By the 1580s he had become a major creditor of the monarchy, serving as the intermediary between Italian banking families and the crown, this eventually brought him into financial ruin.

While at peace with the crown in 1588, Guise sought to impose his authority over Richelieu, instructing him not to garrison Saumur on the Loire to protect against Navarre's army.

This assassination brought Henri into war with the ligue again, and Richelieu participated in a failed attempt to maintain the loyalty of Poitiers to the crown, the city arresting and then expelling him.

[7] He began his career serving as a page to king Charles IX before becoming guidon in the company of the prince Dauphin, son of the duke of Montpensier.

[11] During the fifth war of religion he fought in the west of France under the command of the prince de Dombes, grandson of the duke of Montpensier.

[2] As a term of the Peace of Monsieur which brought the fifth war of religion to a close, the king's brother Alençon who had fought with the rebels against Henri III was granted the Duchy of Anjou, Touraine and Berry.

[13] On 28 February 1578, Henri III established a new office, that of Grand Prévôt de France to combat disorders that were rampant in the kingdom.

This charge was responsible for the security of the royal residence, with a force of various lieutenants and functionaries alongside 78 archers bearing halberds at his disposal.

[3] In January 1585, the king decreed that Richelieu, in his capacity as Grand Prévôt de l'Hôtel was to make weekly reports to him on any disorders that he had become aware of.

[5] On 19 January of this month Richelieu proposed in council to make the rue de Louvre a closed off street, with a barrier to keep regular traffic away from the front of the royal palace.

Henri acceded to this request, and Richelieu was charged with opening and closing the gate to provide access for the king's entourage.

This was seized upon as a pretext by the duke of Guise and segments of allied nobility, who refounded the Catholic ligue to oppose his succession and a host of other royal policies.

Beauvais-Nangis was less enthused to join the ligue as an ally of the duke of Guise and more drawn to the organisation by his opposition to one of the king's paramount favourites Épernon.

Richelieu was sympathetic to this reasoning and provided tacit support to Beauvais-Nangis during his brief time with the ligue before he became a royalist once more the following year.

[21] During 1585, he would receive elevation to the new highest order of chivalry established by Henri, being made a chevalier de l'Ordre du Saint-Esprit in the intake of 1585.

[6] Shortly before the convention of the Estates General of 1588, Guise sought to impose his authority as a great lord on the officers of state.

[22] Richelieu was introducing garrisons at this moment along the length of Loire on royal orders to block any potential advance by the Protestant Navarre after his victory at the Coutras.

Henri was delighted that Richelieu had resisted the entreaties of Guise, praising him in a letter to the duke of Nevers as a dutiful and firm representative of the royal will.

Entering the hall of the Third Estate which was meeting at the Hôtel de Ville of Blois with a company of archers he shouted 'No one move!

[26] His men promptly arrested Neuilly a président in the Parlement, Michel Marteau [fr] the prévôt des marchands of Paris, Dorléans, Compan and Cotteblanche all Parisian échevins.

The men were led through the rain to the Château de Blois where Richelieu showed them the pools of blood in the king's bedchamber, where the duke of Guise had been cut down.

[31] The following day, the king resolved that alongside the duke, he needed to assassinate his imprisoned brother the Cardinal de Guise.

Richelieu would decline to perform this sacrilegious task, and the king eventually turned to a member of his bodyguard Michel de Gast to accomplish the deed.

[32] The assassination of the duke would however prompt a dramatic response across France, and not long thereafter half of the 50 largest cities in the country were in the hands of the ligue.

Henri opened the Parlement in Tours on 23 March with a lit de justice, in attendance for this solemn inauguration were Richelieu, Cardinal Vendôme, captain of his guard Maintenon, Admiral of France Beauvais-Nangis among others.

To work against this he dispatched René, come de Sanzay to the city to deliver a message urging the notables to remain loyal.

[36] Having arrived, La Roche-Chemerault and Richelieu set to work, they hoped to take control of the municipal council and reorganise the guard of the city.

[38] During the fights over the barricades the royalist Sainte-Soline put his sword to the ligueur mayor Jean Palustre's throat and forced him to withdraw.

This proved the final collapse of royalist influence in Poitiers, with the executioners killed by a mob and Malicorne and Richelieu captured and imprisoned.