Day of the Dupes

Common card · No. 406459

Day of the Dupes (French: la journée des Dupes) is the name given to a day in French history in November 1630 on which the enemies of Cardinal Richelieu mistakenly believed that they had succeeded in persuading King Louis XIII to dismiss Richelieu from power. The incident is thought to have occurred on the 10th, 11th, or 12th of that month. In November 1630, the political relations between the cardinal and the queen mother, the Italian-born Marie de' Medici, reached a crisis. In a stormy scene on 10 November in the Luxembourg Palace, Marie de' Medici and the cardinal met in the king's presence. The queen mother demanded the cardinal's dismissal, declaring that the king had to choose between him and her. No immediate decision came from this conference, but the king retired to his hunting lodge in Versailles without saying a word or looking at Richelieu. This led the cardinal to believe that his political career was over, but the intercession of influential friends convinced the minister...

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