclusively as a statesman seeking to suppress internal opposition and unite the kingdom.
In September 1627, La Rochelle opposes the king's army. The siege of the city begins, commanded by the king and the cardinal. But attempts to storm lead nowhere - the city is heavily fortified, especially since the British supply food and supplies by sea. Then Richelieu proposes a method, which then seems crazy. A similar method, however, was used almost two thousand years earlier by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. e. during the siege of Tire: a dam was built from the mainland to the island, and so the city was taken. It was this experience that the cardinal decided to repeat. By March 1628, the dam was built, and La Rochelle was blocked from the sea. The English fleet tried unsuccessfully to destroy the dam. Buckingham was eager to continue the war, but in August 1628 he was killed by the fanatic John Felton. In October 1628, La Rochelle fell. The capture of the city played an important role in suppressing political opposition.
Richelieu's actions in resolving the conflict with the rebellious Huguenots of La Rochelle led to accusations against the cardinal of neglecting the interests of the Catholic Church and unjustified connivance with heretics, many of whom were pardoned by the cardinal after they took an oath of allegiance to the King of France. Remaining a sincere Catholic, Richelieu clearly distinguished between political Huguenots, that is, those who advocated the existence of a political party independent from the center, and religious ones, whom he sought to convince through persuasion. The idea of religious freedom, which Richelieu defended, was not supported by everyone. The First Minister is awarded the nickname “Cardinal of the Huguenots” and “Cardinal of the State.” Undoubtedly, Richelieu never made distinctions between the subjects of the state on religious grounds, but this gave many reasons to consider him a bad Catholic. It can be noted that by 1630 the problem of religious tension in France was resolved thanks to Richelieu, who put forward the idea of unity along national and civil lines. Religious conflicts in the country have ceased. Their resumption will occur only after the death of the cardinal. At the same time, Catholics occupied all key positions, and Protestants were in the position of an oppressed minority.
The main opponent of the creation of a centralized state, which was Richelieu’s goal, was the French aristocracy.
The cardinal sought unconditional submission from the nobility to royal power, and wanted to abolish a number of privileges that infringed on the power of the monarch and harmed other classes and the interests of the state. It was mainly in the upper strata of society that the cardinal’s reforms provoked protest.
In 1626, the famous edict was issued prohibiting duels between nobles, on pain of depriving the duelists of their noble titles. The nobility perceived this as a violation of their right to defend their honor. But Richelieu proceeds from pure pragmatism: many nobles die in duels every year - strong, smart, healthy! Those who are fit to serve in the army and public service. And besides, it is the nobility that is the support of the monarchy, and this edict was only an attempt to save the class from self-destruction. Soon after the edict was issued, dueling statistics began to decline.
In the same year, another well-known edict was issued, according to which the rebellious aristocrats and many nobles of the non-border territories of France were ordered to tear down the fortifications of their castles in order to prevent the further transformation of these castles into strongholds of the opposition. This aroused the hatred of the nobility, which was deprived of fortified bases, but was nevertheless implemented.
Richelieu introduces the intendant system. These persons sent from the center did not buy their positions, like other officials, but received them from the hands of the king. Consequently, unlike officiers (officials who bought their posts), intendants could always be fired if they failed to cope with their duties. This turned them into reliable instruments of power. The support of the crown allowed the intendants to gradually subjugate the entire administrative apparatus of the provinces, strengthening the power of the center and thereby infringing upon representatives of the traditional local elite (the aristocracy and the office).
In the army, Richelieu strengthens control of the center. Firstly, he introduced duplication of military leaders, where each army was essentially assigned two generals. This system improved the crown's control over the army, but proved to be extremely ineffective and contributed to defeats in the initial period of the Thirty Years' War, so it was abolished. But the system of military quartermasters has been preserved. From now on, salaries for soldiers and officers are received not by unit commanders, but by the servicemen themselves from the hands of military quartermasters. This weakened the power of the creators of these units (aristocrats) over their subordinates and strengthened the position of the king.
In the central administrative apparatus, the importance of secretaries, each of whom controlled certain issues, and the superintendent is increasing. All of them were directly appointed by the king, that is, the positions of the aristocracy were weakened.
Increased control over the provinces allowed Richelieu to significantly increase the growth of the crown's income. But the increase in taxes aroused hatred against innovation, which led to uprisings and struggles against them, both during the life of the cardinal and after.
