Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu had begun to rise to power quickly after the death of French King Louis's favorite, the duc de Luynes, in 1621,

The young King had soon nominated Richelieu for a cardinalate, which Pope Gregory XV had accordingly granted on April 19, 1622.

Crises in France, including a rebellion of the Huguenots, have rendered Richelieu a nearly indispensable advisor to the King.

Upon his appointment to the royal council of ministers in April 1624, he had begun intriguing against the chief minister, Charles, duc de La Vieuville.

La Vieuville is arrested on charges of corruption in August of this year, and Cardinal Richelieu takes his place as the King's principal minister.

Richelieu's policy involves two primary goals: centralization of power in France and opposition to the Habsburg dynasty (which rules in both Austria and Spain).

He is faced with a crisis in Valtellina, a valley in Lombardy (northern Italy), shortly after he becomes Louis' principal minister.

Richelieu, in order to counter Spanish designs on the territory, supports the Protestant Swiss canton of Grisons, which also claims the strategically important valley.

The Cardinal deploys troops to Valtellina, from which the Pope's garrisons are driven out.

Richelieu's early decision to support a Protestant canton against the Pope is a foretaste of the purely diplomatic power politics he is to espouse in his foreign policy.