France in the middle of the 17th century. Fronde. history of France. Parliamentary Fronde The end of the Fronde in France

What is Fronde? The definition of this term, although it has a strictly historical basis - it refers to a number of anti-government protests in France in the mid-17th century - is nevertheless ironic and mocking in nature. Events showed that all the main characters in those long-standing events turned out to be hypocrites, who in words stood up for the well-being of the country and its people, but in reality pursued only their own selfish interests.

A short excursion into linguistics

Let’s dwell a little longer on the word “Fronde” itself. This is nothing more than the Russian pronunciation of French - Fronde, which means “sling”. This was once the name of a popular children's game, classified as empty and frivolous fun. For the reasons stated above, it is customary to use it in relation to people who verbally show dissatisfaction with the authorities, but are unable to decide on any specific actions.

France mid-17th century

The events that gave impetus to the emergence of this term began to unfold in France starting in the twenties of the 17th century. By this time, most of the country's population, which consisted of peasants, was virtually ruined by wars, exorbitant taxes and looting both from their own army and from a number of enemy hordes. This was the reason for social tension, which resulted in open riots.

According to established tradition, the Fronde is a term that is usually used to describe the speeches of representatives of the highest French aristocracy who tried to use popular discontent for their own personal purposes. At that time, under the young Louis XIV, the government of the state was carried out by his mother, the Austrian, and the first minister, Cardinal Mazarin. Their policies caused discontent not only among the popular masses, but also among the court elite. As a result, an opposition was formed, led by parliament.

Scattered protests of the masses

The confrontation between representatives of the highest strata of power was preceded by popular uprisings. And although a riot is often senseless and merciless, regardless of whether it breaks out in the Orenburg steppes or under the windows of Versailles, in this case the queen and the cardinal were lucky - the matter was limited to only the construction of barricades, and there was no bloodshed. But Anna of Austria had enough of fear and made concessions to the rebels and parliament.

Events took a new turn when in 1648, the Prince of Condé, bribed with generous gifts, took the side of the queen - the recognized hero of the just ended. This desperate adventurer and corrupt warrior surrounded Paris with his troops, which provoked a new outbreak of discontent among the masses, who were in alliance with a whole group of aristocrats took to the streets again.

Court struggle and continuation of the turmoil

The Fronde is precisely what was formed as a result of such a striking misalliance - the union of a poor people and the jaded rich. While the former were quite sincere in their anti-government slogans, the latter tried to extract only personal benefit from what was happening. The main initiators of the unrest - members of parliament - understood this well. Not hoping for help from the aristocracy, they hastened to conclude a peace treaty with the queen, and after that everything temporarily calmed down.

But there was no lasting peace in the country. The same Prince Condé broke the peace. As it turned out, he was consumed by excessive envy of Mazarin and the desire to force the Queen Regent to make political decisions that suited him personally. Lacking the ability to conduct subtle court intrigue, he turned the court against himself with his rude antics and eventually ended up in prison.

Commander in cassock

While the illustrious troublemaker was sitting in a cell at Vincennes Castle, a new rebellion broke out in the country, this time organized by his sister along with the Duke of La Rochefoucauld and a group of aristocrats who hated the cardinal. The main danger for the court was that Princess Condé and her friends, neglecting national interests, attracted the Spaniards, the traditional enemies of France, as their allies. It is not without reason that the opinion has become firmly established that the Fronde is, first of all, a struggle of personal interests.

The cardinal had to leave the service of masses for a while and go at the head of the army to pacify the rebellious regions. He was successful, and soon the bulk of the rebels laid down their arms. Bordeaux resisted government troops the longest, but its defenders also surrendered in July 1650. It should be noted that Mazarin, despite the fact that he was a person of high clergy, knew military affairs very well. Having pacified the rebels, he quickly and competently stopped the advance of the Spaniards advancing to their aid.

Freedom and betrayal of the Prince of Condé

However, after the defeat of the rebels, the Fronde in France did not give up - Mazarin had too many enemies in Paris itself. The aristocrats who hated him and were eager for power entered into an agreement with the parliament, which had been pacified for some time, and created a coalition that demanded that the queen remove Mazarin from power and release Prince Condé from prison. Encouraged by the confusion of Anne of Austria, the frondeurs tried to declare not her, but the Prince of Orleans, as ruler under the young King Louis XIV.

