The meaning of the word "Frond" Fronde - French Troubles

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 is 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 already long years was tormented by internal strife and religious wars, peace was needed. 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 letting them get close to state affairs, to give them a pretext to claim 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, there was also 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, Council resolutions, refusals and stops 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 Constituent Assembly 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 instigated 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 a resounding victory saved them from new attacks on Anne of Austria and Mazarin French army at Lens (August 20), nor the glorious peace treaty of Munster (October 24), which the Mazarin government worked so diligently on. 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 went over to the side of Parliament supreme courts, court nobles and Paul de Gondi, coadjutor of Paris and nephew of the Archbishop of Paris. 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 the necessary furniture and things were brought.
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 point is that after playing 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, which split the country (for many the memory of the Wars of Religion was still fresh) and brought royal power to the brink of the abyss, strengthened the character 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 the best parts to greet him. After which the royal cortege set off.
In front walked two trumpeters, 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 horsemen 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. Conde, dissatisfied with the current political situation, went with his family and associates to the Bourbon Mount Montron, 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, "a dangerous example of how the highest rank can become 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 your own life experience, and not according to descriptions from books and with the help of maps, Louis got to know 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 mercy. 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 them the right approach. 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 worthy place in the system of royal education and left its mark on the personality of Louis XIV.

The Fronde of 1648-1653 was a mixture of tragedy and farce. In some respects it was a cheap copy of the English Civil War, a play performed from a bad script with several dozen actors. How, one might ask, can one take seriously a rebellion whose name was given by the slingshots from which Parisian hooligans fired at wealthy carriages? Sometimes the Fronde was even declared the most important event in the history of France in the 17th century.38 In this case, its results deserve high praise, and not the reasons that lay in resentment of the authorities. This resentment united the once rival factions: members of parliament, the Robins, the nobility of the sword and the grandees. The essence of the Fronde has been explained in different ways. For Marxist historians, it was a popular revolt against the class enemy represented by the crown and the aristocracy. “Absolutism” was the means by which the feudal nobility continued to exploit the peasants.39 In this context, the Fronde was seen as a continuation of the peasant revolts that marred the 1630s and 1640s; Among them, the most famous are the uprisings of the crocans in the southwest and the barefoot ones in Normandy. Since this case ignores the fact that many influential aristocrats opposed the government, most historians have tended to favor a more constitutional explanation. The popularity of a strong monarchy was undeniable. Even criticism of the oppressor Richelieu concerned his foreign policy, and not his domestic one, which apparently did not cause opposition.40 The very method of governance during his childhood, when the minister representing the monarch used repressive measures on behalf of the young Louis XIV, was not popular . Any government makes enemies, and Richelieu and Mazarin had especially many of them. The cardinals considered grandees and provincial governors to be unreliable distributors of patronage, rightly believing that they used it in their own interests and not for the benefit of the crown. The position of the grandees worsened further when Richelieu and Mazarin began to distribute favors through their own clients in the ministries of the lower and middle levels of the nobility. Therefore, the grandees were eager to repeat the attempt made in 1642 by Saint-Mars: to eliminate the royal minister, take his place themselves and begin conducting foreign policy at their own discretion. The officers were dissatisfied with the crown's attack on their rights and privileges: the reduction of salaries, the expected abolition of the flight and the usurpation of their functions by the intendants. The judges in the parliaments were offended by the crown's habit of coercing and rushing them at the first sign of dissent and by its constant disregard for due process - its special commissions, arbitrary arrests and sittings in the presence of the king. The Fronders resisted precisely the disdainful treatment of the ruling elite. This, in turn, meant opposition to prerogative power. Consequently, the emphasis of the conflict changed, which gradually turned into a more serious confrontation. Previously, historians tried to find the reasons for discontent, which actually arose spontaneously; misunderstanding of this circumstance has given rise to many misconceptions in historiography. The Fronde was essentially a protest against the despotic abuses of power under Richelieu and Mazarin, and not a “constitutional” attempt to debunk the “absolutism” of the French crown, although this is precisely the traditional interpretation. If the Fronde could be presented as an obstacle to “absolutism”, this would be an excellent indication of its development. The question is who was really the aggressor: the crown with its tax innovations, intendants and the so-called emergence of “absolutism”, or parliament and the princes who demanded greater participation in government and used dubious republican rhetoric. The answer must be: both sides were the aggressors, first the Crown, then Parliament. Most researchers deny the innovative nature of parliament's activities. At first, of course, the judges uttered the traditional constitutional mantra that the French monarchy was limited by a law that protected the landed property, privileges and offices of its subjects.41 The Crown was a reformer who acted despotically: it was forced to take desperate measures in view of the depletion of royal finances during the Thirty Years war. In the 1640s, Mazarin found himself backed into a corner. All ways to improve the finances have been tried, and although his policies are easy to criticize, finding an alternative to them is not easy. In any case, he made every possible