Cardinal Jules Mazarin, actually born as the Italian Giulio Mazzarino, was Richelieu’s main lieutenant and succeeded his boss as chief minister of France when the latter died in 1642. He amassed a great personal fortune while introducing a number of taxes and other schemes to raise funds for wars abroad—a state of affairs that hardly endeared himself to the French public. An insurrection against his policies even forced the cardinal to briefly flee the country in 1651.