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An éminence grise (French pronunciation: [eminɑ̃s ɡʁiz]) or gray eminence is a powerful decision-maker or advisor who operates "behind the scenes", usually in a non-public or unofficial capacity.

The original French phrase referred to François Leclerc du Tremblay, the right-hand man of Cardinal Richelieu, the de facto ruler of France. Leclerc was a member of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin and wore the gray-colored robe of that Franciscan order, which led them use the familiar nickname the "Grayfriars" in the names of many Franciscan friaries throughout Medieval Europe. The precise color was less significant than its unmistakable contrast with the brilliant red worn by Richelieu as cardinal. The style "Your Eminence" or "His Eminence" is used to address or refer to a cardinal in the Catholic Church. Although Leclerc was never raised to the rank of cardinal, those around him addressed him as "eminence" as if he were one in deference to his close association with "His Eminence the Cardinal Richelieu".

Leclerc is referred to in several popular works such as an autobiography by Aldous Huxley. An 1873 painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme, L'Éminence grise, depicts him descending the grand staircase of the Palais-Royal–originally called the Palais-Cardinal when it was built for Richelieu in the 1630s–engrossed in reading a book as an array of courtiers bow deeply towards him. The painting won the Medal of Honor at the 1874 Paris Salon. In Henri-Paul Motte's painting of the Siege of La Rochelle (1881), Leclerc is dressed in brown and hold's Richelieu's red cardinal's hat. Leclerc is referred to in Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers as the character Father Joseph, a powerful associate of Richelieu and one to be feared.

Historical examples

• Empress Jia Nanfeng and Empress Dowager Cixi are two examples of women who were the rulers of Imperial China in all but name. As women were (in the main) barred from reigning in their own right, the history of China is replete with cases of women exercising political power through puppet male relatives.
• William de la Pole to Henry VI of England.
• John Dee is sometimes considered an éminence grise. Officially, he was the court astrologer to Elizabeth I, but exercised more power as a general advisor to the Queen.
• Joseph Stalin was frequently called an éminence grise by Leon Trotsky, whom he defeated in the succession struggles for Soviet leadership following Lenin's death in 1924.
• Adolf Hitler's private secretary Martin Bormann was nicknamed the Brown Eminence.
• Jean Monnet has been described as an éminence grise given his key role in drafting the Schuman Declaration.
• Mikhail Suslov acted as an éminence grise behind General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev. A political hardliner, he was the Second Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union but also played the role of unofficial Chief-Ideologue of the CPSU and one of the key decision makers during not only the Brezhnev, but also the Khrushchev and Stalin eras. Other observers however have given the title of éminence grise during the Brezhnev era variously to Yuri Andropov, Dmitry Ustinov, Andrei Gromyko, and Konstantin Chernenko.
• Marcia Williams, private secretary and later Political Secretary to British Prime Minister Harold Wilson, was described as his éminence grise.
• The Italian Christian Democratic leader Giulio Andreotti was often seen as an éminence grise, exercising great authority over the Italian government even when out of office as Prime Minister (an office he did hold three times) .
• Friedrich von Hayek has been described as an éminence grise of the governments of Margaret Thatcher.
• Joker Arroyo emerged as an éminence grise to Corazon Aquino after the 1986 People Power Revolution that toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
• Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney was described as an éminence grise of the George W. Bush administration, "a powerful but uncompromising politician with the ear of the president" regarding matters of national security and foreign policy.
• American diplomat and policy maker Dennis Ross was "viewed as the éminence grise, a sort of Rasputin who casts a spell over secretaries of state and presidents", according to Middle East experts who worked with him during the administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.
• Choi Soon-sil was revealed by investigations during the 2016 South Korean political scandal to have had previously hidden political influence over the 11th President of South Korea, Park Geun-hye. She was perceived to be responsible for masterminding governmental policy and decision-making during Park's administration.
• Wang Huning is often considered the éminence grise of three paramount leaders of China: Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, and Xi Jinping.
• Vladislav Surkov is often regarded by observers to be the éminence grise to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
• Jarosław Kaczyński was often regarded as the real leader of Poland when his Law and Justice party ruled the country, twice choosing the Prime Minister of Poland, contrary to convention, which holds that as the chairman of the ruling party, he ought to occupy the office himself. (He was previously Prime Minister from 2006 to 2007.) Despite being only Deputy Prime Minister (and sometimes having no formal role in government at all) he often met foreign leaders, such as Angela Merkel, Donald Trump, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a manner akin to a head of government.
• Nursultan Nazarbayev has been described as an éminence grise to Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Through his leadership of the Security Council and the ruling Nur Otan party, Nazarbayev retained control over key decisions, guiding Tokayev’s administration until political shifts following the 2022 Kazakh unrest.
• Bidzina Ivanishvili is often seen by observers as an éminence grise to successive Georgian Dream governments.

