** the Regency of Anne of Austria and her minister Cardinal Mazarin, 1643 – 1651

Richelieu died in 1642 and was succeeded by Cardinal Mazarin, while Louis XIII died one year later and was succeeded by Louis XIV.

Louis XIV, known as the " Sun King ", reigned over France from 1643 until 1715 although his strongest period of personal rule did not begin until 1661 after the death of his Italian chief minister Cardinal Mazarin.

Impressed, Christina wrote to Cardinal Mazarin on Ninon's behalf and arranged for her release.

Alexander VII's pontificate was shadowed by continual friction with Cardinal Mazarin, adviser to Louis XIV of France ( 1643 – 1715 ), who had opposed him during the negotiations that led to the Peace of Westphalia and who defended the prerogatives of the Gallican Church.

The large French faction led by Pope Urban's nephews objected to the Spanish candidate, as an enemy of Cardinal Mazarin, who guided French policy.

Mazarin himself, bearing the French veto of Cardinal Pamphilj, arrived too late, and the election was accomplished.

Brothers Francesco Barberini, Antonio Barberini and Taddeo Barberini fled to Paris, where they found a powerful protector in Cardinal Mazarin.

* March – Following the death of his mentor, Cardinal Mazarin, King Louis XIV of France starts to rule independently.

* March 9 – Cardinal Mazarin, French cardinal and statesman ( b. 1602 )

* July 14 – Cardinal Mazarin, French statesman ( d. 1661 )

* February 3 – Cardinal Mazarin returns to Paris from exile.

He died in 1642 before the conclusion of that conflict, having groomed Cardinal Jules Mazarin as a successor.

Cardinal Mazarin induced him to become, in effect, a French agent at the Piedmontese court between 1630 and 1632.

In 1646, Thomas Francis was put in command of the French expedition sent south to take the Tuscan forts, after which he was to advance further south to Naples, drive out the Spanish and put himself on the throne of the kingdom ; but the expedition set off late, and when he besieged Orbetello, the supporting French fleet was defeated by the Spanish and he was forced to raise the siege and conduct a difficult retreat, which he performed so poorly that Cardinal Mazarin subsequently despised his command ability, viewed him as incompetent, and declined to appoint him to the expedition that France sent to support the Naples revolt late in 1647 ( this did not stop Mazarin from considering him as a potential candidate for a French-backed King of Naples, though Paris was so slow to move on this that Henry II, Duke of Guise was adopted by the Neapolitans instead ).

During the Fronde, Thomas Francis linked himself closely with Cardinal Mazarin, who, although effectively prime minister of France, was like him an Italian outsider at the French court.

In 1651 when Mazarin had been forced into exile, the Prince was for a time brought onto the conseil du roi, and an ( admittedly very hostile ) contemporary the duchesse de Nemours described him as a ' prime minister without being aware of it '; there were suggestions that Mazarin's opponents within the court had raised him up as a rival to the cardinal with the Queen, but this is unlikely, especially since Mazarin himself urged the Queen to follow Thomas ' advice, and it is more probable that Mazarin backed the Prince as someone who would keep other rivals from gaining control in his absence but who would never have the status within France to set himself up as a permanent replacement for the Cardinal.

By the time Mazarin returned from his second and last exile in February 1653, Thomas, who accompanied the court to St Denis to welcome the Cardinal home, was insignificant again-an analysis of Mazarin's close colleagues at this time by the later historian Chéruel made no mention of him.

In 1646, Thomas was put in command of the French expedition sent south to take the Tuscan forts, after which he was to advance further south to Naples, drive out the Spanish and put himself on the throne of the kingdom ; but the expedition set off late, and when he besieged Orbetello, the supporting French fleet was defeated by the Spanish and he was forced to raise the siege and conduct a difficult retreat, which he performed so poorly that Cardinal Mazarin subsequently despised his command ability, viewed him as incompetent, and declined to appoint him to the expedition that France sent to support the Naples revolt late in 1647 ( this did not stop Mazarin from considering him as a potential candidate for a French-backed King of Naples, though Paris was so slow to move on this that Henry II, Duke of Guise was adopted by the Neapolitans instead ).

During the Fronde, Thomas linked himself closely with Cardinal Mazarin, who, although effectively prime minister of France, was like him an Italian outsider at the French court.