tactical mistake. In 1642, he tried to deprive the office holder of the right to transfer the position by inheritance and ordered the intendants to monitor their payment of the tag, and in 1648 he did the same. Now the intendants were not just inspectors, but began to resemble well-known local bureaucrats. The edicts of January 1648 violated all concepts of legitimate authority, not only in their essence (the flight was renewed with the condition that officials return their salaries for 4 years), but also in nature: it was a repetition of the meetings with the participation of the king four years earlier. On this occasion, the President of Parliament spoke out against the use of absolute power to increase taxes during the minority of the monarch. The periods of minority of the sovereigns were difficult for many reasons. At this time, the princes of the blood remembered whose relatives they were, and usually hoped to gain a more significant role in government. It was easy to oppose the ministers working at such times, since they were not personally chosen and appointed by the minor monarch. Therefore, it was possible to try to remove them without calling into question the correctness of the royal decision. For the same reason, those who were looking for a patron did not want to tie themselves to a person who, perhaps, would become a temporary figure and disappear as soon as the king matured and expressed own opinion. At this time, it was difficult for the minister to acquire clients. Thus, Mazarin, who served the young sovereign, had doubly limited opportunities. Moreover, he was an Italian cardinal of dubious origin, spoke French poorly and was apparently capable only of base intrigue. French xenophobia flourished. The Prince of the Church was accused, inter alia, of murder, sodomy and reprehensible relations with the Queen Mother. In fact, the princes themselves wanted to be in his place. These various grievances contributed to the formation of an alliance of very strange allies. Offices that had previously competed with each other closed ranks and found loyal allies in the grandees who previously considered them upstarts. If the Frontiers had simply sought to thwart the “absolutist” plans of the crown and followed the program subsequently constructed for them by historians, the civil war probably would not have broken out. However, Mazarin was naturally alarmed by what had recently happened to the monarch and chief minister in England. He saw in the growing discontent manifestations of the republican spirit and in 1650 he arrested the instigating princes. The government's aggression provoked opposition from parliament and the princes, which began with demands to abolish the posts of intendants and declare government tax decrees invalid. In subsequent statements, the oppositionists demanded that they be given the right to accept independent decisions on all issues, nominate and remove ministers and state councilors, and also, jointly with the grandees, issue decrees concerning state affairs.42 The Fronders did not encroach only on the king’s right to declare war and sign peace treaties: otherwise, the more defiant attack on royal prerogatives was barely could it have been foreseen? Mazarin's insight into republican sentiments (which should be understood as the desire of the frondeurs to subordinate the king's actions to a certain committee) should inspire much more sympathy among historians than they usually show the cardinal. Conti, governor of Champagne, and Longueville, governor of Normandy, rebelled to bolster their claims to the leadership of the royal councils and the independence of their provinces. Conde intended to become the chief minister of the kingdom.43 He even changed his military career and fought in the Spanish army against France. All this proved - if Louis XIV still needed proof - that the mortal threat to the French monarchs was born at the royal court, among senior officials, courtiers and relatives. Several times his uncle, his heirs and commanders opposed Louis: in 1651 the gates of Paris were opened to the rebels, and the cannons of the Bastille were transferred to their disposal by the king's cousin. In general, historians underestimated this threat, knowing in advance that rebellions by the landed nobility were doomed to failure. This was not obvious in 1648. The traditional explanation of the revolts of the 16th and 17th centuries ignores the existence of factions. At some level, of course, the differences between them were ideological. The rebels armed themselves with arguments designed to justify saving the king from the machinations of bad ministers. The works of oppositional authors of the 16th century turn out to be useful source ideas, since they often speak of the duty of parliaments and princes to return errant monarchs to the path of legitimacy. But these duties were not “constitutional” and were not opposed to “absolutism”. Most subjects had nothing against royal prerogatives as long as they were used wisely and for the good of the country. But as soon as the prerogatives were used differently, they were condemned. The scope of royal powers was not static; changing, it was never established automatically: it was often argued that during the king’s minority the government had limited rights and could not take legislative initiative. At another level, the struggle was between power structures - royalty and parliament, royalty and grandees. Separately, both of these aspects do not provide an adequate picture of what happened. Thus, the initiative to provide armed resistance to the grandees who intended to storm the royal council came from other grandees, in particular from Choiseul, who remained loyal to the crown. The main sign of the misuse of prerogatives for contemporaries was that important political figures in themselves were removed from power and patronage. This served as an additional reason for them to seek reshuffles in the central councils. Institutions such as parliament were divided into factions. If factions opposed the crown, this meant that there were fewer judges in parliament who supported the king or his minister at that moment than judges who supported their opponents. Since the threads of government in most French institutions were controlled by a limited number of politicians, the problem ultimately came down to regulating the actions of court groups. The primary duty of any monarch in the early modern era was to govern the ruling elite. This meant that it was impossible to offend all the courtiers at the same time, and at the same time it was impossible to allow a coalition of favorites to dictate terms to the crown. The royal power in a certain respect defeated the Fronde, disrupting the alliance that underpinned it. Royal prerogatives were restored and protected from attacks by committees of judges and princes. In other respects the Fronde was victorious. Subsequently, the prerogatives were used with the greatest caution. The time for the despotic abuses of the cardinals has passed, and the mood of the grandees has become the main concern of the government. The Fronde was a lesson that young Louis XIV would never forget.44

