One of the complaints of the malcontent princes against the government was the state of the national finances; in truth, the half-dozen years since Henry’s death had reduced France from relative prosperity to something very like bankruptcy. But Richelieu retorted on the princes by a published statement, meant to enlighten the country as to the fate of some of its funds. The Prince de Condé had received 3,665,990 _livres_; the late Comte de Soissons, his wife and son (Charles de Bourbon died in 1612, and his family were even more restless and greedy than himself), 1,600,000 _livres_; the old Prince de Conti, now also dead, and his worldly widow, 1,400,000 _livres_; the Duc de Longueville, 1,200,000 _livres_; the Duc de Mayenne, 2,000,000 _livres_; the Duc de Vendôme, 600,000 _livres_; the Duc d’Épernon, 700,000 _livres_; the Duc de Bouillon, 1,000,000 _livres_; all, says M. Martin, without counting “salaries, pensions, and gifts to their friends and servants.” As a _livre_ was about the same as a franc, and then worth five times as much as now, the smallest of these “gratifications” was equal to £120,000, and the largest to nearly £800,000 sterling. It must be added that the eight Marshals of France and six other great officers of the Crown received four times as much as in the days of Henry. The royal armies were successful; they drove the princes before them, destroying their strongholds, and besieged them in the fortified towns to which they retreated. “They were in despair,” says Pontchartrain. Henry de Richelieu, a keen and good soldier, served as aide-de-camp to the Maréchal de Montigny. It was at this time that Richelieu, as Secretary of State, gave the Powers of Europe the first intimation that French policy was not for ever to be bound up with the interests of Spain--a great change, after nearly seven years of Marie de Médicis’ rule, and a striking forecast of the future. England, Holland, and Germany were assured of the friendship of France, on the understanding that no assistance was given to the rebel princes. The Spanish marriages, Richelieu’s ambassadors assured the Protestant Powers, did not bind Louis XIII. either to Rome or to Spain “to the prejudice of our ancient allies.” The King would give equal treatment to his subjects of either religion. “No Catholic is so blind as to esteem a Spaniard, in matters of State, more highly than a French Huguenot.” Independence of Spain had already been practically shown by Richelieu in not forbidding the Duc de Lesdiguières, governor of Dauphiné, himself a distinguished Huguenot, to lead an army of his own across the Alps in order to support Duke Charles Emmanuel of Savoy in his quarrel with the Spanish Viceroy of Milan.