A checklist of pamphlets by Mathieu de Morgues and his polemical associates in the Newberry Library

Abstract

Almost one hundred pamphlets were written against Cardinal Richelieu by Mathieu de Morgues and three individuals to whom I refer in this context as his polemical associates. Marie de Medici, Gaston d'Orléans, and Jacques Chanteloube helped de Morgues flood France during the 1630s with an impressive series of pamphlets defending themselves and their dévot friends against the political and personal attack on them by Louis XIII's first minister. At the time, the pamphlets, telling as were their indictments and arguments, had little effect in counterbalancing the influence which Richelieu exercised in the royal council and French politics in general, but later they contributed significantly to the development of the darker aspects of Richelieu's reputation in history and in historical fiction, as well as in the popular imagination.