This is a social movement against absolutism in France in 1648-53, in which various sectors of society participated, sometimes pursuing opposing goals. Tax oppression and the disasters of the Thirty Years' War of 1618-48 led to many peasant and plebeian uprisings. The tax policy of the government of G. Mazarin aroused the opposition of the Parisian parliament and the circles of the bourgeoisie associated with it. The Paris parliament temporarily blocked with popular anti-feudal forces and demanded a number of reforms, some of which were bourgeois in nature. In response to Mazarin's attempt to arrest opposition leaders (P. Brussels and others), a massive armed uprising began in Paris on August 26-27, 1648. Mazarin took the young Louis XIV out of the rebel capital, and the royal troops began the siege of the city (January - February 1649). The Parisians were supported by a number of provinces. However, the Parisian bourgeoisie and the parliamentary “nobility of the robe,” frightened by the rise of the popular movement and the radicalism of leaflets and pamphlets, entered into negotiations with the royal court. In March 1649, the “parliamentary parliament” ended, but popular unrest continued. From the beginning of 1650, the opposition to absolutism was led by reactionary court circles (“F. princes”), who only wanted to put pressure on the government in order to receive profitable positions, pensions, etc. (hence the expression “to front” - to be in frivolous, harmless opposition). The controversial nobles and princes, relying on their noble retinues and foreign (Spanish) troops, took advantage of peasant uprisings and the democratic movement in the cities. The most revolutionary elements of the French bourgeoisie and during the period of “F. princes" tried to continue the fight against absolutism; Thus, in Bordeaux, France of this period acquired the character of a bourgeois-democratic republican movement. The aristocratic frondeurs achieved the resignation and expulsion of Mazarin in 1651, but he soon returned to France with mercenary troops. A long internecine war began. By the end of 1652, Mazarin, through handouts and concessions, persuaded most of the noble frondeurs to reconcile, and their head, Prince L. Condé, who in 1651 went into the service of the Spanish king, was forced to leave Paris, despite the help of the Spanish troops. By mid-1653, the most persistent and radical center of F., in Bordeaux, was suppressed. F.'s defeat led to a feudal reaction in the French countryside in the 50-70s. 17th century and contributed to the establishment of the unlimited autocracy of Louis XIV. Results: The Fronde was not marked by bloody executions, because the government was still afraid of its resumption for a long time. The suppression of the movement resulted in the complete consolidation of royal arbitrariness and the final humiliation of parliament and the aristocracy, that is, two forces that had at least some chance in the fight against absolutism. The matter ended in the victory of Cardinal Mazarin. After the death of Cardinal Mazarin (1661) Louis XIV personally began to rule the state. The troubles of the Fronde and the English Revolution instilled in him hatred of any manifestation of public initiative, and all his life he strove to strengthen royal power more and more. His reign became the apogee of French absolutism. The State Council, which previously included members of the royal family, representatives of the nobility, and the highest clergy, was replaced by a narrow council consisting of three ministers who came from among the new nobility. The king personally supervised their activities. The reform of the central and local administration, the strengthening of the institution of intendants ensured control over the collection of taxes, the activities of parliaments and provincial states, urban and rural communities. The development of industry and trade was encouraged. The army reform carried out by the Minister of War Louvois allowed Louis XIV to intensify French expansion in Europe. The history of his reign is replete with wars. The War of Devolution of 1667-68 pushed Spain out of the Southern Netherlands. The Dutch War of 1672-78 brought Franche-Comté to France. But Louis XIV did not limit himself to the territories obtained under the Nimwegen peace treaties of 1678-79. In order to “streamline the French borders,” his troops captured Strasbourg in 1681, took Luxembourg in 1684, and invaded the Rhineland in 1688. Alarmed by the exorbitant appetites of France, the League of Augsburg put up a powerful coalition against it: the War of the Palatinate Succession of 1688-97 ended in a serious defeat