Representatives of the highest aristocracy sought to maintain their political independence, declaring themselves equal to the king - in the spirit of feudal traditions. The cardinal's understanding of the essence of the state was completely different from how the grandees imagined it. The cardinal deprives them of sovereignty on their lands in favor of the king, deprives them of the right to justice and the appointment of officials, the publication of laws in their own (noble) name.
A few years after taking office as first minister, the cardinal managed to win the almost universal hatred of the highest aristocracy, which put his life in serious danger. But for him, the interests of France were above all. King Louis XIII, realizing that he himself cannot cope with all the problems, completely trusts the cardinal and protects him from all attacks of the queen and the highest nobility. In 1632, Richelieu uncovered another conspiracy against the king, in which Gaston d'Orléans and the Duke of Montmorency participated.
In 1631, in France, with the support of Richelieu, the publication of the first periodical “Gazettes” began, which was published every week. Gazet becomes the official mouthpiece of the government. So Richelieu begins powerful propaganda of his policies. Sometimes the cardinal himself writes articles for the newspaper. The literary life of France was not limited to the work of pamphleteers and newspapermen. During his reign, Richelieu did a lot for the development of literature, culture and art. Under Richelieu, the Sorbonne was revived.
In 1635, Richelieu founded the French Academy and awarded pensions to the most outstanding and talented artists, writers, and architects.
By the time Richelieu began his reign, the navy was in a deplorable state: in total it consisted of 10 galleys in the Mediterranean Sea, and there was not a single warship in the Atlantic. By 1635, thanks to Richelieu, France already had three squadrons on the Atlantic and one in the Mediterranean. Maritime trade also developed. Here Richelieu established direct foreign economic relations, which made it possible to do without intermediaries. As a rule, Richelieu, along with political treaties, concluded trade agreements. During his reign, Richelieu concluded 74 trade agreements with various countries, including Russia. The cardinal contributed greatly to improving the financial situation of the population and improving the health of the treasury. To make life easier for the population, some indirect taxes were abolished, and laws were introduced to stimulate entrepreneurship and the construction of factories. Under Richelieu, the active development of Canada - New France - began. In the field of finance and taxation, Richelieu failed to achieve such success. Even before the cardinal came to power, the country's financial situation was deplorable. Richelieu advocated lowering taxes, but his position did not find support, and after France entered the Thirty Years' War, the first minister himself was forced to raise taxes.
At the end of the 1620s, a trade and ambassadorial expedition to Moscow was organized. Two issues were discussed: Russia's joining the anti-Habsburg coalition and granting French merchants the right to land transit to Persia. On political issues, the parties managed to come to an agreement - Russia entered the Thirty Years' War on the side of France, although purely nominally. But no decision was made on trade issues. The French were allowed to trade in Moscow, Novgorod, Arkhangelsk; transit to Persia was not provided. But Russia, fighting Catholic Poland (an ally of the Habsburgs), with the help of the French, improved relations with Sweden and actually subsidized it (by providing permits for the export of grain at low prices), which contributed to the latter’s involvement in the Thirty Years’ War. At the same time, Russia itself averted the threat of Polish intervention against the Swedes by starting the Smolensk War. The role of French diplomacy in these matters remains controversial.
Thirty Years' War:
The Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs laid claim to world domination. Having become first minister, Richelieu made it very clear that from now on France was not becoming a victim of Spanish hegemony, but an independent state with an independent policy. Richelieu tried to avoid direct French involvement in the conflict as long as possible, so that others would fight and die for France's interests. Moreover, the country’s finances and army were not ready for large-scale actions. France would not enter the war until 1635. Before this, France's ally Sweden, which Richelieu willingly financed, was actively fighting. In September 1634, the Swedes suffered a crushing defeat at Nördlingen. Soon after this, part of France's allies in the anti-Habsburg coalition signed peace with the Empire. Sweden was forced to retreat from Germany to Poland. In March 1635, the Spaniards captured Trier and destroyed the French garrison. In April, Richelieu sent a protest to Spain demanding that Trier leave and release the Elector of Trier. The protest was rejected. It was this event that became decisive - France entered the war.
In May 1635, Europe gets the opportunity to see a forgotten ceremony that has not been used for a couple of centuries. Heralds in medieval attire with the coats of arms of France and Navarre leave Paris. One of them presents the act of declaration of war to Philip IV in Madrid.
