Cardinal Mazarin

Prince of Condé

The establishment of absolutism in France also provoked a response anti-absolutist movement, the culmination of which occurred in the mid-17th century, when the young son of Louis XIII, Louis XIV, was on the throne, and his mother Anne of Austria was the regent. This movement was called the Fronde (literally translated as “sling”).

As in England, the strengthening central government in France was looking for ways to fill the treasury (for example, huge funds were needed to participate in the Thirty Years' War). Manufacturing and trade were heavily taxed, which displeased the bourgeoisie. At the same time, the government limited the influence of the aristocracy. Richelieu and his successor, Cardinal Giulio Mazarin, followed this policy towards the nobility. It is not surprising that a stranger who received unlimited powers irritated the clan nobility, who were removed from leadership.

In the mid-1640s, the situation in France escalated to the limit. In 1647, Mazarin's government launched a new financial offensive. On the one hand, taxes on the peasantry and urban population were increased, on the other, part of the tax burden was transferred from financiers (who, in turn, found themselves under similar oppression two years earlier) to other groups of the French bourgeoisie. Mazarin even risked questioning the right of officials to inherit positions.

At the beginning of 1648, the Parliament of Paris prohibited the establishment of taxes in the future without its consent. This was done clearly under the influence and following the example of the parliament in England, where the revolution had been going on for 8 years. Mazarin tried to arrest opposition leaders. In response, on August 26–27, an armed uprising began in the capital, barricades appeared in the city, and the streets were blocked off with chains. These events became the beginning of the Fronde. The king and queen had to endure a siege in the Palais Royal, after which they were forced to release those arrested, whose extradition was demanded by the envoys of parliament.

The nobility also played a significant role in the Fronde, in particular the king's uncle Gaston d'Orléans. The assistant to the Parisian archbishop (coadjutor) Paul de Gondi acted as a mediator between the people and the queen, while simultaneously supporting anti-government sentiments. He entered into negotiations with Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, who dreamed of the place occupied by Mazarin.

The Cardinal sought to withdraw France from the Thirty Years' War as quickly as possible in order to return troops loyal to him to the country. The Prince of Conti (Conde's younger brother), the Duke of Longueville, Gondi and the top of Parliament developed a plan for civil war. Condé himself broke with the opposition and promised the court to use his army to deal with the frondeurs.

Soon after the signing of the Peace of Westphalia, the government and court fled Paris. In January 1649, royal troops besieged the capital. The generals of the Fronde were the Duke of Elbeuf, the Duke of Bouillon, the Duke of Beaufort, and Prince Marcillac (the famous writer, the future Duke of La Rochefoucauld). The Paris parliament called on all French parliaments to fight. Guienne, Normandy, Poitou decided to support Paris. Peasants everywhere attacked government troops. Naturally, the bourgeoisie and nobility were frightened by these rebellions. The parliamentarians did not trust the aristocratic generals either. On March 11, 1649, Parliament made peace with the cardinal.

The results of the parliamentary Fronde did not satisfy the aristocrats, who demanded that power be returned to the king. They also insisted on reducing the income of tax farmers and cutting the privileges of the top bureaucrats.

By January 1650, two Frondeur groups had formed in Paris, headed, respectively, by the Prince of Condé and the Duke of Orleans (there were also Gondi, Beaufort, the Duchess of Chevreuse, etc.). The cunning Mazarin tried by all means to quarrel his opponents. In December 1649, he organized an assassination attempt on Condé and blamed it on the frondeurs of another group. They, in turn, decided that all this was organized by agreement between the cardinal and the prince. At the same time, the first minister offered Gondi a cardinal's hat and bribed many other leaders of the Fronde.

On January 18, 1650, Conde, Conti and Longueville were arrested and sent to the Castle of Vincennes. Immediately their supporters decided to fight for the release of the leaders. The so-called Fronde of Princes began. The Dukes of La Rochefoucauld and Bouillon, who led the group before the liberation of Condé, tried to obtain help from the provinces. Having secured the support of the Bordeaux parliament, in May 1650 they entered the city. The Spaniards, still at war with France, supported the frondeurs with money. The king's army besieged main city Hyenas. Peace was concluded on September 28, but the princes were not released and were moved to Le Havre.

Two groups of frondeurs formed an alliance. In February 1651, parliament declared Mazarin an enemy of France and ordered him to leave the kingdom, which he was forced to do. The princes were finally released. But the factions of the frontiers (incited by Anne of Austria) quickly fell out.

Conde began to prepare a new war against the court. In November 1651 he signed a treaty with the Spaniards. The royal army was successfully commanded by Turenne. In the army of the Fronde, the commanders could not coordinate their actions. But when the queen returned Mazarin, at the end of 1651 there was again a rapprochement between the camps of the Fronde.

Negotiations between the cardinal and the leaders of the frondeurs resumed in Paris. Meanwhile, the king's army won victories in Guienne. Finally, Condé moved his troops directly to Paris, where on July 2, in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, he defeated the army under the command of Turenne. A Council was established in Paris, which included Gaston d'Orléans, Condé and other leaders of the Fronde. The Council, however, only intensified the unrest due to the continuous struggle for influence in the government. Royal troops besieged the capital. A famine began in Paris, causing riots.

On August 19, 1652, Mazarin left France again, which gave the frondeurs a reason to begin negotiations with the court. Paris was granted an amnesty, but the most prominent frondeurs were ordered to leave the capital. The king solemnly entered Paris, and on February 3, 1653, the first minister returned. In August 1653, the last center of resistance was suppressed in Bordeaux. The parliamentary and noble Fronde came to an end. The attempt of the bourgeoisie - officials and financiers - to strengthen their influence failed, and the political dominance of the aristocracy was ended forever.

In the fire of events and civil wars, children quickly mature.

The good times of the Fronde were extremely strange: at that time things were happening
the most incredible things, but this did not surprise anyone. All mans
and women then intrigued according to their own understanding and for the sake of their own
benefits. People moved from camp to camp based on their interests,
either on a whim; They made secrets out of everything, built unknown intrigues
and participated in mysterious adventures; everyone was bought and sold,
everyone sold each other and often doomed themselves almost without hesitation
like death, and all this with courtesy, liveliness and grace,
inherent only to our nation; no other people
I couldn't stand anything like that.

