Louis XIII., king of France, son of Henry IV. and Marie de' Medici, born at Fontainebleau, 27th September 1601, succeeded to the throne on the assassination of his father, 14th May 1610, his mother being called to the regency by an edict of the parliament of Paris, which had acquired a right to speak in the name of all the others. She entered into close alliance with Spain and the pope, and betrothed the king to Anne of Austria, daughter of Philip III. of Spain, upon which the Huguenots took up arms; but peace was concluded at St Menehould on 5th May 1614. The king, who was now declared of age, confirmed the Edict of Nantes, and in the same year the French États Généraux—consisting of members of the clergy, the nobility, and the middle classes, a body more ancient than the parliaments, and in which the bourgeoisie sided with the kings—were summoned for the last time, as the events proved, till the reign of Louis XVI., for this constitutional chamber showed itself powerless to agree upon and follow out a policy. The restoration of Catholic church-rights in Bearn led to the religious war, in which the Protestants lost almost all their places of security, and which ended in 1622. After the death of De Luynes, in 1624, Richelieu, afterwards Cardinal and Duke, became the chief minister of Louis. His powerful mind obtained complete control over that of the weak king, and his policy effected that increase of monarchical power, at the expense of Protestants, nobles, and parliaments, which reached its consummation in the reign of Louis XIV. The overthrow of the Huguenots was completed by the capture of Rochelle, 20th October 1628, at the siege of which the king took part in person. Richelieu now led Louis to take part in the Thirty Years' War, openly supporting Gustavus Adolphus and the Dutch against the Spaniards and Austrians. The latter years of Louis's reign were signalised by the getting possession of Alsace and of Roussillon, acquisitions which were confirmed in the following reign. Louis died 14th May 1643. Under his reign was prepared the period of French ascendancy in Europe. His queen, after twenty-three years of married life, bore a son in 1638, who succeeded to the throne as Louis XIV.; and in 1640 a second son, Philip, Duke of Orleans, the ancestor of the present House of Orleans.
See MARIE DE' MEDICI, RICHÉLIEU; and French works by Bazin (new ed. 4 vols. 1846), Topin (1876), and Zeller (1879).