On December 29, 1629, the cardinal, having received the title of Lieutenant General of His Majesty, went to command an army in Italy, where he confirmed his military talents and met Giulio Mazarin. On December 5, 1642, King Louis XIII appointed Giulio Mazarin as chief minister. About this man, who in an intimate circle was called “Brother Broadsword (Colmardo),” Richelieu himself said this: “I know only one person capable of becoming my successor, although he is a foreigner.”.
Richelieu based his policy on the implementation of the program of Henry IV: strengthening the state, its centralization, ensuring the supremacy of secular power over the church and the center over the provinces, eliminating the aristocratic opposition, and countering Spanish-Austrian hegemony in Europe. The main result of Richelieu's state activities was the establishment of absolutism in France. Cold, calculating, often very stern to the point of cruelty, subordinating feelings to reason, Cardinal Richelieu firmly held the reins of government in his hands and, with remarkable vigilance and foresight, noticing the impending danger, warned it at its very appearance.
The cardinal, with his grant of January 29, 1635, founded the famous French Academy, which still exists today and has 40 “immortal” members. As stated in the charter, the Academy was created “to make the French language not only elegant, but also capable of interpreting all the arts and sciences.”
“History hardly knows a person about whom all sources would speak with such unanimous approval...
The complete praise given by both Russians and foreigners to Richelieu’s activities surprises everyone... It is not possible to point out a single dark point in his activities.”
From a book published for the centenary of Odessa. 1894
Emperor Alexander I jokingly thanked the French Revolution for giving Russia the Duke of Richelieu. Indeed: in the checkered history of the Fatherland you cannot find another nobleman whom you cannot remember except with a kind word. And even if some crazy person decides to remove all the monuments in the world from their pedestals, “our” Richelieu will not be particularly harmed. Firstly, the bronze figure on Primorsky Boulevard bears absolutely no resemblance to the real thing. And secondly, and this is perhaps the most important thing, the whole city became a monument to him...
“What the hell are you, Richelieu,” thundered the grandfather-marshal, “if you couldn’t spend a trifling amount in two weeks!” Forty louis, a gift to his beloved grandson, to the delight of passers-by, clinked and flew out the window...
In fact, the great reveler, spendthrift and lover of ladies, the grandfather-duke absolutely could not understand who little Armand had taken after. Since the glorious times of the “First Richelieu” - the right hand of the king and the unofficial master of all France - they were rich, very rich. The famous cardinal, coupled with immeasurable goodness, conveyed to the men of their family irrepressible vanity, a passion for intrigue and the ability to live to the fullest. So who is this offspring born into, falling asleep with Virgil in his arms? At the same time, the resemblance to the portrait of his grandfather-cardinal is striking; it is clear that he will be tall and thin, with a slightly humped nose, like all Richelieu’s, and his eyes are bright, dark, and brilliant. And little Armand has so many titles that you’ll get tired of listing them.
He was born in 1766 and, having lost his mother early, with an indifferent and cold father, he remained, in essence, an orphan. Fortunately, the boy was soon sent to the best educational institution of that time, founded, by the way, by the cardinal. The atmosphere in the school was spartan. The young abbot Nicolas, Armand’s teacher, became attached to the boy with all his soul. The young Duke was the first student, spoke five languages brilliantly, was resilient, was an excellent fencer and rode a horse.
He was not even 15 when fate essentially deprived him of a full-fledged family forever. According to the customs of that time, the offspring of noble families who had completed their education were supposed to get married. And let early marriage not be such a big problem. For Armand, the trouble lay in his fiancée, the thirteen-year-old Duchess Rosalie de Rochenoir, who was as terrible as mortal sin. A twisted body, a hump on the back and chest, a face that is difficult to look at without pity and horror - this is the portrait of the one with whom the handsome Arman went down the aisle.
It is impossible to imagine what made the young Duke’s relatives take such a crazy step. Everyone who wrote about Richelieu’s stay in Russia (and there are quite a few of them) did not clarify the situation in any way, but we can safely say that the bride’s ugly appearance was not an exaggeration. A kind of denouement of this absurd marriage came immediately after the wedding. The newlywed, accompanied by Abbot Nicolas, who did not want to part with his pupil, went on a trip to Europe. Subsequently, this couple did not have any marital relations. True, to the credit of Rosalia de Richelieu, she had enough common sense not to force herself on her husband. She managed to win his respect. Throughout their subsequent lives they... corresponded, although quite amicably and sympathetically.
