Richelieu's two goals were 1) To make the king all powerful in France and 2) To make France supreme in Europe. Cardinal Richelieu, Chief Minister of King Louis XIII of France from 1624 to 1642, aimed, on the one hand, at establishing an absolute monarchy in France, vesting the king with unlimited centralized authority and total sovereignty while limiting the power of the nobility, and, on the other hand, at turning France into the greatest and most powerful nation in Europe while also playing a key role in the development of the French Empire.