Alexandr Duma

The greatest of evils - civil wars.

Blaise Pascal

I am neither a prince nor a Mazarinist, I do not belong to any party,
not to any clique... I want peace and hate war.

From an anti-Frondist pamphlet

In 1648, France signed the Peace of Westphalia, ending the Thirty Years' War. In this military conflict, which began in 1618 within the borders of the Holy Roman Empire, over time almost everyone took part. European countries. France was one of the last to join it, only in 1635. The Kingdom of Lilies sided with Protestant Sweden and against the main Catholic powers - the Holy Roman Empire and Spain. Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu (The Most Christian King and Prince catholic church), who were fighting with Protestants within the kingdom, were not so principled in their religious preferences in the international arena. When it came to foreign political alliances, they were primarily guided solely by state interests (which distinguished them favorably from Marie de Medici and Gaston d'Orléans, for whom the main argument for the need to maintain peace with Spain and the Empire was the Catholic religion). The long-term alliance with Protestant Sweden is an example of this. Subsequently, similar principles in the conduct of international politics were adhered to by Mazarin, who, at the final stage of the war with Spain, signed an agreement with the head of the Anglican Republic, Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658).
It was not for nothing that Louis XIII and Richelieu hesitated to enter into a pan-European military conflict. They both understood perfectly well that France, which had already been tormented by internal strife and religious wars for many years, needed peace. Moreover, in the first decade of the reign of the duumvirate, the kingdom almost constantly waged wars, although not so large and costly. Now France had to openly oppose two of its most powerful opponents. Yes, the age of the power of Spain and the Empire was already coming to an end, but still.

Duke of Enghien at Rocroi, May 19, 1643. Engraving by M. Leloir.

According to the terms of the Treaty of Westphalia of 1648, all the mouths of the navigable rivers of Northern Germany passed to Sweden, and lands in Alsace passed to France, in addition, its rights to Metz, Toul and Verdun were confirmed. The Thirty Years' War ended in defeat for the Empire, which for many years withdrew from the strongest European powers. But this peace treaty did not put an end to hostilities for France: its confrontation with Spain continued for another ten years, until the conclusion of the Pyrenees Peace Treaty (1659).
So, in the context of an external war, the kingdom was also faced with internal upheavals - with the Fronde (1648-1653), the most serious internal crisis, which almost led to the death of royal power. Unlike other riots and uprisings that were so rich in French 17th century, the Fronde began not from the provinces, but from privileged Paris, whose inhabitants from time immemorial were not taxed.
Paris has its own poor, which in the Middle Ages and under the Old Order, as a rule, was the main source of discontent. But this time, the role of inciting discontent did not belong to the poor townspeople who were crushed by taxes, but to the members of the Paris Parliament, it was they, these “well-fed cats”, who became driving force the first stage of the Fronde. Even Henry IV, preparing Maria de Medici for the regency, advised her: “Maintain the authority of the courts (parliaments - M.S.), called upon to administer justice, but God forbid let them get close to state affairs, give them a pretext for claiming the role of guardians of kings "
Let us list those who were among the instigators of the civil war: the top of the judicial class (many of them belonged to the “nobility of the robe”), the princes of the Church and princes, both princes of the blood and foreign ones. Among the princes who played this dangerous game, of course, was the restless brother of Louis XIII, son of France, Gaston d'Orléans. Of course, he was no longer the same tireless conspirator (it is worth noting that the duke treated his nephew-king with warmth and largely supported the regent) as during the reign of his brother, but he played his role in the events of the Fronde.

Louis XIV in 1648. Works by Henri Testlin.

In 1643-1648, the policy of tax pressure, begun under Richelieu, was continued by the surintendant of finance Michel Partiselli d'Emery (1596-1650), an Italian by birth and a protégé of Mazarin. For France, which was fighting a protracted war with Spain, Partiselli found resources that today are called extraordinary. It is worth recognizing that, first of all, the enterprising financier decided to hit the propertied sections of the population - the royal officials and the wealthy Parisian bourgeoisie. But as F. Blusch correctly noted, it is known that when the rich become poor, others (merchants, servants, tenants) pay for it; just as when the taglia, a land tax established in the 15th century, rises, the nobility feels a drop in the level of their seigneurial dues due to the peasant poor.
The Duke de La Rochefoucauld saw the main cause of the unrest in Cardinal Mazarin being in power. His rule, according to the moralist, “became intolerable”:

“His dishonesty, cowardice and tricks were known; he burdened the provinces with taxes, and the cities with taxes, and drove the townspeople of Paris to despair by stopping payments made by the magistrate... He had unlimited power over the will of the queen and Monsieur, and the more his power grew in the queen’s chambers, the more hated it became throughout the kingdom. He invariably abused it in times of prosperity and invariably showed himself to be cowardly and cowardly in times of failure. These shortcomings of his, coupled with his dishonesty and greed, brought upon him universal hatred and contempt and inclined all classes of the kingdom and most of the court to desire changes.”

Many supporters of the Fronde, wanting to humiliate and humiliate Giulio Mazarin in the eyes of Parisians, drew a parallel between him and Concino Concini (1675-1617), the all-powerful favorite of Marie de' Medici. The most daring frondeurs predicted the sad fate of Concini, the first minister of Anne of Austria, who, by order of the young Louis XIII, was stabbed to death with daggers right under the windows of the Louvre.

Duchess de Longueville, sister of the Grand Condé.

