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FRONDE, THE

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 249 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FRONDE, THE , the name given to a See also:civil See also:war in See also:France which lasted from 1648 to 1652, and to its sequel,. the war with See also:Spain in 1653-59. The word means a See also:sling, and was applied to this contest from the circumstance that the windows of See also:Cardinal See also:Mazarin's adherents were pelted with stones by the See also:Paris See also:mob. Its See also:original See also:object was the redress of grievances, but the See also:movement soon degenerated into a factional contest among the nobles, who sought to See also:reverse the results of See also:Richelieu's See also:work and to overthrow his successor Mazarin. In May 1648 a tax levied on judicial See also:officers of the See also:parlement of Paris was met by that See also:body, not merely with a refusal to pay, but with a condemnation of earlier See also:financial edicts, and even with a demand for the See also:acceptance of a See also:scheme of constitutional reforms framed by a See also:committee of the parlement. This See also:charter was somewhat influenced by contemporary events in See also:England. But there is no real likeness between the two revolutions, the See also:French parlement being no more representative of the See also:people than the Inns of See also:Court were in England. The See also:political See also:history of the See also:time is dealt with in the See also:article FRANCE: History, the See also:present article being concerned chiefly with the military operations of what was perhaps the most costly and least necessary civil war in history. The military See also:record of the first or " See also:parliamentary " Fronde is almost See also:blank. In See also:August 1648, strengthened by the See also:news of See also:Conde's victory at See also:Lens, Mazarin suddenly arrested the leaders of the parlement, whereupon Paris See also:broke into insurrection and barricaded the streets. The court, having no See also:army at its immediate disposal, had to See also:release the prisoners and to promise reforms, and fled from Paris on the See also:night of the 22nd of See also:October. But the See also:signing of the See also:peace of See also:Westphalia set See also:free Conde's army, and by See also:January 1649 it was besieging Paris. The peace of See also:Rueil was signed in See also:March, after little See also:blood had been See also:shed.

The Parisians, though still and always See also:

anti-cardinalist, refused to ask for See also:Spanish aid, as proposed by their princely and See also:noble adherents, and having no prospect of military success without such aid, submitted and received concessions. Thenceforward the Fronde becomes a See also:story of sordid intrigues and See also:half-hearted warfare, losing all trace of its first constitutional phase. The leaders were discontented princes and nobles—Monsieur (Gaston of See also:Orleans, the See also:king's See also:uncle), the See also:great Conde and his See also:brother See also:Conti, the duc de See also:Bouillon and his brother See also:Turenne. To these must be added Gaston's daughter, Mademoiselle de See also:Montpensier (La grande Mademoiselle), Conde's See also:sister, Madame de See also:Longueville, Madame de Chevreuse, and the astute intriguer See also:Paul de Gondi, later Cardinal de See also:Retz. The military operations See also:fell into the hands of war-experienced mercenaries, led by two great, and many second-See also:rate, generals, and of nobles to whom war was a polite pastime. The feelings of the people at large were enlisted on neither See also:side. This peace of Rueil lasted until the end of 1649. The princes, received at court once more, renewed their intrigues against Mazarin, who, having come to an understanding with See also:Monsieur, Gondi and Madame de Chevreuse, suddenly arrested Conde, Conti and Longueville (January 14, 1650). The war which followed this coup is called the "Princes' Fronde." This time it was Turenne, before and afterwards the most loyal soldier of his See also:day, who headed the armed See also:rebellion. Listening to the promptings of his See also:Egeria, Madame de Longueville, he resolved to See also:rescue her brother, his old comrade of See also:Freiburg and NSrdlingen. It was with Spanish assistance that he hoped to do so; and a powerful army of that nation assembled in See also:Artois under the See also:archduke See also:Leopold, See also:governor-See also:general of the Spanish See also:Netherlands. But the peasants of the See also:country-side See also:rose against the invaders, the royal army in See also:Champagne was in the capable hands of Cesar de See also:Choiseul, See also:comte du Plessis-Praslin, who counted fifty-two years of See also:age and See also:thirty-six of war experience, and the little fortress of See also:Guise successfully resisted the archduke's attack.

