Cardinal Richelieu

Armand Jean du Plessis (1585–1642) is better known as Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister of France’s King Louis XIII and just as autocratic and pleasure loving as the king he served. Though he was technically a high official in the Catholic Church, Richelieu was as worldly as could be, living in grand style.

Among his more innocent pleasures was his bevy of cats, including a black angora with the very un-Christian name Lucifer. Richelieu had no children (none that he acknowledged, anyway), and he left some of his vast wealth for the continuing care of his cats. But the powerful cardinal had made a lot of enemies in his day, and his will proved to be meaningless, for after his death his beloved cats were massacred by Swiss soldiers.
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