He would have exchanged all his honors for the ability to write one play like those of Corneille.

Hungering for literary distinction, he could not have gotten into his own Academy had he not created it.

And jealous of his laurels, he hated Corneille as much as he did the enemies of France.
The feeble King Louis XIII.

manifested wisdom in at least one thing.
He permitted this greatest statesman of his time, and one of the greatest perhaps of all time, to have a free hand in managing his kingdom.

And whatever the pressure from the queen-mother, from cabals and intriguing nobles, he never yielded the point, but kept his great minister in his service as long as they both lived.