By Hilaire Belloc

With an Introduction by Fr. Michael Crowdy

Richelieu is a classic yet fresh treatment of one of the most central figures in the making of modern Europe, and Belloc tells his story as only Belloc can. Not a sterile, overly footnoted academic dissection of secondary sources, Belloc's Richelieu is a lively, engaging, truth-is-stranger-than-fiction tale of an intriguing and ultimately tragic personality. The book directly tackles the central problem of the Cardinal, painting a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of the man while offering an objective critique of his policies: policies that did so much to make permanent the rift that split Christendom and which, thanks to Cardinal Richelieu's efforts among other things, was never to be repaired.

Fr. Crowdy is a Roman Catholic priest stationed in Bristol, England, who was rised as an Anglican and trained as a lawyer. Following World War II service in the British Army in India, he converted to Catholicism and was ordained a priest at the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in 1954. He has served as a priest in Florence, Italy, and in Northampton and London, England. His career and his personal scholarly interests make him an uncannily qualified student of Belloc's writing.

272 Pages, Softcover