As Marshal d'Estrées (1573-1670) wrote, it seemed that until the end of 1647 “the spirit of Cardinal Richelieu, who ruled all affairs with such authority, continued to live both in military and palace affairs. But in 1648 everything was different: here we can observe such great changes and revolutions that anyone who knew how the five years of the queen’s regency passed can only be surprised at such a rapid change in the situation, the emergence of unrest and unrest.”
It all started when, in the winter of 1647-1648, disgruntled rentiers started riots on the Rue Saint-Denis. Soon, indignation began among officials of the judicial department, who were against a possible reduction in salaries (the government continued to raise money to wage the war). Parliamentarians also opposed the creation of new positions (another attempt to replenish the empty royal coffers). In this case, of course, many dissatisfied people saw the main cause of all troubles in Richelieu’s successor. La Rochefoucauld, describing the first months of indignation, noted that Mazarin “hated Parliament, which opposed his decrees by its decrees adopted at meetings of representatives, and longed for an opportunity to tame it.” And it seems that such a day has come. The Queen Regent, who had recently been admired by everyone, confident in the authority of her power, on January 15, 1648, in the presence of her eldest son in the Houses of Parliament, announced an edict appointing twelve new rapporteurs. But Parliament did not agree to this, thereby violating the law of the kingdom (all legislative acts, presented in the presence of the king, had to be accepted by parliaments unconditionally). This event marked the beginning of a three-month “paper” war: all this time, the court and Parliament exchanged countless official papers, edicts, statements, decisions of the Council, refusals and stops of legal proceedings. The Accounts Chamber, the Chamber of Indirect Fees and the Grand Council took the side of the Parliament. On the thirteenth of May, all four sovereign courts of the capital voted in favor of the decree of union. Their deputies wished to sit together in an unusual assembly called the Chamber of Saint Louis. Some historians like to draw parallels with the Constituent Assembly of 1789. Anna of Austria, seeing in this chamber a “republic within a monarchy,” insisted on the abolition of the decree on the union, and prohibited its convening (and just recently everyone was vying with each other to say: “The Queen is so kind...”). But, contrary to the regency's orders, Parliament gave approval, and the House of Saint Louis met.

First President of Parliament Mathieu Molay in front of angry Parisians. Engraving by M. Leloir.

Sitting from June 30 to July 9, the deputies of the Chamber of Saint Louis developed something like a charter consisting of 27 paragraphs - however, with this document the judges defended their own good more than the public. Mazarin, wanting to prevent unrest in the capital of the kingdom, made concessions. On July 9, another Italian hated by the Parisians, Partiselli d'Emery, was dismissed, and the edict of July 18 approved many of the demands of the Chamber of Saint Louis: the declaration of July 31, dictated in Parliament in the presence of the king, gave the force of law to almost all paragraphs of the Chamber of Saint Louis . In particular, the positions of intendants in the provinces of the kingdom were abolished, and the tallia was reduced.
Parliament did not stop there. Advisers Pierre Brussels (1576-1654) and René Blancmenil (d. 1680) actively encouraged new attacks on the court and on the prerogatives of royal (legal) power. The Queen Regent decided to arrest both, for which she chose, as it seemed to her, a very good moment. While a service was going on in the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris and a new victory of French arms was celebrated (on August 20, 1648, near Lensay, the Prince of Condé defeated the Spanish army), the royal guards arrested the rebellious parliamentarians. True, it did not work out to do this quietly and unnoticed, as originally planned. The detachment under the command of the lieutenant of the queen's guards, Comte de Commenges (1613-1670), barely managed to carry out the order of their mistress and survive the battle with the heated Parisians.
Having taken both parliamentarians under arrest (August 26, 1648), the queen regent eventually “raised” all of Paris, which in one night was “overgrown” with 1,260 barricades (during the years of the Fronde, the streets of the capital of the kingdom would see barricades more than once). That is why August 27, 1648 went down in history as the “Day of the Barricades.” And the very next day, the proud Spaniard, persuaded by her entourage, was forced to release the prisoners.
Neither the resounding victory of the French army at Lens (August 20), nor the glorious peace treaty in Munster (October 24), which Mazarin’s government worked so diligently on, could protect from new attacks on Anne of Austria and Mazarin. We can say that the population of the capital did not notice these government successes. Meanwhile, the forces of the opposition continued to grow: members of the magistracy of the supreme courts, the court nobility and Paul de Gondi, coadjutor of Paris and nephew of the Archbishop of Paris, went over to the side of Parliament. Arnaud d'Andilly (1589-1674) even considered the coadjutor "one of the main culprits" that France was "drenched in blood due to a brutal civil war."

The Fronteurs (Duke de Beaufort, Coadjutor de Gondi and Marshal de La Mothe) before Louis XIV, who returned to the capital in August 1649. Artist Umbelo.

Soon almost all the princes went over to the side of the rebellious Parliament. The Queen, wanting to protect herself and her sons, hastily returned Prince Condé, the recent victor at Lens, to Paris. What angered the frondeurs most of all was that little Louis XIV was not going to distance himself from his mother and the hated Italian cardinal, and was not going to take the side of the rebels. Therefore, they tried to present their rebellion in a slightly different light than it actually was, and to convince everyone that they supposedly wanted to snatch the young king from his harmful environment. In order to gain some real support, the Fronde generals moved towards rapprochement with France's main enemy - Spain. The mediator in these negotiations was Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Viscount de Turenne (1611–1675), a Protestant prince and younger brother of the Duke of Bouillon (1605–1652), who had already taken part in conspiracies against royal power in his previous reign. True, Turenne soon moved to the court’s camp and remained there permanently; it was he who would command the king’s troops in the battle of Saint-Antoine Faubourg.
At the beginning of 1649, Anna of Austria, wanting to end the rebellion in Paris, decided to secretly leave it. So, on the night of January 5-6, the king, queen, cardinal and other members of the royal family secretly fled from the Palais Royal (since 1643, the queen and her sons moved to the more comfortable Palais Cardinal, donated to the royal family of Richelieu; especially since The palace had a park, one of the few in Paris at that time). At night they arrived in deserted, cold and empty Saint-Germain-en-Laye. During the first days of their stay in the castle, members of the royal family and courtiers were forced to sleep on straw until they brought necessary furniture and things.
The next morning, Paris, stunned by the news of the king's escape, took up arms. The siege of the capital began, commanded by Prince Condé. The royal army of 12,000 spread terror and panic; The prince, without mercy, suppressed attempts at military attacks undertaken by the besieged. His brother Armand de Bourbon, Prince de Conti (1629-1666), jealous of the prince's laurels, declared himself commander-in-chief of the Parisian army. True, he did not have the competence to do this, and his army was just a bunch of ragpickers, shopkeepers and lackeys, armed with rusty muskets and devoid of military experience.
Mathieu Molay (1584-1656), the first President of Parliament, seeing the hopelessness of the situation, in defiance of the high-born rebels, went to meet the court halfway and already on March 11, 1649 in Ruel, where the king had moved, signed a compromise agreement. As a result, the rebellious princes were left without parliamentary support and then it was their turn to raise the banner of rebellion. Moreover, the leader of the second Fronde, called the “Fronde of Princes,” was the Great Condé, who had recently defended the young king, Mazarin and the court. The fact is that, having played a decisive role in the victory over the Parliamentary Fronde, Condé hoped for a large reward, which the Queen Regent did not give him.
According to the Dutch historian E. Cossman, Condé should be considered more of a victim of the civil war than its instigator: “The only truly tragic moment in the chain of riots called the Fronde was perhaps the one when the Prince decided to start a civil war. He understood that he would most likely have to continue it alone, but pride did not allow him to renounce decision taken. His other contemporaries - Gaston d'Orléans, de Retz, Longueville, Brother Conti - give the impression of playing for the sake of playing, and in a completely inelegant way. Conde looks like a man fulfilling the role assigned to him by fate and accepting life as it is. He is perhaps the only serious person in the entire Fronde, however, he was serious in everything: in immorality, in selfishness, in the deepest childhood ambition, in the arrogant swagger with which he resignedly allowed himself to be fooled.”

