ouis XIII's primary minister, Cardinal de Richelieu. Bolstered by an infantry of 150,000 men and a cavalry of 30,000, Richelieu reduced the political strength of the great nobles and broke the power of the Huguenots. He succeeded in separating religion from politics. The result was establishment of unchallenged royal authority, which Louis XIV was to exploit to the utmost (Panicucci, 1967:6).
Louis believed that a king who is unfit to govern is unfit to reign. He took personal charge of the administration of the affairs of state rather than abdicate governing to a minister (Buranelli, 1966:45). However, he relied extensively on the advice of a subordinate ministerial staff. Louis accumulated an excellent team of ministers inherited from Mazarin. Of primary importance were Michel Le Tellier, in charge of military affairs, and Jean Baptiste Colbert, in charge of the economy and cultural activities. Louis XIV had ousted Mazarin's most trusted lieutenant, Nicolas Fouquet, who was in charge of national finances because the King distrusted Fouquet's ambitions. (The King sent his Captain of the Guard, Charles de Baatz of the Three Musketeers' fame, to arrest Fouquet.) At no time did Louis XIV appoint a prime minister. In fact, he kept his ministerial staff divided into hostile factions in order to assure his supremacy.
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