Gaston d'Orléans, able to bring his influence to bear on that prince, he was an invaluable mediator; and the personal influence thus exercised, combined with the fact that he was at the head of both the finances and the foreign policy of France, made him, next to the cardinal, the most powerful man in the kingdom. Richelieu made him executor of his will, and Louis XIII named him a member of the council of regency which he intended should govern the kingdom after his death. Retirement The king's last plans were not carried out, and Bouthillier was obliged to retire into private life, giving up his office of Superintendent of Finances in June 1643. He died in Paris on 13 March 1652. Family Claude Bouthillier had three brothers, all of whom became distinguished member of French society and staunch allies of Richelieu. Victor Le Bouthillier, was a statesman and member of the clergy who served as Archbishop of Tours between 1641 and 1670. Sébastien Bouthillier, was bishop of Aire and played an important role in obtaining Richelieu's return from exile to Avignon in 1619. Denis Bouthillier, Lord of Rancé, was a state councillor and advisor of Marie de Medici. Denis' son, Armand Jean le Bouthillier de Rancé, was the founder of the Trappist monastic order. Claude Bouthillier married Marie de Bragelogne and had one child, Léon Bouthillier, comte de Chavigny (1608–1652). Léon quickly became an associate to his father, who took him with him from 1629 to 1632 to all the great courts of Europe, instructing him in diplomacy. In 1632 he was named secretary of state and seconded his father's work, so that it is not easy always to distinguish their respective parts. He was accompanied on various errands by Jean François Sarrazin. After the death of Louis XIII he had to give up his office; but was sent as plenipotentiary to the negotiations at Münster. He showed himself incapable, however, giving himself up to pleasure and fetes, and returned to France to intrigue against Mazarin. Arrested twice during the Fronde, and then for a short time in power during Mazarin's exile (April 1651), he busied himself with small intrigues which came to nothing. His many children married in several important aristocratic families, further establishing the Bouthillier family's influence. References Attribution: French Foreign Ministers 1581 births 1652 deaths French Ministers of Finance 17th-century French diplomats