Quote:
	
	
		| 
					Originally Posted by issybird  This makes sense.  The constant dueling which the Crown and Cardinal was trying to contain has a modern echo in sports hooliganism.  But I still think the portrayal of the Cardinal was inconsistent; the wrap-up had him a good guy but his attempts to undermine the Queen, for example, were antithetical to the good of the Crown and were part of Richelieu's own power grab. | 
	
 Yes, I agree about the inconsistency.  He was definitely shown as being malevolent in the first part of the book.  There was at one stage (to do with the diamonds) a suggestion that the Cardinal had been in love with the Queen, who wouldn't have anything to do with him, and presumably hell hath no fury like a Cardinal scorned.
You have to wonder about Dumas senior's feelings about his father, given that he sold the boy's mother and sisters when he left.  That is unspeakable.