Armand returned two years later and received one of the first court positions. Plunging into the world of Versailles, saturated with spirits, intrigue and evil boredom, the first chamberlain of Louis XVI quickly felt bad and began to think about how to get permission from the king for a new trip. But then there was a rumble in the distance. France was on the verge of revolution...
On July 14, 1789, rioting Parisians took the Bastille. The marquises and barons, having loaded their carriages, went to distant estates, hoping to wait out the thunderstorm. Richelieu remained among those who were ready to die for the king, but not break the oath. Louis himself did not seem to understand the seriousness of the situation. In any case, it was he who insisted that young Richelieu embark on the journey that he had long dreamed of. Already in Vienna, the Duke learned that the king had been forcibly taken to Paris by a militant crowd of rabble. He urgently returns to France to join the banners of troops loyal to the king. But the time when it was still possible to turn the situation around is mercilessly passing: France is plunging deeper and deeper into the whirlpool of revolution.
Richelieu is back in Vienna. Here, in the house of Field Marshal de Ligne, a good friend of the Russian Empress Catherine and the famous Potemkin, the Duke probably for the first time hears the field marshal's vivid, romantic stories about the heroic Russian army, about the victorious campaigns of Suvorov, about the huge mysterious country that has now crossed swords with the Turks , establishing itself on the Black Sea. Novorossiysk, Crimea, Izmail it all sounded like music.
Everything changed in a matter of moments. De Ligne received a letter from Potemkin, where he read between the lines information about the impending assault on Ishmael. Having secured a letter of recommendation to Potemkin, Richelieu rushed east. He arrived in Bendery - Potemkin's headquarters, on a banal postal carriage - the horse died from a mad race. The Duke would not have forgiven himself if he had been late for the assault. He made it on time. But...
The ruins of the burning Ishmael, among which women's screams and the cries of children could be heard - all this shocked Richelieu incomparably more than the long-awaited feeling of victory. “I hope I never see such a terrible sight,” he wrote. Meanwhile, his behavior as a warrior was impeccable. He was awarded the St. George Cross, 4th degree, and a personalized weapon “For Bravery.”
Catherine heard rumors about a famous man fighting under her banner. It would seem that in the Russian army, where there were already many foreigners attracted by its military glory, the path to a successful career was open for the Duke. But he didn't take advantage of it. Perhaps an important role was played by the fact that the romance of the war dissipated for him faster than the smoke over the defeated Ishmael. The Duke realized that the death of anyone at his hands, the destruction of someone’s house, is not at all what his soul longs for.
But in revolutionary France, where he returned, a terrible picture of bullying by some over others, overcrowded prisons, lawlessness, and arbitrariness also awaited him. He admitted: “It was worse for me to go to Paris than it would have been for a coward to participate in the assault on Ishmael.”
Now Richelieu was called a “citizen” The Constituent Assembly decided to abolish titles of nobility.
The former Duke's enormous fortune was nationalized. (By the way, later, during the time of Napoleon, when the attitude towards aristocrats became different, Richelieu could have regained everything. To do this, he only had to turn to Napoleon as an emperor. Richelieu did not do this.)
Prison and death clearly lay ahead. But the Duke did not want to flee, becoming an emigrant. He came to the Constituent Assembly in order to legally obtain a foreign passport. Richelieu got away with this extremely risky act: at that time the flywheel of terror had not yet started working at full force. And in the summer of 1791 Richelieu left for Russia. In St. Petersburg, Catherine herself kindly received him, inviting him to her Hermitage meetings for a very narrow circle. And soon they had a very serious topic for conversation: a stormy stream of emigrants poured from France, spreading in small and large streams throughout Europe. Not everyone was able to take away gold and jewelry, which means that the majority were doomed to a bitter, half-starved existence. The fate of his unfortunate compatriots did not give Richelieu, who received the rank of colonel from the empress, any peace.
Today, few people know that in our Azov region 200 years ago a certain “New France” could have been formed as part of the Russian Empire. Duke Richelieu put forward the idea of populating these warm regions with those who fled from the revolutionary axe. The Empress agreed. It was planned that a small city would be built in the Azov region for those arriving, and each refugee would be given plots of land that would allow them to obtain the necessary food. Richelieu was assigned the role of head of this colony.