Louis II de Bourbon, Prince of Condé.

The prince wanted to make the queen pay for the services that he provided to her and Mazarin. Anne of Austria, outraged by his impudent behavior, ordered his arrest and on January 19, 1650, Condé, his younger brother Armand de Conti and Henri II of Orléans, Duke of Longueville (1595-1663) were arrested by Captain Guiteau of the Queen's Guard at the Palais Royal. The high-born captives were imprisoned in Vincennes Castle (a year earlier, François de Vendôme, Duke de Beaufort (1616-1669), the illegitimate grandson of Henry IV and the head of the Important conspiracy (1643), escaped from the castle); having escaped from prison, Beaufort, a favorite of the Parisians, became one of the leaders Fronds). Parliament, having learned about the arrest of the princes, began to insist on their release. On the twentieth of January 1651, the first President of Parliament presented a petition for the release of noble prisoners to the Queen Regent. Louis XIV was shocked: “Mother,” he exclaimed after Malie Molay left, “if I were not afraid of angering you, I would have told the president three times to shut up and go out.” About a year later, the princes’ imprisonment ended: they left the Le Havre prison, where they had been transported. By royal order, they were freed by Mazarin himself, who was going into his first exile.
The Queen Regent and the Cardinal decided that Conde might be useful to him again: after a short respite, Parliament and de Gondi again launched an attack on the court. Anticipating new unrest, the main reason for which was the presence of Mazarin with the king, the cardinal decided to leave Paris himself. This happened on February 6, 1651.
According to the agreement, Louis XIV and Anne of Austria were supposed to follow him and meet in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, but they did not succeed. Gondi and Monsieur were on alert and posted guards at the city gates. On the night of February 9-10, the Parisians, fearing the flight of the royal family, entered the Palais Royal. The Queen Regent, realizing that she and her sons were trapped, ordered the townspeople to be allowed into the king's bedroom. The Child King lay on the bed, pretending to be asleep, while one by one the Parisians passed by and looked at him. Louis XIV will never forgive this humiliation of de Gondi.
For the next two months, Louis, along with Anne of Austria, was kept under humiliating house arrest in Paul Royal. True, one interesting event occurred during this period, which somewhat resonates with the oppressive atmosphere of the civil war. At the end of February, on the 26th, “Cassandra’s Ballet” was staged in the Palais Royal hall, in which Louis XIV also danced. This is how the king took part in a court ballet performance for the first time. In May of the same year, Louis danced in another court ballet, “The Feast of Bacchus.”
The Fronde that split the country (for many the memory of Religious wars) and which brought royal power to the brink of an abyss, strengthened the character of Louis XIV. He experienced first-hand the contrast between the greatness of royalty and the real limitations of royal power. The king saw how the parliamentarians bowed their heads respectfully before him, who immediately wrested one concession after another from the queen regent.
On September 5, 1651, the king turned 14 years old, and two days later he was declared an adult in Parliament. A grand celebration was organized on this occasion. From dawn, guards and Swiss were stationed along a predetermined route from the Palais Royal to the House of Parliament through the streets of Saint-Honoré and Saint-Denis, the Chatelet and the Notre-Dame bridge to hold back the pressing crowd of people. Some curious people climbed onto the stands or leaned out of the windows. At eight o'clock in the morning the king received his mother and members of the royal family, peers and marshals of France, who came to the palace with their best troops to greet him. After which the royal cortege set off.
Two trumpeters walked in front, followed by fifty heralds in liveries of silk, velvet, brocade and lace, embroidered with pearls and diamonds, the feathers on their hats pinned with expensive agraphs, then the reiters of the king and queen, foot archers, the famous Swiss hundred, governors, knights of the Holy Spirits, marshals of France, master of ceremonies, chief of equestrians carrying the royal sword, long lines of pages and guards. Surrounded by bodyguards, eight horsemen on foot, six nobles of the Scots Guard and six adjutants, the king, dressed in golden robes, gracefully pranced on his horse, which could rear up and bow. This was followed by an endless procession of princes, dukes, and festive carriages in which sat the queen, the royal brother and ladies-in-waiting. They were also surrounded by guards and Swiss.
In Parliament the king made a speech:
- Gentlemen, I came to my Parliament to inform you that, following the laws of my state, I want from now on to take state and administrative power into my own hands. I hope that with God's grace this administration will be merciful and just.
After which all those present, including the queen, knelt down and swore eternal allegiance to their king, then a solemn prayer service was served. Then the end of the regency and viceroyship of the Duke of Orleans as commander-in-chief of the royal army was proclaimed, and the Regency Council was dissolved. From now on, the king could sign documents and appoint new ministers with the benevolent support of his mother.
However, the coming of age of Louis XIV did not lead to the end of the Troubles. Prince Condé was absent from the celebration, whom the queen again tried to win over. In his justification, he handed over a letter of apology to the king. Louis did not even open the message, giving it to someone from his retinue. The king will never forget this act, bordering on “insulting His Majesty.” But the young monarch was even more offended by the upcoming events. Condé, dissatisfied with the current political situation, went with his family and associates to the Bourbon Mount Montrond, then to the south, where he joined the rebellion. There he entered into negotiations with General Cromwell.
As Arnaud d’Andilly wrote in 1652, “in the North he (Conde. - M.S.) was called the second Swedish King, and in the rest of Europe he was considered the most successful, most valiant and greatest Commander in the world. Finally, the Prince was famous for his unwavering loyalty to the King and passionate love for the Fatherland. But, alas, due to a strange, regrettable, criminal and destructive turn of fate, this man... fell from heaven into the abyss of blindness and darkness... Condé left the court, kindled the fire of war everywhere, stole the King's money, captured fortresses and, forgetting about his glorious title prince of the blood of France... bowed to Spain for the sake of obtaining assistance in the war against his King, benefactor and Master."