for Louis XIV. The Peace of Ryswick of 1697 deprived him of all conquests except Alsace and Franche-Comté. The result of the War of the Spanish Succession of 1701-14 was the further weakening of France. Endless wars depleted the French treasury. By the end of the “century of Louis XIV,” France was experiencing a deep economic recession. Louis XV- King of France since September 1, 1715 from the Bourbon dynasty. After the death of his great-grandfather, Louis XIV, on September 1, 1715, Louis ascended the throne at the age of 5, under the tutelage of the regent Philippe d'Orléans, the late king's nephew. Foreign policy The latter was a reaction against the direction and policy of Louis XIV: an alliance was concluded with England, and a war with Spain began. Internal management was marked by financial troubles and the introduction of the John Law system, which entailed a severe economic crisis. On October 1, 1723, Louis was declared of age, but power continued to remain in the hands of Philippe d'Orléans, and upon the latter's death it passed to the Duke of Bourbon. In 1726, the king announced that he was taking the reins of government into his own hands, but in reality power passed to Cardinal Fleury, who led the country until his death in 1743, trying to drown out any desire in Louis to engage in politics. The reign of Fleury, who served as an instrument in the hands of the clergy, can be characterized as follows: within the country - the absence of any innovations and reforms, the exemption of the clergy from paying duties and taxes, the persecution of Jansenists and Protestants, attempts to streamline finances and make greater savings in expenses and the impossibility of achieving this due to the minister’s complete ignorance of economic and financial matters; outside the country - the careful elimination of everything that could lead to bloody clashes, and, despite this, the waging of two ruinous wars, for the Polish inheritance and for the Austrian. The first annexed Lorraine to the possessions of France, and the king's father-in-law, Stanislav Leszczynski, was elevated to the throne. The second, starting in 1741 under favorable conditions, was carried out with varying success until 1748 and ended with the Peace of Aachen, according to which France was forced to cede to the enemy all its conquests in the Netherlands in exchange for the concession to Philip of Spain of Parma and Piacenza. Louis personally participated in the War of the Austrian Succession for a time, but in Metz he became dangerously ill. Cardinal Fleury died at the beginning of the war, and the king, reiterating his intention to govern the state independently, did not appoint anyone as first minister. Due to Louis’s inability to deal with affairs, this had extremely unfavorable consequences for the work of the state: each of the ministers managed his ministry independently of his comrades and inspired the sovereign with the most contradictory decisions. Since 1745, he fell entirely under the influence of the Marquise de Pompadour, who ruined the country with her extravagance. The Parisian population became more hostile towards the king. The disastrous state of the country prompted the Comptroller General Machaut to think about reform in the financial system: he proposed introducing an income tax (vingtième) on all classes of the state, including the clergy, and restricting the right of the clergy to buy real estate due to the fact that church property was exempt from payment of all kinds of duties. In 1756 it broke out Seven Years' War, in which Louis took the side of Austria, the traditional enemy of France, and (despite the local victories of Marshal Richelieu) after a series of defeats was forced to conclude the Peace of Paris in 1763, which deprived France of many of its colonies (incidentally - India, Canada) in favor England, which managed to take advantage of the failures of its rival to destroy it maritime significance and destroy her fleet. France has sunk to the level of a third-rate power. The country's financial situation was terrible, the deficit was huge. New taxes were required to cover it, but the Parisian parliament in 1763 refused to register them. The king forced him to do this through the principle of the supremacy of the royal court over any other, according to which, since parliament makes decisions in the name of the king, then in the presence of the king himself, parliament has no right to do anything. parliaments followed the example of Paris: Louis in 1766 declared parliaments to be simple judicial institutions that should consider it an honor to obey the king. Parliaments, however, continued to resist.