Thereupon, however, Mazarin See also:

drew upon Plessis-Praslin's army 248 for reinforcements to be sent to subdue the rebellion in the See also:south, and the royal general had to retire. Then, happily for France, the archduke decided that he had spent sufficient of the king of Spain's See also:money and men in the French See also:quarrel. The magnificent See also:regular army withdrew into See also:winter quarters, and See also:left Turenne to deliver the princes with a See also:motley See also:host of Frondeurs and Lorrainers. Plessis-Praslin by force and See also:bribery secured the surrender of See also:Rethel on the 13th of See also:December 165o, and Turenne, who had advanced to relieve the See also:place, fell back hurriedly. But he was a terrible opponent, and Plessis-Praslin and Mazarin himself, who accompanied the army, had many misgivings as to the result of a lost See also:battle. The See also:marshal See also:chose nevertheless to force Turenne to a decision, and the battle of See also:Blanc-Champ (near See also:Somme-Py) or Rethel was the consequence. Both sides were at a standstill in strong positions, Plessis-Praslin doubtful of the trustworthiness of his See also:cavalry, Turenne too weak to attack, when a dispute for See also:precedence arose between the Gardes francaises and the Picardie See also:regiment. The royal See also:infantry had to be rearranged in See also:order of regimental seniority, and Turenne, seeing and desiring to profit by the attendant disorder, came out of his stronghold and attacked with the greatest vigour. The battle (December 15, 1650) was severe and for a time doubtful, but Turenne's Frondeurs gave way in the end, and his army, as an army, ceased to exist. Turenne himself, undeceived as to the See also:part he was playing in the See also:drama, asked and received the See also:young king's pardog, and meantime the court, with the maison du roi and other loyal troops, had subdued the See also:minor risings without difficulty (March–April 1651). Conde, Conti and Longueville were released, and by See also:April 1651 the rebellion had everywhere collapsed. Then followed a few months of hollow peace and the court returned to Paris.

Mazarin, an object of hatred to all the princes, had already retired into See also:

exile. " Le temps est un galant homme," he remarked, "laissons le faire!" and so it proved. His See also:absence left the See also:field free for mutual jealousies, and for the See also:remainder of the See also:year anarchy reigned in France. In December 1651 Mazarin returned with a small army. The war began again, and this time Turenrie and Conde were pitted against one another. After the first See also:campaign, as we shall see, the civil war ceased, but for several other See also:campaigns the two great soldiers were opposed to one another, Turenne as the defender of France, Conde as a Spanish invader. Their personalities alone give threads of continuity to these seven years of wearisome manceuvres, sieges and combats, though for a right understanding of the causes which were to produce the See also:standing armies of the age of See also:Louis XIV. and See also:Frederick the Great the military student should See also:search deeply into the material and moral factors that here decided the issue. The debut of the new Frondeurs took place in Guyenne (February–March 1652), while their Spanish ally, the archduke Leopold See also:William, captured various See also:northern fortresses. On the See also:Loire, whither the centre of gravity was soon transferred, the Frondeurs were commanded by intriguers and quarrelsome lords, until Conde's arrival from Guyenne. His bold trenchant leadership made itself See also:felt in the See also:action of Bleneau (7th April 1652), in which a portion of the royal army was destroyed, but fresh troops came up to oppose him, and from the skilful dispositions made by his opponents Conde felt the presence of Turenne and broke off the action. The royal army did likewise. Conde invited the See also:commander of Turenne's rearguard to supper, chaffed him unmercifully for allowing the See also:prince's men to surprise him in the See also:morning, and by way of farewell remarked to his See also:guest, " Quel dommage que See also:des braves gens comme nous se coupent la See also:gorge pour un faquin "—an incident and a remark that thoroughly justify the See also:iron-handed See also:absolutism of Louis XIV.

There was no See also:

hope for France while tournaments on a large See also:scale and at the public's expense were fashionable amongst the grands seigneurs. After Bleneau both armies marched to Paris to negotiate with the parlement, de Retz and Mlle de Montpensier, while the archduke took more fortresses in See also:Flanders, and See also:Charles IV., See also:duke of See also:Lorraine, with an army of plundering mercenaries, marched through Champagne to join Conde. As to the latter, Turenne manoeuvred past Conde and planted himself in frontof the mercenaries, and their See also:leader, not wishing to expend his men against the old French regiments, consented to depart with a money See also:payment and the promise of two tiny Lorraine fortresses. A few more manceuvres, and the royal army was able to hem in the Frondeurs in the See also:Faubourg St See also:Antoine (2nd See also:July 1652) with their backs to the closed See also:gates of Paris. The royalists attacked all along the See also:line and won a See also:signal victory in spite of the knightly prowess of the prince and his great lords, but at the See also:critical moment Gaston's daughter persuaded the Parisians to open the gates and to admit Conde's army. She herself turned the guns of the See also:Bastille on the pursuers. An insurrectional See also:government was organized in the See also:capital and proclaimed Monsieur See also:lieutenant-general of the See also:realm. Mazarin, feeling that public See also:opinion was solidly against him, left France again, and the See also:bourgeois of Paris, quarrelling with the princes, permitted the king to enter the See also:city on the 21st of October 1652. Mazarin returned unopposed in See also:February 1653. The Fronde as a civil war was now over. The whole country, wearied of anarchy and disgusted with the princes, came to look to the king's party as the party of order and settled government, and thus the Fronde prepared the way for the absolutism of Louis XIV. The general war continued in Flanders, See also:Catalonia and See also:Italy wherever a Spanish and a French See also:garrison were See also:face to face, and Conde with the See also:wreck of his army openly and definitely entered the service of the king of Spain.

