This was especially commendable in Louis because they were personally antagonistic, and also because the queen-mother constantly used her powerful influence over her son for his downfall.
Marie had been permitted to return to Paris, where her son, perhaps to console her for the loss of the Concinis, had built for her the Palais de Luxembourg, intended as a reminiscence of her dear Italy, with its Medicean architecture and Italian gardens and fountains.

Here she held her little court in great splendor, and here she wove her ineffectual webs for Richelieu's defeat and downfall.

It is said that at one time Louis at her instigation had actually taken the pen in hand to sign the order for his minister's disgrace, when that vigilant and omniscient being, perfectly aware of what was occurring, appeared from behind the curtains.

And Louis, quailing before the superior will of a master, sent his vicious, intriguing mother into perpetual banishment.

And we are told that Marie, the subject of those immortal canvases now at the Louvre, was actually sheltered and fed by the great painter at his own home in the day of her disgrace and poverty.
It is not strange that Peter the Great pronounced Richelieu the model statesman! Their ideals were the same.