On the night of January 19-20, 1771, soldiers were sent to all members of parliament demanding an immediate answer (yes or no) to the question: whether they wish to obey the orders of the king. The majority answered in the negative; the next day it was announced to them that the king was depriving them of their positions and expelling them, despite the fact that their positions had been purchased by them, and they themselves were considered irremovable. Instead of parliaments, new judicial institutions (Mopu) were established, but lawyers refused to defend cases before them, and the people reacted with deep indignation to the violent actions of the government. The king died of smallpox, having contracted it from a young girl sent to him by DuBarry. inherits the throne Louis XVI (1754-1793).

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.

Fronde

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

FRONDE

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 a common way of replenishing 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 .

Synonyms:

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 foreign words 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

Gg. Peasant protests also took place in the southern, western and northern provinces. The peasantry, which made up the majority of the population of France, was devastated by wars, huge taxes, the invasion of enemy troops and the looting of its own army.

Mazarin began the military pacification of the rebellious Normandy and quickly brought it to an end; this “Fronde of Condé” was not particularly popular at all (parliament did not support it at all). The pacification of other areas was equally successful (in the first half). The rebels everywhere surrendered or retreated to government troops. But the frondeurs had not yet lost their courage.

Mazarin, with the regent, the little king and the army, went to Bordeaux, where in July the uprising flared up with a vengeance; Gaston d'Orléans remained in Paris as the sovereign ruler during the entire absence of the court. In October, the royal army managed to take Bordeaux (from where the leaders of the Fronde - La Rochefoucauld, Princess Condé and others - managed to escape in time). After the fall of Bordeaux, Mazarin blocked the path of the southern Spanish army (united with Turenne and other frontiers) and inflicted a decisive defeat on the enemies (December 15).

But Mazarin’s Parisian enemies complicated the government’s position by the fact that they managed to win over the already quiet parliamentary Fronde to the side of the “Fronde of Princes.” The aristocrats united with parliament, their agreement was finalized in the very first weeks, and Anne of Austria saw herself in a hopeless situation: the coalition of the “two Frondes” demanded from her the release of Condé and other arrested people, as well as the resignation of Mazarin. The Duke of Orleans also went over to the side of the Fronde. At a time when Anna hesitated to fulfill the demands of parliament, the latter (February 6) announced that it recognized the Duke of Orleans as the ruler of France not the regent.

Mazarin fled from Paris; the next day, parliament demanded from the queen (clearly referring to Mazarin) that henceforth foreigners and people who swore allegiance to anyone other than the French crown could not occupy higher positions. On February 8, parliament formally sentenced Mazarin to exile from France. The queen had to give in. In Paris, crowds of people threateningly demanded that the minor king remain with his mother in Paris and that the arrested aristocrats be released. On February 11, the queen ordered this to be done.

Mazarin left France. But less than a few weeks after his expulsion, the frondeurs quarreled among themselves due to their too heterogeneous composition, and the Prince of Condé, bribed by the promises of the regent, went over to the side of the government. He had barely broken off relations with his comrades when it was discovered that Anna had deceived him; Then Conde (July 5) left Paris. The queen, to whose side one after another her enemies began to go over, accused the prince of treason (for relations with the Spaniards). Condé, supported by Rogan, Doignon and other nobles, began a rebellion in Anjou, Bordeaux, La Rochelle, Berry, Guienne, etc.

The Spaniards were disturbing the borders in the south; Anna's situation again turned out to be desperate. She was helped by Mazarin, who arrived from Germany (in November) at the head of a fairly large army of mercenaries. Together with the queen's troops, this army set about taming the rebellion in the troubled provinces. The fight began stubbornly. Condé and his allies fought their way to Paris, and Condé entered the capital. The vast majority of Parisians, after long, ongoing turmoil, treated both warring sides quite indifferently, and if they began to remember Mazarin more and more often and more sympathetically, it was solely because they hoped for a quick restoration of order and tranquility under his rule.