Anna Marie Louise, Duchess of Montpensier, Grand Mademoiselle.

On July 2, 1652, the royal troops, led by the young king, were ready to defeat the remnants of Condé’s army under the walls of Paris, but then the unexpected happened. The Bastille's cannons suddenly began firing at the king's camp. One cannonball even hit the royal tent. It turns out that the order to the garrison of the fortress was given by the eldest daughter of Gaston of Orleans, Anna Marie Louise of Orleans, Duchess de Montpensier, Grand Mademoiselle (1627-1693). Monsieur himself was frightened by the events taking place and temporarily withdrew from business. While the Great Mademoiselle, like many girls of her generation, conquered by the military genius of Condé, hastened to his aid. Conde was saved, he entered Paris, carrying out reprisals against members of Parliament who, in his opinion, had betrayed him. But this was only a temporary victory for the Fronde, as the Parisians and France as a whole were tired of the unrest and bloodshed.
Soon the Fronde began to decline. The parliamentarians who witnessed their transformation were the first to come to their senses. hometown on the battlefield. Led by President Molay and the Prosecutor of the Parliament Fouquet, they rushed to the royal headquarters. The parliamentarians agreed to once again side with the court, albeit under certain conditions. Mazarin had to leave the court again (he had already returned from his first exile: all the time, while outside France, the cardinal did not interrupt contact with the queen and the court). Mazarin, well aware that his second exile would not last long, easily agreed. The king was also forced to beg from the Vatican for a cardinal’s hat for Coadjutor de Gondi. As Arnaud d'Andilly wrote, " dangerous example how the highest rank can be a reward for a great crime."
The Duke of Orleans signed a document of obedience and admission of guilt, after which, together with his family, he was sent into his next (and last) exile to the castle of Blois (in 1617, this castle was already the place of exile of Marie de Medici). His daughter, who had to say goodbye to the thought of marrying her crowned cousin, was also expelled from the capital.
The king and court returned to Paris. “Almost the entire population of Paris came to meet him in Saint-Cloud,” wrote Michel Letellier (1603-1685), the new Minister of War. A day later, Parliament returned to the capital.
On October 25, 1652, Louis XIV wrote to Mazarin: “My cousin, it is time to put an end to the suffering that you voluntarily endure because of your love for me.”
On November 12 of the same year, the king signed a new declaration against the last rebels - the princes of Condé and Conti, the spouses de Longueville, the Duke of La Rochefoucauld and the Prince of Talmont.
On December 19, Louis ordered the arrest and imprisonment of Cardinal de Retz. As Father Paulin, the king’s confessor, writes: “I was there when the King gave the order about this, in the presence of the said Mr. Cardinal (de Retz - M.S.). I was near the said Mr. Cardinal, I expressed to him my admiration for the kindness of the King and his generosity, most of all I rejoiced at the mercy of his court. The king came up to both of us and started talking about the comedy he had in mind, speaking about it very loudly to M. de Villequiere, then, as if laughing, leaned towards his ear (this is the moment of giving the order) and immediately retreated, as if continuing the story about comedy: “The most important thing,” he said very loudly, “is that no one should be in the theater.” When this was said, I suggested that the King go to mass, since it was noon. He went there on foot. In the middle of the mass, Monsieur de Villequiere came up to him very quietly to give an account in his ear, and since I was near the King at that time, he turned to me and said: “This is how I arrested Cardinal de Retz.”

Louis XIV as Jupiter, conqueror of the Fronde, by Charles Poerson.

And finally, February 3 next year Cardinal Mazarin returned to Paris. This was the triumph of Giulio Mazarin, however, he had a lot of work ahead of him - to revive the destroyed kingdom and end the protracted war with Spain.
Thinking through the education of the king of France, Mazarin gave preference to practice rather than theory. Of course, it was not the cardinal who provoked the civil war, but later, returning from his second exile and reaching the pinnacle of his power, he realized that the time of unrest, better than any other experience, finally shaped the intellect, sanity, memory and will of Louis XIV.
Through his own life experience, and not from descriptions from books and with the help of maps, Louis became acquainted with his country. Few of the European sovereigns of that time knew their country as well as Louis XIV. There is a misconception in historiography that Louis XIV spent most of his life in the Louvre, the Tuileries, Saint-Germain and Versailles. But this is far from the truth. The king made many trips around France, especially in the first half of his life. As F. Braudel noted, Louis XIV visited Metz alone (the northeastern border of France) six times, staying there for a long time. The same happened with many other cities and provinces. One should not discount his numerous movements around the country with the active army heading to the theaters of military operations.
The king traveled throughout France in the rebellious years of 1650, 1651 and 1652. The Fronde, which began in Paris, “spread” throughout the kingdom. Somewhere the population was dissatisfied with taxes, somewhere with hunger. The rebellious nobles and provincial parliaments, who fanatically imitated their capital colleagues, did not stop adding fuel to the fire. And if in Paris the riots ended in 1652, then in the provinces they continued for several more years.
Confessor Father Paulin wrote that for the inhabitants of the province “to see the king is a mercy. In France this is the most significant and greatest favor. Indeed, our king knows how to be majestic, despite his twelve years of age; he glows with kindness, and he is of a light disposition, his movements are graceful, and his gentle gaze attracts the hearts of people more powerfully than a love potion.” The expedition of 1650, when hotbeds of unrest were burning throughout the country, was not without risk, especially since Anne of Austria and Louis XIV were accompanied not by an army, but by a small detachment. But from the story of Father Paulin it is clear that the presence of the young monarch was worth an entire army. “The joy in the entire province cannot be explained,” wrote the keeper of the seal, Mathieu Molay, “The King arrived yesterday evening, the Queen went to meet him, and the whole city (Dijon) took to the streets to demonstrate their joy, which cannot be expressed in words. I will say without flattery: the King behaved excellently during this journey; the soldiers and officers were happy; if the King had not been distracted, he would have been everywhere. And the soldiers were so delighted that if the King had given the command, I think they would have gnawed at the gates of Bellegarde with their teeth.”
While traveling through Burgundy, the king became close to the soldiers and lower officers. He talked with them, learned about their living conditions. Young Louis knew how to find the right approach to them. During these years, he had already begun to gain popularity, so necessary for a true political and ideological leader. Mazarin was very pleased with this. For example, about 800 people from the Bellegarde garrison, enchanted by the king, joined the small royal army.
Over the next two years, the king visited Berry, Poitiers, Semur, Tours, Blois, Sully, Gien and Corbeil, which makes up a fairly large part of the territory of France. During his travels around the country, young Louis XIV saw his kingdom. He did not shy away from communicating with his subjects - postal workers, innkeepers, bourgeois, postilions, villans, soldiers. Without a doubt, this experience took its rightful place in the system of royal education and left its mark on the personality of Louis XIV.

