A Brill Calendar: September 5

Few relationships between two individuals are culturally as powerful as the bond between a predecessor and his or her successor.

Such a bond may even become archetypal; and an ‘archetype’ may be translated as ‘leading principle’.

The precursor has seldom been embodied better in European culture than in the grand figure of Armand-Jean du Plessis, cardinal et duc de Richelieu (Richelieu, Poitou September 9 1585, Paris December 4 1642). When he died he left to France a brand new inheritance: an absolute monarchy, forever characterized by ‘Le Roi Soleil’, Louis XIV (Saint-German-en-Lay, September 5 , 1638, Versailles, September 1, 1715).

It is seldom that the ‘longue durée’ of history is better exemplified. The 130 calendar years between 1585, Richelieu’s birth, and 1715, the death of the Grand Monarch, envelop the 17th century. Two cardinals, Richelieu and Mazarin, prepared and tutored the young king for his task; when Mazarin died, on March 9 1661, the young king, then 22, astonished his ministers by the announcement, made on the following day, that he would take sole responsibility for ruling the Kingdom.

Creating an iconic archetype may be a very time- consuming process.