Main figures of the Fronde

On the side of the king

• Regent Anne of Austria, Queen Mother;
• Cardinal Mazarin, first minister of France.

Frondeurs

• Monsignor de Gondi, coadjutor of the Archbishop of Paris, later Cardinal de Retz;
• Prince de Conti, younger brother of the Duchess de Longueville and the Grand Condé;
• Mademoiselle de Montpensier, known as "The Grand Mademoiselle";
• Duchesse de Longueville, wife of the previous one and sister of the Grand Condé and the Prince de Conti;
• Duke de La Rochefoucauld, lover of the previous one;
• Duchess de Montbazon, mistress of the Duke de Beaufort.

At different times on both sides

They fought at the head of the royal troops, then went over to the side of the frondeurs.

Bibliography

• , translation by Ya. S. Semchenkov (Russian)
• Sainte-Aulaire, "Histoire de la fronde";
• Bouchard, “Les guerres de religion et les troubles de la f. en Bourbonnais" ();
• Chéruel, “Histoire de France pendant la minorité de Louis XIV”;
• “Histoire de France sous le ministère de Mazarin” (P.,
• Lavisse and Rambaud, " General history"(M., vol. 6).

Fiction

• Alexandr Duma . Twenty years later

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• // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.

Excerpt characterizing the Frond

- What happened to you? – Nikolai’s mother asked.
“Oh, nothing,” he said, as if he was already tired of this same question.
- Will daddy arrive soon?
- I think.
“Everything is the same for them. They don't know anything! Where should I go?” thought Nikolai and went back to the hall where the clavichord stood.
Sonya sat at the clavichord and played the prelude of the barcarolle that Denisov especially loved. Natasha was going to sing. Denisov looked at her with delighted eyes.
Nikolai began to walk back and forth around the room.
“And now you want to make her sing? – what can she sing? And there’s nothing fun here,” thought Nikolai.
Sonya struck the first chord of the prelude.
“My God, I am lost, I am a dishonest person. A bullet in the forehead, the only thing left to do is not sing, he thought. Leave? but where? anyway, let them sing!”
Nikolai gloomily, continuing to walk around the room, glanced at Denisov and the girls, avoiding their gaze.
“Nikolenka, what’s wrong with you?” – asked Sonya’s gaze fixed on him. She immediately saw that something had happened to him.
Nikolai turned away from her. Natasha, with her sensitivity, also instantly noticed her brother’s condition. She noticed him, but she herself was so happy at that moment, she was so far from grief, sadness, reproaches, that she (as often happens with young people) deliberately deceived herself. No, I’m having too much fun now to spoil my fun by sympathizing with someone else’s grief, she felt, and said to herself:
“No, I’m rightly mistaken, he should be as cheerful as I am.” Well, Sonya,” she said and went out to the very middle of the hall, where, in her opinion, the resonance was best. Raising her head, lowering her lifelessly hanging hands, as dancers do, Natasha, energetically shifting from heel to tiptoe, walked through the middle of the room and stopped.
"Here I am!" as if she was speaking in response to the enthusiastic gaze of Denisov, who was watching her.
“And why is she happy! - Nikolai thought, looking at his sister. And how isn’t she bored and ashamed!” Natasha hit the first note, her throat expanded, her chest straightened, her eyes took on a serious expression. She was not thinking about anyone or anything at that moment, and sounds flowed from her folded mouth into a smile, those sounds that anyone can make at the same intervals and at the same intervals, but which a thousand times leave you cold, in the thousand and first times they make you shudder and cry.
This winter Natasha began to sing seriously for the first time, especially because Denisov admired her singing. She no longer sang like a child, there was no longer in her singing that comic, childish diligence that was in her before; but she still did not sing well, as all the expert judges who listened to her said. “Not processed, but a wonderful voice, it needs to be processed,” everyone said. But they usually said this long after her voice had fallen silent. At the same time, when this raw voice sounded with irregular aspirations and with efforts of transitions, even the expert judges did not say anything, and only enjoyed this raw voice and only wanted to hear it again. In her voice there was that virginal pristineness, that ignorance of her own strengths and that still unprocessed velvet, which were so combined with the shortcomings of the art of singing that it seemed impossible to change anything in this voice without spoiling it.
“What is this? - Nikolai thought, hearing her voice and opening his eyes wide. -What happened to her? How does she sing these days? - he thought. And suddenly the whole world focused for him, waiting for the next note, the next phrase, and everything in the world became divided into three tempos: “Oh mio crudele affetto... [Oh my cruel love...] One, two, three... one, two... three... one... Oh mio crudele affetto... One, two, three... one. Eh, our life is stupid! - Nikolai thought. All this, and misfortune, and money, and Dolokhov, and anger, and honor - all this is nonsense... but here it is real... Hey, Natasha, well, my dear! Well, mother!... how will she take this si? I took it! God bless!" - and he, without noticing that he was singing, in order to strengthen this si, took the second to the third of a high note. "My God! how good! Did I really take it? how happy!” he thought.
ABOUT! how this third trembled, and how something better that was in Rostov’s soul was touched. And this was something independent of everything in the world, and above everything in the world. What kind of losses are there, and the Dolokhovs, and honestly!... It’s all nonsense! You can kill, steal and still be happy...

