The great chronicler of the diplomatic method, Harold Nicolson, once wrote that the origins of modern diplomacy can be traced to the "determinant" influence of Cardinal Richelieu. Richelieu's achievement was the development of a coterie of trained "creatures" dedicated to promoting state interests through "ceaseless negotiation." By the time Richelieu died, in 1642, France had fostered a new class of diplomatists, and thus, somewhat inadvertently, had helped to pave the way for the great settlement of the Thirty Years War signed at Westphalia in 1648.
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