ABSTRACT
Early episodes in the regency suggested essential continuity rather than abrupt change. Ministers had much to worry about but the mood at court, after the defeat of the Importants, appears to have veered between relief and mutual congratulation. There was little sign of a break or of reassessment, in principles or in administrative procedures. There was however a new situation. War was no longer the issue of security that it had been before Rocroy, when the enemy threatened the eastern provinces – and the estates of prominent Parisians. The strident propaganda that Richelieu had successfully sponsored now had negative effects. If his enemies had ‘shed their blood like water’, 1 if the royal armies were victorious by land and sea, why did peace seem as remote as ever? Were ministers pursuing the war because it was profitable to them and to their financial associates?