Fronde of the Princes (1650-1653)

Thus began a serious crisis of the feudal-absolutist system, known as the Fronde (1648-1653).

The history of the Fronde is divided into two stages: the “old” or “parliamentary” Fronde of 1648-1649. and the “new” or “Fronde of the Princes” - 1650-1653.

At the first stage, the Parisian parliament put forward a reform program somewhat reminiscent of the program of the English Long Parliament.

It provided for the limitation of royal absolutism and contained clauses that reflected the interests not only of the parliamentary “people of the robe”, but also the demands of broad circles of the bourgeoisie and the aspirations of the popular masses (the introduction of taxes only with the consent of parliament, the prohibition of arrest without charge, etc.).

Thanks to this, parliament received the broadest support in the country. Referring to the decisions of parliament, peasants everywhere stopped paying taxes, and at the same time in some places the performance of seigneurial duties, and pursued the tax agents with weapons.

Mazarin attempted to decapitate the movement and arrested two popular leaders of parliament. In response to this, on August 26-27, 1648, a massive armed uprising broke out in Paris - 1,200 barricades appeared in one night.

This was already a significant performance of the revolutionary people, which made the court tremble. During these stormy days of barricade fighting, the Parisian bourgeoisie fought against the royal troops shoulder to shoulder with the poor.

Eventually the government had to release those arrested. After some time, it issued a declaration accepting most of the demands of the Paris parliament.

But secretly Mazarin was preparing for a counter-offensive. In order to free the French army from participating in hostilities outside the country, he tried with all his might to speed up the signing of the Peace of Westphalia, even to the detriment of the interests of France. Soon after the signing of peace, the court and government unexpectedly fled from Paris to Ruelle. While outside the rebellious capital, Mazarin renounced all his promises to parliament and the people.

The civil war began. Royal troops besieged Paris in December 1648. The Parisians turned their bourgeois guard into a broad militia and fought courageously for more than three months.

Some provinces - Guienne, Normandy, Poitou, etc. - actively supported them. Villages were arming themselves for war against the Mazarinists, and peasants here and there, particularly in the vicinity of Paris, came into conflict with the royal troops and gendarmes.

During the siege of Paris, a fissure soon arose between the bourgeoisie and the people, which began to quickly widen. The hungry Parisian poor rebelled against grain speculators and demanded the confiscation of their property for defense needs. From the provinces, the Paris parliament received information about the increased activity of the masses. The Parisian press, with its radicalism and attacks on the existing order, frightened law-abiding parliamentary officials.

They were especially impressed by the news received in February 1649 about the execution of King Charles I in England. In addition, some Parisian leaflets directly called for dealing with Anne of Austria following the English example.

Posters on the walls of houses and street speakers called for the establishment of a republic in France. Even Mazarin feared that events in France might follow the English path. But it was precisely the prospect of deepening the class struggle that frightened the leading circles of the bourgeoisie, led by the Paris parliament.

Parliament entered into secret negotiations with the court. On March 15, 1649, a peace treaty was unexpectedly announced, which was essentially the capitulation of parliament. The court solemnly entered Paris. The Parliamentary Fronde is over. This was not a suppression of the outbreak of bourgeois opposition by government forces: the bourgeoisie itself refused to continue the struggle and laid down its arms.

Thus, the history of the parliamentary Fronde of 1648-1649. clearly demonstrated that in the middle of the 17th century. in France there was already a noticeable discrepancy between the new productive forces and the old, feudal relations of production, but this discrepancy could still only give rise to individual revolutionary movements, give rise to individual revolutionary ideas, not a revolution.

The “new” noble Fronde of 1650-1653, a distorted echo of the “old”, was an attempt by a handful of nobles to use the indignation of the people abandoned by the bourgeoisie, which had not yet cooled down in Paris and other cities, for their private quarrels with Mazar. However, some radical elements of the French bourgeoisie tried to be active during the years of the new Fronde. The events in Bordeaux were especially characteristic in this regard.

There it came to the establishment of a semblance of a republican democratic government; the leaders of the movement were in close relations with the English Levellers and borrowed their ideas for their program documents, including the demand for universal suffrage. But this was only an isolated episode.

In the village, the Fronde of the Princes did not risk playing with fire; on the contrary, detachments of the Frondeurs in all provinces carried out monstrous reprisals against the peasantry; in this regard, they did a common cause with the Mazarin government. The internecine war ended with the court reaching an agreement with the rebellious nobles one by one, giving some rich pensions, others lucrative governorships, and others honorary titles.

Mazarin, twice forced to leave Paris and France and twice returning to the capital, eventually strengthened his political situation and became stronger than ever before.

Some demands of the feudal Fronde reflected not only the private interests of the nobles, but also the sentiments of wider circles of the noble class.

Their essence: a) to destroy the “usurpation” of royal power by the first minister (which always gave rise to the struggle of factions at court and, therefore, interfered with the consolidation of the nobility); b) reduce the rights and influence of parliaments and the entire bureaucracy in general; c) wrest from the hands of tax farmers and “financiers” in general that gigantic share of the surplus product that they captured, and thus resolve the financial problem without infringing on the income of the court and military nobility; d) increase the share of the peasant surplus product received by the rural nobles, transferring state taxation to a greater extent than before to trade and industry; e) prohibit the practice of Protestantism, which caused a split among the nobility and gave another reason for the bourgeoisie and the people to disobey the authorities.

