ruled by Cardinal Mazarin, who had succeeded Cardinal
Richelieu. Mazarin’s autocratic government on behalf of
the young king had made him very unpopular, and many
French nobles sought to evict Mazarin and take his place.
(This was a situation similar to the Wars of the Roses in
England 200 years before.) In the first war of the Fronde,
the nobles concerned were originally united in their en-
mity toward Mazarin, but they soon split as they put their
personal ambition before the common cause. The result
was that some fought for other nations against France
since they saw the French government as their enemy.
In January–March 1649, on behalf of the king,
Condé successfully besieged Paris, which had rebelled,
but he then behaved with such arrogance that Mazarin
had him arrested on 18 January 1650 and kept him
confined for over a year. Condé’s friends and allies then
launched the second Fronde, which secured his release as
well as Mazarin’s temporary exile. Once again, however,
his arrogance and assumption of authority caused an-
tagonism, and the Queen Regent, Mazarin’s ally, turned
against him. Condé then started a rebellion in the south
in September 1651, formed an alliance with his former
enemy Spain, and advanced on Paris. At Faubourg St.
Antoine, his forces were met by those of his cousin and
erstwhile colleague on the battlefield, Turenne, and
Condé’s army escaped by taking refuge in Paris. The
subsequent siege of Paris by Turenne only ended when
Condé fled in October 1652 and offered his services to
Spain, whose king made him commander in chief. On
25 November 1654, the French declared him a rebel and
condemned him to death.
Condé led the Spanish forces against France with
little success, mainly because he found the Spanish ar-
my’s tactics and training inadequate against their French
counterparts. Finally his army was decisively beaten at
the battle of the Dunes (14 June 1658) near Dunker-
que, and Spain and France signed a treaty, the Peace of
the Pyrenees, in 1659. Condé then sought to make his
peace with the young Louis XIV and was received back
into favor at a formal meeting on 27 January 1660. De-
spite this, the king was reluctant to give Condé a mili-
tary command, and it was not until 1668 that he again
saw service when he fought the Spanish and took four
of their towns in Franche-Comté in 15 days. In 1672,
he joined Turenne in an invasion of the Protestant-held
Netherlands and was wounded in a clash while crossing
the Rhine at Tollhuis (12 June 1672). He then defended
Alsace successfully against invasion, checked the army
of the prince of Orange at Seneff (11 August 1674) in a
battle during which Condé had three horses killed under
him, and raised the siege of Oudenarde. A year later, he
led the French army into Alsace again to meet the Aus-
trians and forced them to withdraw.
Ill health and age now forced Condé to retire from
service, and he lived the last years of his life at Chantilly,
where he died on 11 November 1686. An arrogant, self-
willed man, he had distinguished himself on the battlefield
by great physical courage, excellent tactical judgment, and
skillful handling and deployment of his forces.References: Francis John Haverfield, “Condé, Louis
II, de Bourbon, Prince of ” in Encyclopaedia Britannica,
14th ed., 24 vols. (London: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Co., Ltd., 1929), VI:214–215; Cust, Edward, The Cam-
paigns of the Great Condé (1621–1686) (Tonbridge,
U.K.: G. Simon, 1990); FitzPatrick, Walter, The Great
Condé and the Period of the Fronde: A Historical Sketch
(London: TC Newby, 1873); Godley, Eveline Charlotte,
The Great Condé: A Life of Louis II Bourbon, Prince of
Condé (London: J. Murray, 1915); Windrow, Martin,
and Francis K. Mason, “Condé, Louis II de Bourbon,
Prince de,” in The Wordsworth Dictionary of Military
Biography (Hertfordshire, U.K.: Wordsworth Editions
Ltd., 1997), 54–56.Coote, Sir Eyre (1726–1783) British general
Born in Kilmallock, in County Limerick, Ireland, in
1726, Eyre Coote was the son of a clergyman. He joined
the British army as a member of the 27th Regiment, and
in 1745 he saw service during the Jacobite uprising. In
1754, as a member of the 39th Regiment, he was sent to
India, the first British military contingent to be sent there.
He was promoted to captain in 1755 and was part of a
regiment sent to fight under Robert cli Ve at Calcutta
(January 1757). Following the landmark battle of Plassey
(23 June 1757), Coote, now a major, was sent to pursue
French troops, which he did for 400 miles. His service
earned him high praise as well as a promotion to lieuten-
ant colonel and the command of the 84th Regiment.
When a second war between England and France in
India broke out in 1760, Coote was one of the leaders of
the British military forces. At Wandiwash on 22 January
1760, 1,900 British and 3,350 Indian troops under Coote
faced a French force of some 2,250 French and 1,300 In-
dians under Thomas-Arthur, comte de Lally-Tollendal.
Historian George Bruce writes of this battle: “The French
army was accompanied by 3,000 Marantha horse [troops] coote, SiR eyRe