Inspired, and even with a decent amount of 60 thousand in gold to pay for the emigrants’ travel expenses to the place of resettlement, he went to Europe to solve all the organizational problems. Alas! The Duke's efforts were in vain - the people, who had suffered fear and grief, realizing that they were not being invited to St. Petersburg or Moscow, but to a distant, uninhabited region, refused, deciding not to risk it.
And they must have acted wisely: pretty soon Catherine’s philanthropic impulse gave way to indifference. This, unfortunately, is a typical attitude towards emigration for all times and peoples as an unnecessary and very burdensome problem. After the failure of the project, the Duke left to command a regiment in the Volyn province. “Bearish angles,” which frightened many, were for him what was needed, significantly expanding the field of activity. The authorities noticed his zeal and diligence, and, being with the rank of major general, Richelieu was appointed commander of the Cuirassier Regiment of His Majesty Paul I, who became autocrat after the death of Mother Catherine in 1796. Richelieu's regiment, stationed in Gatchina, constantly marched on the parade ground, throwing Pavel into a rage over the slightest mistake. In the eyes of the tsar, this Frenchman was already worthy of a headdress because the hated mother, who had departed into oblivion, showed him all sorts of courtesies. And here it was doubtful, but still a consolation for the duke, that everyone without exception suffered from the temper of the father-monarch, including Grand Duke Alexander. “Say: you fool, you brute!” “Paul shouted to the adjutants, and they, hiding their eyes, went to the heir to the throne with a similar report. Alexander, having met Richelieu at Catherine’s Hermitage meetings, became close to him at that time. The Grand Duke saw in the noble Frenchman a rare nature for the court, living with higher thoughts, alien to flattery, vanity and intrigue. In the near future, this fact played a decisive role in the fate of Richelieu...
The Duke's Gatchina service, as one would expect, ended soon. Richelieu hated insults, and Paul I hated him. Result resignation.
At 37 years old, when others are reaping the benefits of their achievements, being in the prime of their careers, the Duke could not show off any achievements. The revolution took away his family and friends (Rosalie de Richelieu also spent some time in prison, but miraculously escaped), in Russia his career also collapsed and, it seems, irrevocably, he had to think about a piece of bread in the literal sense. He tried to serve, but to no avail. Finally, he reached Vienna, where the retired general of the Russian army and first chamberlain of the king of France (albeit beheaded) ate on one and a half francs a day, not allowing himself to visit friends during lunch.
Once, having learned that his old acquaintance had ascended to the Russian throne, Alexander Pavlovich, the Duke, following all the rules of politeness, sent him congratulations with his pitiful crumbs. The answer came immediately:
“My dear Duke!
I take advantage of this free moment to answer you and express, my dear Duke, how touched I was by everything you said in your letter. You know my feelings and my respect for you, and you can judge by them how pleased I will be to see you in St. Petersburg and know that you serve Russia, to which you can bring so much benefit. Please accept the assurances of my sincere affection for you.
Alexander".
This letter returned the Duke to Russia. In the fall of 1802, he was already in St. Petersburg, from where he enthusiastically wrote to Paris to those who could still receive a letter that the Russian emperor had loaned him decent money and presented him with an estate in Courland. But Alexander’s main gift, as it turned out, was ahead.
The emperor offered him a choice: either service in St. Petersburg in the guard, or the mayorship in Odessa.
"Odessa? What is this and where? the Duke could have asked... A little over 10 years ago, Admiral de Ribas occupied the small Turkish fortress of Hadji Bey in the Crimea, and in 1794 Catherine ordered the founding of a city there, which they decided to call Odessa.
Appointed “chief of the city of Odessa,” de Ribas, a man of undoubted business qualities, but never forgetting about his own pocket, was removed from office in 1800 for abuses. The public in the city was not easy to settle in. In addition to the old-timers of these places: Tatars, Greeks, Albanians, Jews, so many crooks swam here, where there was no court or law, that Odessa, not yet out of its “tender age,” received the little-revered title “the cesspool of Europe.”
“What a terrible city it was,” exclaims the magazine “Russian Antiquity,” quoting the author of the book “Odessa in the first era of its existence,” who claims that the newborn Russian port looks a lot like a pirate colony. Three years of anarchy finally finished off the future pearl.