In 1651 when Mazarin had been forced into exile, the Prince was for a time brought onto the conseil du roi, and an ( admittedly very hostile ) contemporary the duchesse de Nemours described him as a ' prime minister without being aware of it '; there were suggestions that Mazarin's opponents within the court had raised him up as a rival to the cardinal with the Queen, but this is unlikely, especially since Mazarin himself urged the Queen to follow Thomas ' advice, and it is more probable that Mazarin backed the Prince as someone who would keep other rivals from gaining control in his absence but who would never have the status within France to set himself up as a permanent replacement for the Cardinal.

In 1899 he was made Cardinal Bishop of Albano.

In the interval he enjoyed the patronage of Ferdinando de ' Medici, for whose private theatre near Florence he composed operas, and of Cardinal Ottoboni, who made him his maestro di cappella, and procured him a similar post at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome in 1703.

Immediately after his appointment as Cardinal, Pope Clement made him a Cardinal Inquisitor, in which capacity he served as one of the judges at the trial of Giordano Bruno, and concurred in the decision which condemned Bruno to be burned at the stake as a heretic.

The first cardinal from the family was appointed in 1206 when Giovanni Colonna di Carbognano was made Cardinal Deacon of SS.

Following school in Perugia and Pisa where Cesare studied at La Sapienza University of Rome, along with his father's elevation to Pope, Cesare was made Cardinal at the age of 18.

Former Pope Gregory XII was then created titular Cardinal Bishop of Porto and Santa Ruffina by the Council, with rank immediately below the Pope ( which made him the highest-ranking person in the Church, since, due to his abdication, the See of Peter was vacant ).

In 1059 the electorate was restricted to the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, and the individual votes of all Cardinal Electors were made equal in 1179.

Pope Innocent X ( 1644 – 1655 ) recalled Chigi to Rome and subsequently made him Cardinal Secretary of State and Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria del Popolo.

Pope Pius XII made Roncalli a Cardinal in 1953.

Pacelli was made a Cardinal-Priest of Santi Giovanni e Paolo on 16 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI, and within a few months, on 7 February 1930, Pius XI appointed him Cardinal Secretary of State, responsible for foreign policy and state relations throughout the world.

" His various positions on Church and policy issues during his tenure as Cardinal Secretary of State were made public by the Holy See in 1939.

After his election, he made Luigi Maglione his successor as Cardinal Secretary of State.

The following year, Pope Leo X ( 1513 – 21 ) made Adrian a cardinal, naming him Cardinal Priest of the Basilica of Saints John and Paul.

Just before his death, Clement IX made him a Cardinal.

However, Rome made some complaints, and said that, though Clement X was Pope in name, Cardinal Altieri was Pope in fact.

Pope Paul IV ( 1555 – 1559 ) attached him as datarius to the suite of Cardinal Carlo Carafa, Pope Pius IV ( 1559 – 1565 ) made him Cardinal-Priest of San Sisto Vecchio and sent him to the Council of Trent.

He introduced many needed reforms in the administration of church affairs, and through his legate, Cardinal Albornoz, who was accompanied by Rienzi, he sought to restore order in Rome, where, in 1355, Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV was crowned with his permission, after previously having made an oath that he would quit the city on the day of the ceremony.

A later member of the Cardinalate was his great-grandnephew Cesare Facchinetti ( made a Cardinal in 1643 ).

In 1681 he was elevated to Cardinal by Pope Innocent XI and was made Cardinal-Priest of thr Church of San Pancrazio in Rome.

During these centuries many other things have been wrongly defined, for example, that the Divine essence neither is begotten nor begets, that the soul is the substantial form of the human body, and the like assertions, which are made without reason or sense, as the Cardinal of Cambray himself admits.

* April 19 – Richelieu is made Cardinal.

In March 1983, Cardinal Ratzinger ( now Pope Benedict XVI ) head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ( CDF ), made ten observations of Gutiérrez's theology, accusing Gutiérrez of politically interpreting the Bible in supporting temporal messianism, and stating that the predominance of orthopraxis over orthodoxy in his thought proved a Marxist influence.

Papal diplomacy in the interests of peace failed, however ; Cardinal Wolsey made England, not the pope, the arbiter between France and the Empire ; and much of the money collected for the crusade from tithes and indulgences was spent in other ways.

After some years of weak government by Louis's favorites, the King made Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal Richelieu, a former protégé of his mother, the chief minister of France in 1624.