Rostov has not experienced such pleasure from music for a long time as on this day. But as soon as Natasha finished her barcarolle, reality came back to him again. He left without saying anything and went downstairs to his room. A quarter of an hour later the old count, cheerful and satisfied, arrived from the club. Nikolai, hearing his arrival, went to him.
- Well, did you have fun? - said Ilya Andreich, smiling joyfully and proudly at his son. Nikolai wanted to say “yes,” but he couldn’t: he almost burst into tears. The Count was lighting his pipe and did not notice his son’s condition.
“Oh, inevitably!” - Nikolai thought for the first time and last time. And suddenly, in the most casual tone, such that he seemed disgusted to himself, as if he was asking the carriage to go to the city, he told his father.
- Dad, I came to you for business. I forgot about it. I need money.
“That’s it,” said the father, who was in a particularly cheerful spirit. - I told you that it won’t be enough. Is it a lot?
“A lot,” Nikolai said, blushing and with a stupid, careless smile, which for a long time later he could not forgive himself. – I lost a little, that is, a lot, even a lot, 43 thousand.
- What? Who?... You're kidding! - shouted the count, suddenly turning apoplectic red in the neck and back of his head, like old people blush.
“I promised to pay tomorrow,” said Nikolai.
“Well!...” said the old count, spreading his arms and sank helplessly onto the sofa.
- What to do! Who hasn't this happened to? - said the son in a cheeky, bold tone, while in his soul he considered himself a scoundrel, a scoundrel who could not atone for his crime with his whole life. He would have liked to kiss his father's hands, on his knees to ask for his forgiveness, but he said in a careless and even rude tone that this happens to everyone.
Count Ilya Andreich lowered his eyes when he heard these words from his son and hurried, looking for something.
“Yes, yes,” he said, “it’s difficult, I’m afraid, it’s difficult to get... never happened to anyone!” yes, who hasn’t happened to... - And the count glanced briefly into his son’s face and walked out of the room... Nikolai was preparing to fight back, but he never expected this.
- Daddy! pa... hemp! - he shouted after him, sobbing; excuse me! “And, grabbing his father’s hand, he pressed his lips to it and began to cry.

