Countless times as you read books and learned pamphlets on history, you will meet the French words Ancien Régime. It is an easy bet that many of us only half know what these two simple words signify. The translation is easy: in English – traditional method of government by royalty; in Spanish – el antiguo regimen.
I have not mentioned the air traffic controllers ‘strike’ because the media has talked of nothing else since the dreadful weekend at the beginning of December, when all air traffic over Spanish territory was cancelled at the orders, apparently, of AENA, the government-controlled body that manages Spain’s far too numerous airports (47 at the last count, many virtually unused, but the Ministry of Development is building more at towns you may never have heard of, like Teruel).
The real Cardinal Richelieu / commons.wikimedia.org
In half a dozen films, especially Hollywood films, the figure of the Duke of Richelieu has been categorized by famous actors as a plotting, conspiring, malignant courtier and politician who tried, among other dastardies, to seduce the French Queen, and dared to dissolve the King’s personal bodyguard – the Musketeers. The only thing the studios got right was Richelieu’s great height, which is why tall actors such as Vincent Price, Tim Rice and Charlton Heston played him in films.
Armand Jean du Plessis, duc de Richelieu (1585 – 1642) was Chief Minister to Louis XIII from 1628 to 1642, and certainly used the royal influence to encourage royal absolutism in France, and French influence in Europe. After his consecration as Bishop of Luçon in 1607 he joined the council of the Regent, Marie de Medici in or around 1616.