Richelieu chose Odessa. Thus began his finest hour. However, Odessa’s finest hour was coming. Cities, like people, have their own destiny. And sometimes it is a matter of blind chance. Why Richelieu? Could anyone then think that from now on Odessa would become not just a geographical point, but a symbol of some mythical, especially attractive life, which does not exist in any other city on earth.
So, in March 1803, Major General of the Russian service Emmanuel Osipovich Richelieu arrived at his destination. Nobody was waiting for him. With great difficulty, the Duke found a one-story house with five cramped rooms.
All he could do was fall onto a chair and clutch his head. But, as Mark Aldanov wrote in a brilliant essay about Richelieu: “There was a mayor. There was no city." That is, there was nothing to even sit on. In the entire city there was not a single establishment selling furniture. The former inhabitant of Versailles, at first content with ordinary shops, ordered a dozen chairs from Marseille. Perhaps not a single mayor has taken office in this way...
Well, Richelieu started... from the city treasury. And there for a long time not only nothing rang, but there wasn’t even a rustle. This port was bare and poor, like a church rat. He was fleeced by the local mafia. The Ministry of Finance was strangling him with taxes.
Richelieu fought to the death with these two opponents. Port fees were abolished: the money still ended up in the pockets of customs officers. A bank loan branch and a marine goods insurance office were opened, and a commercial court was established to sort out conflicting transactions. And merchants literally poured into Odessa.
With the support of the emperor, in 1804 the Duke achieved the removal of the tax burden from Odessa, at least for a while. He was able to prove the feasibility of free transit for all goods brought by sea to Odessa and even sent to Europe. And the French boss, who had almost fallen from the sky, called the resourceful Odessa “brothers” to him, sat them down on their benches and with deadly politeness asked to urgently transfer all the illegally seized city lands to the treasury. The Duke spoke with some accent, but he was understood well. And they weren’t poisoned, they weren’t shot, they weren’t stabbed to death. Were your morals softer?
Time passed. The city was changing, and changing beyond recognition. It is worth saying that the Odessa that we know today: with straight, wide, clearly designed streets is the work of Richelieu. But in order for the variegated, somehow cobbled-together dwellings, coupled with the bald patches of huge wastelands along which the wind blew dust and thorns, to be replaced by European elegant buildings, money was needed. Of course, thanks to the benefits that the Duke achieved, the treasury was no longer empty. But investments from St. Petersburg were very insignificant.
It is no coincidence that many who wrote about Richelieu emphasized that the city was built “literally on pennies.” It must also be taken into account that the Duke did not have the power that gave rise to palaces and cities in Russia, and serfs. Odessa did not know slave labor, and you had to pay for every brick laid by a freeman. And, of course, the biggest piece did not go to those who honestly earned it. How the Duke coped with the traditionally unscrupulous mass of contractors, suppliers, small and large construction managers with whom Odessa was literally rearing up is incomprehensible. But the fact remains that nothing was left unfinished or abandoned; the necessary point was made in everything.
“I am listing,” wrote M. Aldanov, “only the main thing that was done under him (Richelieu. Author’s note) in Odessa: many streets were laid, each 50 feet wide, gardens were laid out, a cathedral was built, an Old Believer chapel , a Catholic church, a synagogue, two hospitals, a theatre, barracks, a market, a reservoir, a noble educational institute (later the Richelieu Lyceum), a commercial gymnasium, six lower educational institutions, a “redoubt with a coffee establishment” and an “exchange office”. Let’s add to this the beautiful embankment, hotels, and a street lighting system.”
The list is worthy of careful reading. This is not only evidence of a long-gone construction boom that gave Russia and the world a magnificent port city. Richelieu’s very human essence was reflected with absolute and undeniable accuracy in the dry list of “objects”.
Note: he built religious buildings for all faiths without exception, thereby asserting the equality of the citizens of Odessa, regardless of the number of those who believed in Mohammed and those who professed the Old Believers.
The “redoubt with a coffee establishment” is also very interesting. This is a large open-air dance hall with a hotel and restaurant. The fact that such a need arose at all shows how the atmosphere in the city has changed. There is some kind of intangible, but completely tangible connection between the number of ordinary people going out onto the evening streets to have fun, and the crime situation. “A temporary stop for all kinds of rabble,” Odessa was now freed from filth and became a harmless city. This circumstance was very important for Richelieu, not only morally, but also economically. He wanted the European trading elite to take root here, building mansions for themselves and opening branches of their companies. And he also did everything to ensure that the enlightened Russian nobility did not disdain the new city, settling here seriously and for a long time, experiencing all the delights of civilization.