While the father was explaining to his son, an equally important explanation was taking place between the mother and daughter. Natasha ran to her mother excitedly.
- Mom!... Mom!... he did it to me...
- What did you do?
- I did, I proposed. Mother! Mother! - she shouted. The Countess could not believe her ears. Denisov proposed. To whom? This tiny girl Natasha, who had recently been playing with dolls and was now taking lessons.
- Natasha, that’s complete nonsense! – she said, still hoping that it was a joke.
- Well, that's nonsense! “I’m telling you the truth,” Natasha said angrily. – I came to ask what to do, and you tell me: “nonsense”...
The Countess shrugged.
“If it’s true that Monsieur Denisov proposed to you, then tell him that he’s a fool, that’s all.”
“No, he’s not a fool,” Natasha said offendedly and seriously.
- Well, what do you want? You are all in love these days. Well, you’re in love, so marry him! – the countess said, laughing angrily. - With God blessing!
- No, mom, I’m not in love with him, I must not be in love with him.
- Well, tell him so.
- Mom, are you angry? You’re not angry, my dear, what’s my fault?
- No, what about it, my friend? If you want, I’ll go and tell him,” said the countess, smiling.
- No, I’ll do it myself, just teach me. Everything is easy for you,” she added, responding to her smile. - If only you could see how he told me this! After all, I know that he didn’t mean to say this, but he said it by accident.
- Well, you still have to refuse.
- No, don't. I feel so sorry for him! He is so cute.
- Well, then accept the offer. “And then it’s time to get married,” the mother said angrily and mockingly.
- No, mom, I feel so sorry for him. I don't know how I'll say it.
“You don’t have anything to say, I’ll say it myself,” said the countess, indignant that they dared to look at this little Natasha as if she were big.
“No, no way, I myself, and you listen at the door,” and Natasha ran through the living room into the hall, where Denisov was sitting on the same chair, by the clavichord, covering his face with his hands. He jumped up at the sound of her light steps.
“Natalie,” he said, approaching her with quick steps, “decide my fate.” It's in your hands!
- Vasily Dmitrich, I feel so sorry for you!... No, but you are so nice... but don’t... this... otherwise I will always love you.
Denisov bent over her hand, and she heard strange sounds, incomprehensible to her. She kissed his black, matted, curly head. At this time, the hasty noise of the countess's dress was heard. She approached them.
“Vasily Dmitrich, I thank you for the honor,” said the countess in an embarrassed voice, but which seemed stern to Denisov, “but my daughter is so young, and I thought that you, as a friend of my son, would turn to me first.” In this case, you would not put me in the need of refusal.
“Athena,” Denisov said with downcast eyes and a guilty look, he wanted to say something else and faltered.
Natasha could not calmly see him so pitiful. She began to sob loudly.
“Countess, I am guilty before you,” Denisov continued in a broken voice, “but know that I adore your daughter and your entire family so much that I would give two lives...” He looked at the countess and, noticing her stern face... “Well, goodbye, Athena,” he said, kissed her hand and, without looking at Natasha, walked out of the room with quick, decisive steps.

The next day, Rostov saw off Denisov, who did not want to stay in Moscow for another day. Denisov was seen off at the gypsies by all his Moscow friends, and he did not remember how they put him in the sleigh and how they took him to the first three stations.
After Denisov’s departure, Rostov, waiting for the money that the old count could not suddenly collect, spent another two weeks in Moscow, without leaving the house, and mainly in the young ladies’ room.
Sonya was more tender and devoted to him than before. She seemed to want to show him that his loss was a feat for which she now loves him even more; but Nikolai now considered himself unworthy of her.
He filled the girls' albums with poems and notes, and without saying goodbye to any of his acquaintances, finally sending all 43 thousand and receiving Dolokhov's signature, he left at the end of November to catch up with the regiment, which was already in Poland.

After his explanation with his wife, Pierre went to St. Petersburg. In Torzhok there were no horses at the station, or the caretaker did not want them. Pierre had to wait. Without undressing, he lay down on leather sofa before round table, put my big feet in warm boots and thought.
– Will you order the suitcases to be brought in? Make the bed, would you like some tea? – asked the valet.
Pierre did not answer because he did not hear or see anything. He began to think at the last station and continued to think about the same thing - about something so important that he did not pay any attention to what was happening around him. Not only was he not interested in the fact that he would arrive in St. Petersburg later or earlier, or whether he would or would not have a place to rest at this station, but it was still in comparison with the thoughts that occupied him now whether he would stay for a few days. hours or a lifetime at this station.
The caretaker, the caretaker, the valet, the woman with Torzhkov sewing came into the room, offering their services. Pierre, without changing his position with his legs raised, looked at them through his glasses, and did not understand what they could need and how they could all live without resolving the questions that occupied him. And he was preoccupied with the same questions from the very day when he returned from Sokolniki after the duel and fought the first, painful, sleepless night; only now, in the solitude of the journey, did they take possession of him with special power. No matter what he started to think about, he returned to the same questions that he could not solve and could not stop asking himself. It was as if the main screw on which his whole life was held had turned in his head. The screw did not go in further, did not go out, but spun, not grabbing anything, still on the same groove, and it was impossible to stop turning it.