The " Spanish Fronde " was almost purely a military affair and, except for a few outstanding incidents, a dull affair to See also:

boot. In 1653 France was so exhausted that neither invaders nor defenders were able to gather supplies to enable them to take the field till July. At one moment, near Peronne, Conde had Turenne at a serious disadvantage, but he could not galvanize the Spanish general See also:Count Fuensaldana, who was more solicitous to preserve his See also:master's soldiers than to establish Conde as See also:mayor of the See also:palace to the king of France, and the armies drew apart again without fighting. In 1654 the See also:principal incident was the See also:siege and See also:relief of See also:Arras. On the night of the 24th–25th August the lines of See also:circumvallation See also:drawn See also:round that place by the prince were brilliantly stormed by Turenne's army, and Conde won equal See also:credit for his safe withdrawal of the besieging See also:corps under See also:cover of a See also:series of bold cavalry charges led by himself as usual, See also:sword in See also:hand. In 1655 Turenne captured the fortresses of Landrecies, Conde and St Ghislain. In 1656 the prince of Conde revenged himself for the defeat of Arras by storming Turenne's circumvallation around See also:Valenciennes (16th July), but Turenne drew off his forces in See also:good order. The campaign of 1657 was uneventful, and is only to be remembered because a body of 6000 See also:British infantry, sent by See also:Cromwell in pursuance of his treaty of See also:alliance with Mazarin, took part in it. The presence of the See also:English contingent and its very definite purpose of making See also:Dunkirk a new See also:Calais, to be held by England for ever, gave the next campaign a See also:character of certainty and decision which is entirely wanting in the See also:rest of the war. Dunkirk was besieged promptly and in great force, and when See also:Don Juan of See also:Austria and Conde appeared with the relieving army from See also:Furnes, Turenne advanced boldly to meet him. The battle of the See also:Dunes, fought on the 14th of See also:June 1658, was the first real trial of strength since the battle of the Faubourg St Antoine. Successes on one wing were compromised by failure on the other, but in the end Conde drew off with heavy losses, the success of his own cavalry charges .having entirely failed to make good the defeat of the Spanish right wing amongst the Dunes.

Here the " red-coats " made their first See also:

appearance on a See also:continental battlefield, under the leadership of See also:Sir W. See also:Lockhart, Cromwell's See also:ambassador at Paris, and astonished both armies by the stubborn fierceness of their assaults, for they were the products of a war where passions ran higher and the determination to win rested on deeper See also:foundations than in the degringolade of the feudal spirit in which they now figured. Dunkirk fell, as a result of the victory, and flew the St See also:George's See also:cross till Charles II. sold it to the king of France. A last desultory campaign followed in 1659—the twenty-fifth year of the Franco-Spanish War—and the peace of the See also:Pyrenees was signed on the 5th of See also:November. On the 27th of January. 166o the prince asked and obtained at See also:Aix the forgiveness of Louis XIV. The later careers of Turenne and Conde as the great generals—and obedient subjects—of their See also:sovereign are described in the article DUTCH See also:WARS. For the many See also:memoirs and letters of the time see the See also:list in G. See also:Monod's Bibliographie de l'histoire de France (Paris, 1888). The Lettres du cardinal Mazarin have been collected in nine volumes (Paris, 1878-1906). See P. Adolphe See also:Cheruel, Histoire de France See also:pendant la minorite de Louis XIV (4 vols., 1879-1880), and his Histoire de France sous le minisiere de Mazarin (3 vols., 1883); L.

C. de Beaupoil de Sainte-Aulaire, Histoire de la Fronde (2nd ed., 2 vols., 1860); Arvede Barine " (Mme Charles Vincens), La Jeunesse de la grande mademoiselle (Paris, 1902); Due d'See also:

Aumale, Histoire des princes de Conde (Paris, 1889-1896, 7 vols.). The most interesting See also:account of the military operations is in General See also:Hardy de Perini's Turenne el Conde (Batailles francaises, vol. iv.).

End of Article: FRONDE, THE

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