@article{436426,
      author = {Blanchard, Jean-Vincent,},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/436426},
      title = {Éminence : Cardinal Richelieu and the rise of France /},
      publisher = {Walker & Co.,},
      abstract = {Chief minister to King Louis XIII, Cardinal Richelieu was  the architect of a new France in the seventeenth century,  and the force behind the nation's rise as a European power.  Among the first statesmen to clearly understand the  necessity of a balance of powers, he was one of the early  realist politicians, practicing in the wake of Machiavelli.  Forging a nation-state amid the swirl of unruly nobles,  widespread corruption, wars of religion, and an ambitious  Habsburg empire, Richelieu mastered the politics of  absolute power. At times cruel and ruthless, he was always  devoted to creating a lasting central authority vested in  the monarchy, a power essential to France's position on the  European stage for the next two centuries. Jean-Vincent  Blanchard's insightful new biography offers a rich portrait  of a fascinating man and his era, and gives us a keener  understanding of the dark arts of politics.--From publisher  description.},
      recid = {436426},
      pages = {vi, 309 p., [8] p. of plates :},
      address = {New York :},
      year = {2011},
}