This noble program later became the program of the entire reign. Intoxicated by victory, absolutism after the Fronde began to take less into account the bourgeoisie as a potential social force and succumbed more strongly to the reactionary sentiments of the feudal nobility.

At first, the implementation of these noble demands led to the “brilliant age” of the “Sun King” (as the court flatterers of Louis XIV were called) in France, but later it accelerated the death of the French monarchy.

Already during the reign of Mazarin, in the coming years after the Fronde, these noble principles began to be put into practice, but at first rather restrainedly.

On the one hand, the international situation still remained extremely tense; France had to continue the war with Spain. To defeat Spain, he had to agree to an alliance with Cromwell’s England, although Mazars secretly dreamed of something completely different - an intervention in England to restore the Stuarts. On the other hand, inside France, exhausted to the limit by the end of the 50s, new opposition actions were brewing, intertwined with the remnants of the Fronde.

In the cities of equal regions of France, plebeian movements did not stop. Unauthorized congresses (assemblies) took place in the provinces separate groups nobility, which the government sometimes had to disperse by force. The nobles sometimes took upon themselves armed “protectors” of their peasants from soldiers and fiscal agents, actually increasing, under this pretext, the size of peasant payments and duties in their favor.

In 1658, a large and hardly suppressed peasant uprising broke out in the vicinity of Orleans, nicknamed the “war of sabotiers” (clogs are wooden peasant shoes). By the way, this event was one of the reasons that forced Mazarin to abandon completing the defeat of Spain and hasten to conclude the Pyrenean Peace of 1659.

The French military forces were completely liberated. There was no need to use them to interfere in English affairs, because after the death of Cromwell, the Stuart restoration took place in England in 1660 - Charles II ascended the throne, completely sold to France, in which he spent almost all the years of his emigration.

Finally, French absolutism, which had reached its greatest power, could also reap the fruits of internal victories. It was possible to widely satisfy the wishes and demands of the ruling class - the nobles.

Fronde

FRONDE-s; and.[French front]

1. In France in the mid-17th century: the bourgeois-noble movement against absolutism.

2. About opposition, opposing someone or something. their views, their policies, etc. Literary f. Court f.

3. = Frontierism. Cheap f. Boyish f.

(French fronde, literally - sling), 1) social movement 1648-1653 in France against absolutism, the government of G. Mazarin, which included various social strata (parliamentary Fronde, “Fronde of Princes”). 2) Unprincipled opposition, mainly for personal or group reasons.

FROND (French fronde, lit. - sling), a complex of social movements that covered in 1648–53. France. Traditionally divided into two stages: the “Parliamentary Fronde” (1648–49) and the “Fronde of the Princes” (1650–53).
Parliamentary Fronde
Among the causes of the Fronde are the disasters of the Thirty Years' War (cm. THIRTY YEARS WAR), tax oppression, which led to many peasant and plebeian uprisings, the policies of Cardinal Mazarin (cm. MAZARINE Giulio), which put the Parisian Parliament and associated circles of the Parisian bourgeoisie in opposition to the government. In 1648, the government decided to abolish the letta, a levy that guaranteed the heredity of positions, thereby infringing on the material interests of the “nobility of the mantle.” The highest judicial chambers of Paris - the Parliament, the Court of Accounts, the Chamber of Indirect Fees and the Grand Council - united and from June 16, 1648 began to hold joint meetings in the Chamber of St. Louis, declaring their desire to implement government reforms. Mazarin, after some hesitation (two parliamentarians who were suspected of inciting parliamentary unrest were even arrested), authorized the activities of the Chamber, which, from June 30 to July 10, developed and presented to the queen its proposals for reform - “27 articles”, which immediately began to be implemented: July 9 - resignation of the surintendant of finance M. d. "Emery; July 11 - recall of almost all intendants from the district of the Paris Parliament, reduction of the staff (cm. TALIA) by 1/8; abolition of arrears on all taxes; On July 20, Parliament registered a declaration that all tax edicts should be approved by the highest courts of justice. Inspired by the successes of the Parisians, anti-tax protests began throughout the country (including in Paris), demanding a further reduction in the tax rate. The government began to be burdened by the concessions made, deciding to use the victory of Prince Condé (cm. CONDE Louis II) over the Spaniards (at Lens on August 20, 1648) to go on the offensive against the parliamentarians, arresting its leaders on the day of the thanksgiving service on August 26. The people tried to fight them off, and barricades appeared in the capital. On October 22, 1648, in an atmosphere of constant unrest, the queen signed a declaration presented by parliamentarians, which included the text “27 Articles” without cuts. Mazarin was not going to put up with the terms of the declaration. After royal troops under the command of Condé were brought to Paris, on the night of January 6, 1649, the royal court secretly fled from the capital to Saint-Germain. Parliament ordered Mazarin to leave France within a week and sequestered his property. The commander of the army assembled by supporters of parliament was Prince Condé's brother, Prince Conti. The blockade of Paris began, which brought great hardships to the Parisians, but it was not parliament, but Mazarin, who was considered to be the culprit. On April 1, 1649, peace was concluded: Parliament had to give up demanding the cardinal’s resignation and pledge to abstain from general meetings until the end of the year.
Fronde of Princes
The “Fronde of the Princes” began after the Prince of Condé, his brother the Prince of Conti and his son-in-law the Duke of Longueville were arrested on January 18, 1650, by order of the queen. This arrest was initially approved by the Paris Parliament, which saw Conde as its opponent. At the end of May, a detachment of supporters of the prince, representatives of the aristocracy, dissatisfied with the policies of Mazarin, broke into Bordeaux, where the name Condé was popular, because during the war of 1649 he, being an enemy of the governor of Guienne B. d'Epernon, defended the interests of the Bordeauxites in the royal council. The plebs opened the gates of the city in front of the rebellious aristocrats, forcing the Parliament of Bordeaux to enter into an alliance with them (June 22, 1650) The siege of the city by royal troops was unsuccessful, peace was signed through the mediation of the Paris Parliament on October 1. Subsequently, it was Bordeaux that would become the support of the opposing princes led by Condé.
By the end of 1650, anti-Mazarinist sentiments intensified in the capital; the Parisian Parliament, the meeting of the provincial nobility that opened in Paris, and the meeting of the French clergy spoke out against the cardinal; the king’s uncle, the Duke of Orleans, demanded his resignation. On the night of February 7, 1651, Mazarin fled from Paris. The royal family wanted to follow him, but the palace was cordoned off by the city police. The Queen and the young Louis XIV found themselves under house arrest, which lasted approx. 2 months.
But the anti-Mazarinist coalition turned out to be fragile. The assembly of the nobility put forward a demand to assemble the Estates General, with which the queen agreed in principle, however, scheduling their opening for September 8, 1651 (it is noteworthy that on September 5, the 13-year-old king legally became an adult). The claims of Condé, who received the post of governor of Guienne upon his release from prison, to lead the government led to the resumption of the civil war in September 1651. Military actions developed with the superiority of government forces, when on December 23 Mazarin, who had until then been in Germany, at the call of the queen, invaded with army to France. Parliament, which had previously condemned Condé's rebellion, now outlawed Mazarin. Parliament instructed the Duke of Orleans to recruit an army for the war with the cardinal, and the Duke entered into a direct alliance with the Prince of Condé, who was enthusiastically received by the capital's plebs on April 11, 1652.
On June 16, the king made it clear to the parliamentary deputation that Mazarin would be dismissed subject to the complete disarmament of the frontier princes. The discussion of this issue in parliament on June 21 and 25 was accompanied by demonstrations at its gates: the demand for peace at any cost sounded very impressive. On July 2, Conde's army entered Paris, and on July 4, 1652, at the direct instigation of the princes, an armed attack was carried out on the Grand City Council meeting in the town hall; some were killed, others fled or paid a ransom - councilors and parliamentarians were beaten, without discerning what beliefs, Fronderist or Mazarinist, they adhered to. After July 4, the old municipality was dissolved, and the new one declared an alliance with the princes. On August 12, the king gave Mazarin an honorable resignation. In September, the previous municipality was restored in Paris. On October 13, Condé left Paris, and on October 21, 1652, the king entered the capital and granted a general amnesty, from which active frondeurs were excluded by name. In fact, the claims of the higher judicial chambers to govern the country were ended; and on February 3, 1653, Mazarin returned to Paris.
The last stronghold of the Fronde remained Guienne with Bordeaux, where in June 1652 the organization of urban democracy Orme was created (French orme - elm, in the clearing under the elms meetings of the Ormists were held); Prince Conti, who formally ruled the city, was forced to carry out the will of the Bordeaux plebeians in all matters of intra-city politics. The highest executive power in the city and control over the municipality would be concentrated in the “Chamber of 30”. Orme had the features of a plebeian mutual aid partnership: the Ormists had to protect each other, provide interest-free loans to impoverished brothers, provide work for the impoverished; they, however, opposed encroachments on private property, although the forced collection of indemnities from the rich became in the usual way replenishment of the city treasury. The socio-political program of the Ormists was directed against the special caste position of the judicial ranks; fair judges should be appointed, before whom the litigants would defend themselves. All the Ormist pamphlets speak of their loyalty to the king, hatred of Mazarin and devotion to the Prince of Condé.
After the liquidation of the Paris Fronde, large royal armies were drawn to Bordeaux, and the siege of the city began. On July 19, 1653, a large meeting of city leaders demanded that the Prince of Conti dissolve Orme, remove all the captains of the city militia and ask for peace. On August 3, the royal army entered the capitulated Bordeaux.

