The Fronde

The Fronde
	Part of the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659) and the General Crisis
	; Battle of the Faubourg St Antoine (1652) by the walls of the Bastille, Paris
Date	1648–1653
Location	France
Result	Revolt suppressed
Belligerents
Kingdom of France	Parlements (1648–1649); Princes of the Blood (1650–1653); Spanish Empire
Commanders and leaders
Louis XIV; Anne of Austria; Cardinal Mazarin; Vicomte de Turenne (from 1651);	Gaston of Orleans; Louis, Grand Condé (from 1651); Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti (from 1651); Vicomte de Turenne (1650 to 1651);

The Fronde (French pronunciation: [fʁɔ̃d])^[2] were a series of civil wars in the Kingdom of France between 1648 and 1653, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. The government of the young King Louis XIV confronted the combined opposition of the princes, the nobility, the law courts (parlements), as well as much of the French population, and managed to subdue them all. The dispute started when the government of France issued seven fiscal edicts, six of which were to increase taxation. The parlements resisted, questioned the constitutionality of the king's actions, and sought to check his powers.^[3]

The Fronde was divided into two campaigns, the Parlementary Fronde and the Fronde of the Princes. The timing of the outbreak of the Parlementary Fronde, directly after the Peace of Westphalia (1648) that ended the Thirty Years' War, was significant. The nuclei of the armed bands that terrorized parts of France under aristocratic leaders during that period had been hardened in a generation of war in Germany, where troops still tended to operate autonomously. Louis XIV, impressed as a young ruler with the experience of the Fronde, came to reorganize French fighting forces under a stricter hierarchy, whose leaders ultimately could be made or unmade by the king. Cardinal Mazarin blundered into the crisis but came out well ahead at the end. The Fronde represented the final attempt of the French nobility to confront the king, and ended in its humiliation. In the long run, the Fronde served to strengthen royal authority, but weakened the national economy. The Fronde facilitated the emergence of absolute monarchy.^[4]

The Spanish Empire promoted the Fronde to the point that without its support, it would have had a more limited character; it benefited from the internal upheaval in France, as it contributed to the Spanish military's renewed success in its war against the French between 1647 and 1653, so much so that the year 1652 could be considered a Spanish annus mirabilis.^[5] However, following the end of the Fronde and an English intervention on the side of France, the course of the war largely changed in France's favour, and it ultimately achieved some territorial gains in the Peace of the Pyrenees.

^ Amigo Vázquez 2019, pp. 153–188.
^ The Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary, 4th ed., 2007.
^ Magill, Frank Northen (1993). Magill's History of Europe. p. 78. ISBN 978-0717271733.
^ Moote, A. Lloyd (1972). The revolt of the judges: the Parlement of Paris and the Fronde, 1643–1652. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691620107.
^ Amigo Vázquez 2019, p. 185.

[FOOTNOTEAmigo_Vázquez2019153–188-1] Amigo Vázquez 2019, pp. 153–188.

[2] The Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary, 4th ed., 2007.

[Magill-3] Magill, Frank Northen (1993). Magill's History of Europe. p. 78. ISBN 978-0717271733.

[Moote-4] Moote, A. Lloyd (1972). The revolt of the judges: the Parlement of Paris and the Fronde, 1643–1652. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691620107.

[FOOTNOTEAmigo_Vázquez2019185-5] Amigo Vázquez 2019, p. 185.

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