text: **Accession**
  
  Sensing imminent death in the spring of 1643, King Louis XIII decided to put his affairs in 
  order for his four-year-old son Louis XIV. Not trusting the judgement of his Spanish wife 
  Queen Anne, who would normally have become the sole regent of France, the king 
  decreed that a regency council would rule on his son's behalf, with Anne at its head.[13] 
  
  Louis XIII died on 14 May 1643. On 18 May[14] Queen Anne had her husband's will 
  annulled by the*Parlement de Paris*, a judicial body of nobles and high-ranking clergy,[15] 
  and she became sole regent. She exiled her husband's ministers Chavigny and Bouthilier 
  and appointed the Count of Brienne as her minister of foreign affairs.[16] Anne kept the 
  direction of religious policy strongly in hand until her son's majority in 1661. 
  
  She appointed Cardinal Mazarin as chief minister, giving him the daily administration of 
  policy. She continued the policies of her late husband and Cardinal Richelieu, despite their 
  persecution of her, in order to win absolute authority in France and victory abroad for her 
  son. Anne protected Mazarin by exiling her followers the Duke of Beaufort and Marie de 
  Rohan, who conspired against him in 1643.[17] 
  Louis XIV as a young child, 
  unknown painter 
  
  The best example of Anne's loyalty to France was her treatment of one of Richelieu's men, 
  the Chancellor Pierre Séguier. Séguier had brusquely interrogated Anne in 1637 (like a 
  "common criminal", as she recalled) following the discovery that she was giving military secrets to her father in Spain, and Anne 
  was virtually under house arrest for years. By keeping the effective Séguier in his post, Anne sacrificed her own feelings for the 
  interests of France and her son Louis. 