The first two demands were fulfilled, and Prince Condé was released from prison. Once free, he, contrary to the expectations of his former associates, was flattered by the queen’s generous promises and joined her camp. However, having soon found out that the promises of riches were just an empty phrase, he considered himself deceived and immediately went back to the frontiers. Oddly enough, his former friends gladly accepted him - apparently, venality was considered quite normal among them.

A war hated by the people

By this time, the situation in the country was very serious, and the queen’s safety was in real danger. A rebellion began in many cities, provoked by the Prince of Condé and his entourage, and detachments of the Spaniards began another offensive from the south. Events could have taken a very bad turn, but Cardinal Mazarin saved the situation.

Shortly before this, under pressure from parliament demanding his resignation, he left French territory. And now, at the most critical moment, he appeared again, but not alone, but accompanied by a powerful detachment of mercenaries, whom he recruited in Germany. It should be noted that he arrived on time, since Prince Condé and his troops had already entered Paris.

Desperate clashes began on the streets of the French capital and at the city gates. An interesting detail - historical documents indicate that the common people in this case adhered to neutrality, treating both sides of the conflict with equal hostility. Everyone is already tired of the endless and leading nowhere enmity, so old that the reasons that gave rise to it have ceased to be relevant. The Fronde lost the support of the masses and developed into a struggle for power within the state elite.

End of the political game

The actions of the Queen Regent put an end to everything. She temporarily removed the cardinal, who had so irritated the oppositionists, from the capital and announced her readiness to yield to the demands of parliament. This was just another political maneuver, but with its help she attracted former opponents from among the aristocrats to her side. All of them received honorable and warm places in the government. Conde was left alone and soon committed another betrayal, joining the Spanish army.

This ended the notorious front. Briefly summing up what happened, we can say with all confidence that, having begun as an outbreak of mass social protest, this process was drowned in the selfish struggle for power by the highest dignitaries of the state. Despite the scale of the events, everything that happened in France between 1648 and 1653 was determined by the personal interests of a limited circle of people. That is why it is generally accepted that the Fronde is a kind of empty game of politicians fed up with wealth and power.

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Background

“Fronde,” as they began to be called, first jokingly (after a children’s game), and then seriously, began to acquire strong allies. This again made the queen and Mazarin compliant. Meanwhile, Parliament managed to discern that its noble allies were acting from purely personal goals and would not give up betrayal; fears of further radicalization of the struggle also played an important role. Therefore, on March 15, parliament came to a peace agreement with the government, and for a short time the unrest subsided.

Fronde of Princes

But as soon as this agreement was settled, Condé’s enmity and envy towards Mazarin, whose policy he had until then supported, was revealed. Conde behaved so impudently towards not only Mazarin, but also towards the queen that there was an open break between him and the court. At the beginning of 1650, on the orders of Mazarin, Condé and some of his friends were arrested and taken to Vincennes prison.

An internecine war broke out again, this time no longer under the leadership of parliament, but under the direct leadership of Sister Condé, the Duke of La Rochefoucauld and other aristocrats who hated Mazarin. The most dangerous thing for the court was that the frondeurs established relations with Spain (which was then fighting against France).

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). Conde, supported, and Conde 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.

Fronde of the Princes (1650-1653)

Background

Bordeaux remained. However, here too the power of “Orme”, supported by Prince Conti, caused discontent among the city “tops”. Conflicts between “parties” sometimes resulted in armed clashes with the use of artillery. In July 1653, the Orme union was dissolved at the request of the city notables. On August 3, 1653, royal troops entered the city. This was the end

Frondes in France Fronde Fronde(fr.

La fronte

, lit. "sling") - a designation for a number of anti-government unrest that took place in France in 1648-1652. and actually constituted a civil war. During these events, slings were often used by groups of Parisians who broke glass in the houses of supporters of Cardinal Mazarin.

Cardinal Mazarin was an extremely unpopular first minister. He had a lot of court enemies. The Thirty Years' War and the war with Spain, which required huge financial expenditures, created discontent among the population. In 1646, Parliament refused to include in its registers the fiscal projects proposed by Mazarin; At the same time, open uprisings broke out in the south of the country (in Languedoc) and other places. The fiscal trends of Mazarin's policy affected the interests of not only the common people, but also the wealthy urban class. By the beginning of 1648, the situation had become so aggravated that armed clashes broke out in some places on the streets of Paris. In January, February and March, a series of parliamentary meetings took place, which reacted negatively to the financial projects of Queen Regent Anne of Austria and Mazarin.

