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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: COM-COR |
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CONDE, LOUIS II . DE BOURBON, PRINCE OF (1621-1686), called the Great Conde, was the son of Henry, prince of Conde, and Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency, and was born at Paris on the 8th of September 1621. As a boy, under his father's careful supervision, he studied diligently at the Jesuits' College at Bourges, and at seventeen, in the absence of his father, he governed Burgundy. The duc d'Enghien, as he was styled during his father's lifetime, took part with distinction in the campaigns of 164o and 1641 in northern France while yet under twenty years of age. During the youth of Enghien all power in France was in the hands of Richelieu; to him even the princes of the blood had to yield; and Henry of Conde sought with the rest to win the cardinal's favour. Enghien was forced to conform. He was already deeply in love with Mlle. Marthe du Vigean, who in return was passionately devoted to him, yet, to flatter the cardinal, he was compelled by his father, at the age of twenty, to give his hand to Richelieu's niece, Claire Clemence de Maille-Breze, a child of thirteen. He was present with Richelieu during the dangerous plot of Cinq Mars, and afterwards fought in the siege of Perpignan (1642). In 1643 Enghien was appointed to command against the Spaniards in northern France. He was opposed by experienced generals, and the veterans of the Spanish army were accounted the finest soldiers in Europe; on the other hand, the strength of the French army was placed at his command, and under him were the best generals of the service. The great battle of Rocroy (May 18) put an end to the supremacy of the Spanish army and inaugurated the long period of French military predominance. Enghien himself conceived and directed the decisive attack, and at the age of twenty-two won his place amongst the great captains of modern times. After a campaign of uninterrupted success, Enghien returned to Paris in triumph, and in gallantry and intrigues strove to forget his enforced and hateful marriage. In 1644 he was sent with reinforcements into Germany to the assistance of Turenne, who was hard pressed, and took command of the whole army. The battle of Freiburg (Aug.) was desperately contested, but in the end the French army won a great victory over the Bavarians and Imperialists commanded by Count Mercy. As after Rocroy, numerous fortresses opened their gates to the duke. The next winter Enghien spent, like every other winter during the war, amid the gaieties of Paris. The summer campaign of 1645 opened with the defeat of Turenne by Mercy, but this was retrieved in the brilliant victory of Nordlingen, in which Mercy was killed, and Enghien himself received several serious wounds. The capture of Philipsburg was the most important of his other achievements during this campaign. In 1646 Enghien served under the duke of Orleans in Flanders, and when, after the capture of Mardyck, Orleans returned to Paris, Enghien, left in command, captured Dunkirk (October 11th). It was in this year that the old prince of Conde died. The enormous power that fell into the hands of his successor was naturally looked upon with serious alarm by the regent and her minister. Conde's birth and military renown placed him at the head of the French nobility
chief
In September of the same year Conde was recalled to court, for the regent Anne of Austria required his support. Influenced by the fact of his royal birth and by his arrogant scorn for the bourgeois, Conde lent himself to the court party, and finally, after much hesitation, he consented to lead the army which was to reduce Paris (Jan. 1649). On his side, insufficient as were his forces, the war was carried on with vigour, and after several minor combats their substantial losses and a threatening of scarcity of food made the Parisians weary of the war. The political situation inclined both parties to peace, which was made at Rueil on the loth of March (see FRONDE, THE). It was not long, however, before Conde became estranged from the court. His pride
Havre . Soon afterwards, however, another shifting of parties left Conde and the new Fronde isolated. With the court and the old Fronde in alliance against him, Conde found no resource but that of making common cause with the Spaniards, who were at843war with France. The confused civil war which followed this step (Sept. 1651) was memorable chiefly for the battle of the Faubourg St Antoine, in which Conde and Turenne, two of the foremost captains of the age, measured their strength (July 2, 1652), and the army of the prince was only saved by being admitted within the gates of Paris. La Grande Mademoiselle, daughter of the duke of Orleans, persuaded the Parisians to act thus, and turned the cannon of the Bastille on Turenne's army. Thus Conde, who as usual had fought with the most desperate bravery, was saved, and Paris underwent a new investment. This ended in the flight of Conde to the Spanish army (Sept. 1652), and thenceforward, up to the peace, he was in open arms against France, and held high command in the army of Spain. But his now fully developed. genius as a commander
Conde now realized that the period of agitation and party warfare was at an end, and he accepted, and loyally maintained' henceforward, the position of a chief
Chantilly
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commander
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The earlier political career of Conde was typical of the great French noble of his day. Success in love and war, predominant influence over his sovereign and universal homage to his own exaggerated pride
exile he asserted the precedence of the royal house of France over the princes of Spain and Austria, with whom he was allied for the moment. But the Conde of 1668 was no longer a politicianand a marplot; to be first in war and in gallantry was still his aim, but for the rest he was a submissive, even a subservient, minister of the royal will. It is on his military character, however, that his fame rests. This changed but little. Unlike his great rival Turenne, Conde was equally brilliant in his first battle and in his last. The one failure of his generalship was in the Spanish Fronde, and in this everything united to thwart his genius; only on the battlefield itself was his personal leader-ship as conspicuous as ever. That he was capable of waging a methodical war of positions may be assumed from his campaigns against Turenne and Montecucculi, the greatest generals of the predominant school. But it was in his eagerness for battle, his quick
Conde's unhappy wife had some years before been banished to Chateauroux. An accident brought about her ruin. Her contemporaries, greedy as they were of scandal, refused to believe any evil of her, but the prince declared himself convinced of her unfaithfulness, placed her in confinement, and carried his resentment so far that his last letter to the king was to request him never to allow her to be released. End of Article: CONDE, LOUIS II If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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