Few people know, but any reminder of the “blooming acacias” of Odessa should rightly bring us back to the figure of Richelieu.
He had a very special relationship with nature. He subtly felt the charm of the harsh landscape: the frozen rocky steppe and the sea living its eternally restless life. One thing was beyond doubt: Odessa lacks vegetation. The Duke was faced with a task much more difficult than the construction of buildings of unfeeling brick. Rocky soil, not a drop of rain for months, rare sources of fresh water - with such initial data, the Duke set out to make Odessa a flourishing oasis.
Gardening scientists warned him about the futility of such attempts, throwing up their hands in helplessness. The Duke took up the matter himself. He studied the soil conditions of Odessa and its environs, recorded several plant species and began acclimatizing them. His experiments showed that white acacia seedlings brought from Italy give hope. Poplar, ash, elderberry, and lilac felt good in the Duke's experienced nursery; from fruits: apricot and cherry.
And so, by order and with the direct participation of Richelieu, thin acacia shoots began to be planted along the Odessa streets in double rows. The owners of the houses in front of whom the seedlings found themselves were charged with the duty of caring for them literally like babies, at all costs.
Every day, driving around the city and noticing wilted leaves somewhere, the Duke stopped, went into the house and sadly informed the owners that now, because of their negligence, he would have to water “their acacia tree” himself. As a rule, such cases did not happen twice.
Odessa, like all of New Russia, adored Richelieu. It was absolute, unheard of, perhaps unsurpassed by anyone, popularity, abundantly permeating all layers of the diverse Odessa society from top to bottom. Everything they believed in was materialized in their mayor. It turns out that a person in power can be honest, selfless, fair, and merciful.
Duke Richelieu was shortsighted. Driving through the streets of Odessa, he asked one of those accompanying him to let him know if ladies appeared on the nearest balconies. On such occasions, the Duke took off his hat and bowed gallantly. And sometimes, being alone and not wanting to offend the fair sex, he welcomed completely empty balconies, just in case. Residents noticed this, chuckled and... loved “their Emmanuel Osipovich” even more.
And in the memorable year of 1812, this rare man, during more than difficult years of serving a foreign country and a foreign people, without losing anything of his natural sophistication, showed himself to be a real stoic.
It is impossible to imagine that for Richelieu, with his heightened sense of honor and conscience, the news of France’s entry into the war with Russia did not pose difficult questions... No, Richelieu did not abandon his homeland. He chose to remain a Frenchman, loyal to Russia. Although if the Duke was capable of hating anyone at all, then Napoleon was such a person. For Richelieu, he had always been an arrogant impostor, and now, due to the crossing of the Russian border, he became a demon who plunged France into the abyss. “Emmanuel Osipovich” already knew Russia and its citizens well enough not to understand how this campaign would end for the French. He “decided” on his position quickly and quite clearly.
A manifesto on the start of hostilities was received in the city on July 22, and a few days later Richelieu, at the Assembly of Representatives of All Classes of Odessa, appealed to “show yourself as true Russians” and donate to the fight against Napoleon. Richelieu himself gave everything he had, 40,000 rubles.
Emperor Alexander refused to grant his request to participate in hostilities. And there was a serious reason for this: a plague epidemic broke out in Odessa. In August of the fateful 12th, about thirty people suddenly died in the city. Odessa, which had been visited by an ominous guest before, did not know about the measures that the mayor had taken this time. To prevent the plague from reaching the interior of the country, cordons were set up along the Dniester and Bug. The entire city was divided into sectors, and each of them was assigned an official. All major buildings were converted into hospitals. And since the epidemic still did not subside, a general quarantine was established in November: no one dared to leave their home without special permission. Food was delivered to apartments strictly twice a day. Temporary huts were built on the adjacent hills, transferring residents there from contaminated homes.
Even now, descriptions of Odessa at that time reek of horror - dead silence on the streets, burning fires, carts carrying away mountains of dead bodies. And in this desolation, the tall, lean figure of the Duke was like a challenge to death. Every morning at 9 o’clock he was seen in the square near the cathedral, where a “rescue command post” was set up and from where he and his assistants began their raid through the tormented city.
