Armand Jean de Vignerot du Plessis

Armand Jean de Vignerot du Plessis, 2nd Duke of Richelieu (3 October 1629 – 20 May 1715), was a French naval officer and nobleman. His surname has also been spelled Vignerod Duplessis.

Life His father was François de Vignerot (died 26 January 1646 in Paris), who was the son of René de Vignerot and Françoise du Plessis de Richelieu (died 1615), one of the sisters of Cardinal Richelieu. He was carefully raised with his two brothers under the direction of his father's sister, the Duchess of Aiguillon, who had a marked preference for him.

He became Duke of Richelieu by substitution and invested with the dignity of peer of France by the will of his great-uncle, Cardinal Richelieu, when barely thirteen years old at the latter's death in December 1642. a daughter of the Duke of Chevreuse and Marie de Rohan. Through this marriage the young duke would have the support the de Luynes, the de Lorraines and the de Rohans; three of Frances most powerful families.

The duke commissioned Pierre Dulin to paint pendants to three paintings of pagan festivals by Poussin, including one to the Triumph of Pan. Dulin also made two large portraits of the Duke, one dressed as a Roman on horseback, the other of him in armour.