Day of the Dupes is the name given to the day in November 1630 on which the enemies of Cardinal Richelieu mistakenly believed that they had succeeded in persuading Louis XIII, King of France, to dismiss Richelieu from power. The actual day is thought to have been on the 10th, 11th, or 12th of the month.
In November 1630, the political relations between the cardinal and the queen mother, the Italian-born Marie de' Medici, reached a crisis. In a stormy scene on 10 November, in the Luxembourg Palace, Marie de' Medici and the cardinal met in the king's presence. The queen mother demanded the cardinal's dismissal, declaring that the king had to choose between him and her.
No immediate decision came from this conference, but the king retired to his hunting lodge in Versailles. Richelieu seems to have believed that his political career was over, but the intercession of influential friends saved the minister from impending disgrace. While the apartments of the Luxembourg Palace were thronged by the cardinal's enemies celebrating his fall, Richelieu followed the king to Versailles, where the monarch assured him of continued support. Marie was subsequently exiled to Compiègne. The "Day of the Dupes", as this event was called, marks the complete restoration of the cardinal to royal favor.
Read more about Day Of The Dupes: In Fiction
Famous quotes containing the words day of, day and/or dupes:
“Half-opening her lips to the frost’s morning sigh, how strangely the rose has smiled on a swift-fleeting day of September!
How audacious it is to advance in stately manner before the blue-tit fluttering in the shrubs that have long lost their leaves, like a queen with the spring’s greeting on her lips;
to bloom with steadfast hope that, parted from the cold flower-bed, she may be the last to cling, intoxicated, to a young hostess’s breast.”
—Afanasi Fet (1820–1892)
“The day is for mistake and error, sequence of time for success and carrying out. The one who anticipates is master of the day.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“Pessimists fear becoming the dupes of Hope. Optimists enjoy Hope’s company, and consider being duped no great matter.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)