In the summer of 1648, Mazarin exiled several of his influential enemies. Then the Paris Parliament started talking about limiting government arbitrariness in the matter of imposing new taxes and imprisonment. The success of the English Revolution, already established by the end of the 1640s, contributed to the courage of the French opposition. Nevertheless, the regent ordered (August 26, 1648) to arrest the head of the parliamentary opposition, Brussels, and some other persons. The next day, the Parisian population built about one thousand two hundred barricades. Anna of Austria found herself in the Palais Royal Palace, locked in by a whole system of barricades on the neighboring streets. After two days of negotiations with parliament, the regent, seeing herself in a very critical situation, released Brussels.

In mid-September, she, with Mazarin and her entire family, left Paris for Ruelle. Parliament demanded the king's return to the capital, but this was not done. Nevertheless, deciding to show herself compliant for the time being, Anna signed the “Saint Germain Declaration,” which generally satisfied the most important demands of parliament. In the fall of 1648, part of the troops from the border approached Paris.

The Prince of Condé, the hero of the Thirty Years' War, thanks to the queen's generous gifts, took the side of the government, and Anne (in December 1648) again began to fight against parliament. Conde soon besieged Paris (from where the queen left on January 5, 1649). The Parisian urban population, in alliance with dissatisfied aristocrats (Beaufort, La Rochefoucauld, Gondi, etc.), decided to resist by all means. In Languedoc, Guienne, Poitou, as well as in the north (in Normandy and other places), anti-government unrest began.

“Fronde,” as they began to be called, first jokingly (after a children’s game), and then seriously, began to acquire strong allies. This again made the queen and Mazarin compliant. Meanwhile, Parliament managed to discern that its noble allies were acting for purely personal purposes and would not refuse betrayal. Therefore, on March 15, parliament came to a peace agreement with the government, and for a short time the unrest subsided.

1648–1653 Fronde in France

The era of five years of unrest, which brought France to the brink of civil war, broke out due to the lack of authority of the government of Cardinal Mazarin and Anne of Austria, regent under the young Louis XIV. They pursued an unsuccessful tax policy that outraged the Parisians, whose parliament, an important legislative and judicial body, became the center of unrest. The nobility was also dissatisfied with the authorities, periodically entering into an alliance with the rebellious Parisian parliament. In addition, the country was seething due to constant local revolts - peasants, devastated by the Thirty Years' War, extortions from civil authorities, rebelled, and society was also electrified by the events in England, where the revolution broke out.

At the beginning of 1648, clashes between townspeople and royal officials began in Paris. Then the concept of “Fronde” appeared. This word means “sling” - with the help of these shells, the Parisians began to break the windows of the houses of Mazarin’s supporters. He tried to curb the rioters by force, but in vain. Then the queen and her sons - King Louis XIV and Prince Philippe of Orleans - accompanied by Mazarin, secretly fled from the capital. Having waited for the arrival of the army led by the Prince of Condé, Anna of Austria resumed her fight with parliament. Conde besieged Paris, but the Parisians united with some of the opposing aristocrats, and the parties agreed to a peace agreement. However, Condé immediately came into sharp conflict with Mazarin, who arrested the prince in 1650, after which Condé’s supporters rallied into the front of the princes. Mazarin decisively suppressed the Fronde rebellions in the provinces, especially in Bordeaux, the stronghold of Condé, and defeated the Spaniards, who came to the aid of the Frondeurs. But then the two Frondes - the Parisian and the princes - found a common language and forced Mazarin to flee to Germany and the queen to release Condé. He tried to take a leading position at court, then fled from Paris and began to raise rebellions in the provinces. Mazarin came to Anna's aid with an army of German mercenaries and began to pacify these rebellions. Condé entered the capital, clashes between his soldiers and the royal soldiers began on the streets - but with the complete indifference of the Parisians, who had become tired of all this turmoil and the times of Mazarin began to seem peaceful and calm. Deputations began to be sent to the queen, persuading the court to return to Paris, Condé's allies fled from him. Finally, in the fall of 1652, the prince left Paris and joined the Spaniards who were helping the frondeurs. The royal family returned to Paris, the previously repealed tax decrees, which had caused outrage among Parisians, were restored, and parliament showed humility. Mazarin successfully drove out the Spaniards, and the Fronde ended with the general humiliation of parliament and the aristocracy, and the Frondeurs became the laughing stock of the people. The path was cleared for the absolutism of Louis XIV; the English version of events did not happen.

1653 Knighton; Holmes: "Mutiny"; SR; P.53; Dean.