(born Sept. 27, 1601, Fontainebleau, France—died May 14, 1643, Saint-Germain-en-Laye) King of France (1610–43). He was the son of Henry IV and Marie de Médicis. His mother was regent until 1614 but continued to govern until 1617; she arranged Louis's marriage to the Spanish Anne of Austria in 1615.
Resentful of his mother's power, Louis exiled her, but Cardinal de Richelieu, her principal adviser, reconciled them in 1620. In 1624 Louis made Richelieu his principal minister, and the two cooperated closely to make France a leading European power, consolidating royal authority in France and fighting to break the dominant rule of the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs in the Thirty Years' War. Pro-Spanish Catholic zealots led by Marie de Médicis appealed to Louis to reject Richelieu's policy of supporting the Protestant states, but Louis stood by his minister and his mother withdrew into exile. France declared war on Spain in 1635 and had won substantial victories by the time Richelieu died in 1642. Louis was succeeded by his son Louis XIV.
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