“At the risk of his own life, he appeared where the disease was especially rampant, consoled the suffering and personally gave them help, and took the remaining babies from dying mothers into his arms,” contemporaries wrote about the heroic behavior of the mayor.
Once Richelieu witnessed how mortally frightened residents did not want to bury their dead neighbors. The Duke himself came there, took a shovel and began to dig a grave. This shamed people. “Strict with himself, tireless, selfless, he set an example for everyone around him. In his presence, in front of his eyes, it was unthinkable to sit idly by and treat everything casually.” Yes, the Duke stoically withstood enormous physical and psychological stress, but from his letters it is clear that he experienced the pestilence in Odessa as a personal tragedy. In a letter to the emperor dated February 1813, Richelieu called plague-ridden Odessa a real hell.
But as soon as he managed to drive the terrible guest out of the city, Richelieu took up his task with renewed vigor: he wrote proposals for the further improvement of the Novorossiysk region, talked about duties, in a word, he cared in every possible way about the future of Odessa, dear to his heart.
It is worth delving into the letters of Richelieu to France collected in the 54th volume of the “Collection of the Imperial Russian Historical Society” to understand the extent to which this man could not imagine himself without Odessa. And for a long time the echoes of the stories about his farewell, captured on yellowed newspaper pages, spoke of what a grief these farewells were for her, Odessa.
“The day of the Duke’s departure was a day of mourning for Odessa; Most of the population accompanied him out of town, sending him blessings, and more than 2,000 people followed him to the first post station, where a farewell dinner was prepared. The Duke was distracted and sad, like everyone who saw him off. Everyone tried to restrain themselves so as not to upset the Duke too much; but the expression of sadness was revealed against one’s will: the premonition that the Duke would never return was written on all faces. There were mutual outpourings of heart; the Duke asked to be allowed to leave; Raised a glass to a safe journey and return. Shouts of “hurray” filled the steppes; but they were soon drowned out by sobs: a feeling of sadness took over, and everyone rushed, so to speak, towards the Duke, who was about to get into the carriage; they began to hug him, kiss his hands, the hem of his clothes; he was surrounded, pressed by the crowd, and he himself burst into tears. “My friends, have mercy on me...” and several people carried him to the crew...”
Why did Richelieu leave? Defeat in the war finally brought the next Bourbon, Louis XVIII, to the throne. The king's call to help the fatherland in the difficult post-war period could not leave the duke indifferent. He hardly wanted to leave Odessa, his dear child, torn from indifferent, predatory hands. But this Richelieu was a man of duty and, as he was called, a “knight of monarchism.”
He was leaving the same, now perhaps the smallest, house in Odessa that gave him shelter almost 12 years ago, dressed in the same constant overcoat that the whole city knew. He gained nothing after years of labor that was both backbreaking and inspired. He even had to sell the dacha he had built in Gurzuf “for lack of funds.”
In general, Richelieu's career as a politician in France was unsuccessful. He was too honest and noble for this craft. He also did not like the general mood of society: hatred, anger, intolerance. Resignation meant poverty for him, but this did not stop Richelieu. Although the degree of his poverty is evidenced by the fact that he had to sell his Russian orders decorated with diamonds. He carried on extensive correspondence with Odessa residents, was interested in everything, and sent seeds and seedlings. Truly, “where our heart is, there is our place.”
His Parisian entourage among themselves considered the Duke a “man of Russia” and did not really trust him, ironizing that there was no Frenchman who knew the outlines of the Crimean coast better than the Duke of Richelieu. Well, the latter was definitely true!
There was evidence that the Duke was still planning to return to Odessa. In January 1822, he wrote to an old friend, Odessa merchant Sicard:
“I intend to visit you next summer. I can’t do this earlier, because they won’t fail to say that I’m going to sell France’s secrets to Russia.”
Richelieu did not live to see that summer. He, a man of Spartan training, who had never been ill, having passed unharmed through Turkish bullets and the plague, died instantly, at the age of 55, as they wrote “from a nervous blow.” The Odessa mayor was the last of the Richelieu family...
The inscription on the brass plate of the Duke monument on Primorsky Boulevard in Odessa:
"To Duke Emmanuel de Richelieu,
manager from 1803 to 1814
Novorossiysk region and laid the foundation
welfare of Odessa, grateful
residents of all classes to his unforgettable works.”
Lyudmila Tretyakova
