The early seventeenth century in France was a period of intense political consolidation, religious tension, and diplomatic maneuvering within the Kingdom of France and across the broader European continent. Into this charged environment came Armand Jean du Plessis, born in Paris on 9 September 1585, and known to history as Cardinal Richelieu.

Educated at the College of Sorbonne and the University of Paris, du Plessis pursued careers across several overlapping domains. He was ordained as a Catholic priest and rose to serve as a Catholic bishop, while simultaneously operating as a politician, minister, and diplomat in the service of the Kingdom of France. His work was conducted in French, and the breadth of his formal roles placed him at the intersection of ecclesiastical authority and secular governance in ways that few individuals of his era managed to occupy simultaneously.

Beyond his clerical and political functions, du Plessis also worked as a writer and maintained a practice as an art collector, suggesting a range of intellectual and cultural engagements that extended beyond the council chamber and the confessional. These pursuits positioned him as a figure active not only in the administration of power but also in the cultural and literary life of his time. His writing, produced in French, added a further dimension to a career already marked by its unusual variety of occupations and responsibilities.

Du Plessis received the Knight of the Order of Saint Michael and the Commander of the Order of the Holy Spirit, two honors that formally recognized his standing within the French state and its institutions. He died in Paris on 4 December 1642, the same city in which he had been born nearly fifty-seven years earlier. His works and records are documented across major bibliographic authorities, including the Library of Congress Name Authority File and the Gemeinsame Normdatei, attesting to the continued scholarly attention paid to his writings and to the documentary legacy he left behind. The Commander of the Order of the Holy Spirit remains among the most concrete markers of the formal recognition he received during his lifetime.