Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II THE STATES-GENERAL—RICHELIEU'S FIRST MINISTRY 1614-1617 Questions before the States - General—The paulette—Quarrels of clergy and third estate—Richelieu orator of the clergy—Concini and the ministers—Conde and the Huguenots oppose Mary de Medici—Treaty of Loudun—Fall of the old ministers— Richelieu rises to prominence—Conspiracy of the nobles— Arrest of Conde and flight of his associates—Richelieu receives office — His difficulties — Measures against the nobles— Assassination of Concini—Fall of the ministers—Richelieu at the Louvre—He quits the court. The States-General, which met on October 27, 1614, are interesting as the last assembly held before the famous meeting of 1789. In itself, however, it was of very slight importance. The essential weakness of these assemblies lay in the deeply-rooted class divisions which ruined all prospect of constitutional government in France, in the want of any practical check upon the executive, such as is given in England by the control of supply and expenditure, and in the tradition that their only function was to formulate grievances. The great questions raised at this meeting were the pauletle and the sale of offices, and the relations of the spiritual and temporal powers. The nobles and clergy agreed todemand the abolition of the pauktte. The deputies of the third estate, most of whom belonged to the official class, were by no means eager for a change which would have deprived them of a valuable property. The instructions of their constituents, however, were too distinct for them to refuse their co-operation to the other estates, but they insisted upon complicating the question by demanding at the same time a diminution of the taille and a reduction of the lavish pensions granted by the crown. This last request was a dir...