The Three Musketeers Lesson Plan

Why would the cardinal want to stir up trouble between the king and his wife? What end does this serve?

This is a fairly open question, since no student will know the answer (as of yet). At this point in the novel, the cardinal's motives remain obscure; although students know that he acts in the hopes of obtaining more power for himself, they nevertheless will probably disagree about how Queen Anne is connected to that. Some students might propose, for instance, that by sidelining the queen, the cardinal can convince the king to take on a stronger, more assertive foreign policy towards states like England, Austria, and Spain. Others might argue that the cardinal is...