See also

• Camarilla
• Consigliere
• Kingmaker
• Power behind the throne
• Svengali

Notes

1. There are different Franciscan orders and in modern times they are more often associated with a distinctive brown color following changes initiated in the 19th century. A Franciscan website explains: "The Friars Minor Conventual up to the constitutions of 1803 were bound to wear ashen gray, but in 1823 black began to prevail. The Friars Minor Observant underwent the official move from gray to brown habits at the 1895 Assisi Chapter when Leo XIII gathered the various families of the Observance into the "Friars Minor" (Reformed, Alcantarins, Recollects, etc.). The Friars Minor Capuchin, in 1912, decided on their present chestnut color."

References

1. O'Connell, D.P. (1968). Richelieu. New York: The World Publishing Company.
2. "Franciscan Colors". Order of Friars Minor. Retrieved December 4, 2024.
3. Mould, Michael (2011). The Routledge Dictionary of Cultural References in Modern French. New York: Taylor & Francis. p. 149. ISBN 978-1-136-82573-6. Retrieved June 15, 2012.
4. "1874: The Birth of Impressionism". National Gallery of Art. Retrieved December 4, 2024.
5. McMahon, Keith (2013). Women Shall Not Rule: Imperial Wives and Concubines in China from Han to Liao. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 16. ISBN 9781442222908. Retrieved February 28, 2017.
6. Rimmer, Michael (2015). The Angel Roofs of East Anglia. The Lutterworth Press. p. 188. ISBN 978-0-7188-4318-2.
7. Leon Trotsky, "Stalin: An Appraisal of the Man and His Influence"
8. McGovern, James (1968). Martin Bormann. New York: William Morrow & Company. p. 77. OCLC 441132.
9. Berend, Ivan T. (2021). The Economics and Politics of European Integration: Populism, Nationalism and the History of the EU (1st ed.). New York: Routledge. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-367-55842-0.
10. ^ "The 'Grey Cardinals' of modern-day Russia and China". Qrius. March 16, 2018.
11. The Last Foundling: The Memoir of an Underdog. Cloud Designing. ISBN 9780957200623 – via Google Books.
12. Miles, Rosalind (February 24, 1985). Women and Power. Macdonald. ISBN 9780356106458 – via Google Books.
13. Leigh, David (February 24, 1988). The Wilson Plot: The Intelligence Services and the Discrediting of a Prime Minister. Random House. ISBN 9780434413409 – via Google Books.
14. Franco, Massimo (April 18, 2010). Andreotti. La vita di un uomo politico, la storia di un'epoca. Edizioni Mondadori. ISBN 9788804595632 – via Google Books.
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16. Branigin, William (October 7, 2015). "Joker Arroyo, key anti-Marcos figure in Philippines, dies in U.S. at 88". The Washington Post.
17. Walsh, Kenneth T. (January 23, 2006). "The Cheney Factor: How the scars of public life shaped the vice president's unyielding view of executive power". U.S. News & World Report. Archived from the original on January 17, 2006. Lawrence Wilkerson, a Cheney critic said: "The power behind the throne — an eminence grise — that's what Dick Cheney has become."
18. Cooper, Helene; Landler, Mark (May 21, 2011). "Obama's Peace Tack Contrasts With Key Aide, Friend of Israel". The New York Times. Retrieved January 22, 2017.
19. "A Presidential Friendship Has Many South Koreans Crying Foul". New York Times. October 27, 2016.
20. "A Rasputinesque mystery woman and a cultish religion could take down South Korea's president". Quartz. October 28, 2016.
21. "'It's actually a system where Choi Sun-sil tells the President what to do'". The Hankyoreh. October 26, 2016.
22. "Investigations into 'Choi Soon-sil gate' widening". The Korea Times. October 23, 2016.
23. "Key suspects still at large in Choi Sun-sil probe". JoongAng Ilbo. October 25, 2016.
24. "All the Queen's men and women". The Straits Times. Retrieved March 21, 2017.
25. "Presidential speeches found on confidante's PC: report". The Korea Herald. October 25, 2016.
26. "South Korea's presidency 'on the brink of collapse' as scandal grows". Washington Post. October 29, 2016.
27. "Can Pres. Park be investigated over Choi Sun-sil scandal?". The Hankyoreh. October 28, 2016.
28. "Troubling revelations about Seoul's 'Shadow President': The Korea Herald columnist". The Straits Times. October 27, 2016.
29. "'Choi-gate' scandal snowballing". JoongAng Ilbo. October 22, 2016.
30. "South Korea's leader acknowledges ties to woman in scandal". Washington Post. October 25, 2016.
31. Foy, Henry (February 26, 2016). "Jaroslaw Kaczynski: Poland's kingmaker". Financial Times.
32. "Polish Premier Meets Kingmaker Kaczynski as Shake Up Looms". Bloomberg. November 7, 2017. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
33. "Who is Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the puppet master of Poland's far-right?". Euronews.com. June 26, 2020.
34. "Merkel making 'last chance' visit to Poland". Deutsche Welle.
35. "Trump in Poland: Five reasons why he is going there". BBC News. July 5, 2017.
36. "Joe Biden to travel to Europe for extraordinary summit on Ukraine as 3million have now fled the country and 20,000 feared dead in besieged Mariupol alone". Independent.ie. March 15, 2022.
37. "Steppe on fire: Kazakhstan's color revolution". katehon.com. January 13, 2022. Retrieved October 31, 2024.

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