Mazarin, Jules, properly Giulio Mazarini

b. 1602; d. 1661

French cardinal and statesman, son of Pietro Mazarini, was born at Piscina in the Abruzzi. His father was the intendant of the household of the Colonna family. He was educated in Italy and Spain, and took minor orders, eventually entering the service of the Pope.

While engaged on a diplomatic mission on behalf of the papacy, Mazarin attracted the attention of Richeleu. He soon went to Paris at Richelieu's invitation, through whose influence he was made a cardinal (1641). On the death of his patron (1642), he succeeded to his position and influence with Louis XIII, who shortly before his death nominated Mazarin to the council of regency, presided over by the Queen-Mother, Anne of Austria. She made him prime minister, and soon entrusted him with absolute authority, and it has been suggested that she and Mazarin were secretly married.

The first years of his ministry were marked by the victories of the French over the Spaniards at Rocroi and Sens, which produced the Peace of Westphalia, and by the outbreak of the civil war of the Fronde. Mazarin was twice compelled to leave France, but at length, as much by cunning as by force, he secured victory in the struggle. In 1659 Mazarin concluded the Peace of the Pyrenees, which put an end to the wars between France and Spain, and cemented it by a marriage between Louis XIV and the Infanta. He had also in the past made alliances with Cromwell.

A brilliant administrator, though more tortuous in his methods than Richelieu, Mazarin had many enemies and critics. Yet he was a generous patron of the arts, and worked consistently and carefully for the growth of French power and the consolidation of the central authority. His letters were collected and reprinted in Amsterdam in two volumes under the title of Négociations secrètes des Pyrénées, 1745. The Abbé Allainval afterwards arranged these letters in chronological order, and, together with 50 unpublished letters, brought them out under the title of Lettres du Cardinal Mazarin, où l'on voit le secret de la négociation de la paix Des Pyrénées.

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