Louis, Grand Condé

Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Cond̩ (8 September 1621 Р11 December 1686), known as the Great Cond̩ (French: ''Le Grand Cond̩'') for his military exploits, was a French general and the most illustrious representative of the Cond̩ branch of the House of Bourbon. He was one of Louis XIV's pre-eminent generals.

Condé is particularly celebrated for his triumphs in the Thirty Years' War, notably at Rocroi, and his campaigns against the Grand Alliance in the Franco-Dutch War. He rebelled against Louis XIV as the leader of the last Fronde in 1651, leading to his exile from France until 1659.

Biography

Louis was born in Paris, the son of Henri II de Bourbon, Prince of Condé and Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency; the infant was immediately endowed with the title of Duke of Enghien. His father was a first cousin-once-removed of Henry IV, the King of France, and his mother was an heiress of one of France's leading ducal families.

Condé's father saw to it that his son received a thorough education – Louis studied history, law, and mathematics during six years at the Jesuits' school at Bourges. After that he entered the Royal Academy at Paris. At seventeen, in the absence of his father, he governed Burgundy.

His father betrothed him to Claire-Clémence de Maillé-Brézé, niece of Cardinal Richelieu, before he joined the army in 1640. Despite being in love with Marthe du Vigean, daughter of the king's gentleman of the bedchamber, François Poussard, he was compelled by his father to marry his fiancée who was thirteen. Although she bore her husband three children, Enghien later claimed she committed adultery with different men in order to justify locking her away at Châteauroux, but the charge was widely disbelieved: Saint-Simon, while admitting that she was homely and dull, praised her virtue, piety, and gentleness in the face of relentless abuse.

Enghien took part with distinction in the siege of Arras. He also won Richelieu's favor when he was present with the Cardinal during the plot of ''Cinq Mars'' and afterwards fought in the Siege of Perpignan (1642).

Thirty Years' War

In 1643 Enghien was appointed to command against the Spanish in northern France. He was opposed by Francisco de Melo, and the ''tercios'' of the Spanish army who were held to be the toughest soldiers in Europe. At the Battle of Rocroi, Enghien himself conceived and directed the decisive victory.

After a campaign of uninterrupted success, Enghien returned to Paris in triumph, and tried to forget his enforced and hateful marriage with a series of affairs (after Richelieu's death in 1642, he would unsuccessfully seek annulment of his marriage in hopes of marrying Mlle du Vigean, until she joined the order of the Carmelites in 1647). 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 was desperately fought, but after Rocroi, numerous fortresses opened their gates to the Duke.

Enghien spent the next winter, as every winter during the war, amid the gaieties of Paris. The summer campaign of 1645 opened with the defeat of Turenne by Franz von Mercy at Mergentheim, but this was retrieved in the victory of Nördlingen, in which Mercy was killed, and Enghien himself received several serious wounds. The capture of Philippsburg was the most important of his other achievements during this campaign. In 1646 Enghien served under Gaston, Duke of Orléans in Flanders, and when, after the capture of Mardyck

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases