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Richelieu was also able to use the Thirty Years War to further the national interests of France and he, more than anyone else, made France the greatest power in Europe by the second half of the seventeenth century. However, these achievements, while significant were a catastrophe for most French citizens.

In the early seventeenth century France was one of the leading powers in Europe, but it was very divided and vulnerable. It was surrounded by the Hapsburgs who controlled the Low Countries and Spain. The kingdom was also very divided because of religion. Europe was torn by religious conflict and in 1618 the Thirty Years War broke out, and much of the continent was dragged into the conflict between Catholic and Protestant.<ref> Bergin, Joseph. <i>The Rise of Richelieu</i> (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997), p. 34</ref> The international situation was destabilizing French society which was divided between Catholic and Protestant (Huguenot). The Edict of Nantes had granted French Protestants religious toleration, and this community effectively ran their own ‘parallel state.’ There were continued tensions between Catholics and Protestants, and this frequently exploded into riot and violence. The Catholic community itself was divided between hardliners and those who took a more pragmatic approach to religion. The country itself was still largely a feudal society.<ref>Bergin, p. 13</ref>