encyclopedic Dictionary. 2009 .

See what “fronde” is in other dictionaries:

- (fronde, children's game) the name of the party that rebelled in France in 1648-53 during the minority of Louis XIV against the court and especially against Mazarin. The uprising arose among the highest aristocracy, but also found adherents among the Parisians,... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

- (French fronde lit. sling),..1) social movement of 1648 53 in France against absolutism, against the government of J. Mazarin, which included various social strata (parliamentary front, front of princes)2)] Unprincipled opposition, mainly ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Social movement 1648 53 in France against absolutism, against the government of G. Mazarin. The main forces of the Fronde were the popular masses, whose uprisings were directed against the oppression of the nobility and the state. These popular performances sought... ... Historical Dictionary

- (French fronde, lit. sling) a complex of social movements that covered in 1648–53. France. Traditionally divided into two stages: the “Parliamentary Fronde” (1648–49) and the “Fronde of the Princes” (1650–53). Political science: Dictionary reference book. comp. professional floor... ... Political science. Dictionary.

Fronde- y, w. fronde sling. 1. Social and political movement in France (1648-1653), directed against strengthened absolutism. SIS 1985. 2. trans. Unprincipled, frivolous opposition, ch. in a manner for personal or group reasons. SIS... ... Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

See opposition Dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language. Practical guide. M.: Russian language. Z. E. Alexandrova. 2011. front noun, number of synonyms: 3 ... Synonym dictionary

- (French fronde, literally sling), social movement of 1648 53 in France against absolutism... Modern encyclopedia

Fronde, fronts, plural. no, female (French fronde from the name of the children's game, lit. sling). 1. Noble bourgeois movement against absolutism in France in the 17th century. (source). 2. transfer Opposition to something for personal reasons, dissatisfaction,... ... Dictionary Ushakova

FRONT, s, female. 1. In France in the 17th century: the noble-bourgeois movement against absolutism. 2. transfer Contrasting oneself with others out of a feeling of contradiction, disagreement, personal dissatisfaction (outdated book). Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I.... ... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

- (La fronde, lit. sling) designation of a number of anti-government unrest that took place in France in 1648-1652. Mazarin had a lot of court enemies; the war with Spain, which required huge financial costs, created discontent in... ... Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron

Fronde- (Fronde, French fronde sling), a name first used by Cardinal de Retz to describe street clashes in Paris. The term refers to two protests against absolutism in France between 1648 and 1652, during the minority... ... The World History

Books

• Fronde. The brilliance and insignificance of the Soviet intelligentsia, Kevorkyan Konstantin Ervantovich, Intelligentsia is a purely Russian concept, which has little taken root in other languages, implying a certain caste of educated people who, to one degree or another, care about the public good. Once upon a time... Category: