Once upon a time, there was a young king named Louis XIII in France. His mom, Marie de' Medici, took care of things until he grew up. She made friends with two strong Catholic countries, Spain and Austria. She wanted everyone to be Catholic and didn't like the Protestants.

But when Louis XIII became an adult, he didn't agree with his mom. He wanted to make his own decisions and rule the country. So he sent his mom away and asked Cardinal Richelieu to help him. At first, Louis didn't like Richelieu, but they realized they had similar ideas and became good friends.

Richelieu did many things to make the king stronger. He defeated the Protestants who didn't follow the Catholic Church. He also protected France from its enemies, like Austria. Richelieu made sure the nobles didn't have too much power, so the king could be in charge. He even helped common people become nobles!

Even though Richelieu was a Catholic cardinal, he supported the Protestants in a different country because they were fighting against a Catholic royal family that could hurt France. Richelieu wanted the king to have the most power, and he helped create a government called an absolute monarchy, where the king was in charge of everything.