Henri Coiffier de Ruzé, Marquis of Cinq-Mars (1620 - September 12, 1642) was a "favourite" of King Louis XIII of France who led the last and most nearly successful of the many conspiracies against the king's powerful first minister, the Cardinal Richelieu.

Cinq-Mars was the son of Marshal Antoine Coiffier-Ruzé, marquis d'Effiat, a close friend of Richelieu, who took the boy under his protection on his father's death in 1632.

In 1642, Louis had no "favourite" (a close friend, usually a lover at court, who usually had a major influence on the King's decisions). Richelieu had introduced the young Cinq-Mars, to Louis, hoping Louis would take Cinq-Mars as a lover. The cardinal believed Cinq-Mars was easy to control. Instead, the marquis tried to convince the king to have Richelieu executed, and when Cinq_Mars took matters into his own hands, Richelieu had him imprisoned and then beheaded in Lyon, together with François de Thou. Although the king approved the execution, the death of Cinq-Mars appears to have driven a wedge between him and the cardinal.

Miscellaneous

Alfred de Vigny wrote a novel Cinq-Mars, inspired by the story of the marquis, and published in 1826. Charles Gounod created an opera of the same name on April 5, 1877.

External links

• Free eBook of Cinq-Mars (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3953) at Project Gutenberg
• Detailed history: Conspiration et mort de Cinq-Mars (http://www.herodote.net/histoire09122.htm) (in French)