High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu, Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu (9 September 1585 4 December 1642), was a French clergyman, noble, and statesman. Consecrated as a bishop in 1608, he later entered politics, becoming a Secretary of State in 1616. Richelieu soon rose in both the Church and the state, becoming a cardinal in 1622, and King Louis XIII's chief minister in 1624. He remained in office until his death in 1642; he was succeeded by Jules Cardinal Mazarin, whose career he fostered. The Cardinal de Richelieu was often known by the title of the King's "Chief Minister" or "First Minister." As a result, he is considered to be the world's first Prime Minister, in the modern sense of the term. He sought to consolidate royal power and crush domestic factions. By restraining the power of the nobility, he transformed France into a strong, centralized state. His chief foreign policy objective was to check the power of the Austro- Spanish Habsburg dynasty.