Condé, LOUIS II. DE BOURBON, PRINCE OF, known as 'the Great Condé,' was born September 8, 1621. Carefully educated by the Jesuits in their college at Bourges, Condé acquired a taste for literature, which he retained all through his life. In his seventeenth year he was introduced at court, and the year following was intrusted by his father with his government of Burgundy. By his marriage, much against his will, to the niece of Richelieu, he gained the support of that minister, and for a time of Richelieu's successor, Mazarin. At this period the Thirty Years' War was still raging, and since 1635 France had been engaged in a protracted struggle with Spain. In 1643, when he was only twenty-two, Condé was appointed to the chief command of the French forces, and in his first campaign defeated the Spaniards at Rocroi in the most brilliant of all his victories. As for more than a century the Spanish armies had been deemed all but invincible, this victory placed Condé at once in the first rank of commanders. In 1644, with his great rival Turenne as his subordinate, in a series of engagements he inflicted at Freiburg a severe check on the Bavarian general, Mercy; and in the following year again defeated the same general at Nordlingen. These successes were gained at an immense cost of life, and in the matter of strategical skill have been disapproved by subsequent military authorities. By the death of his father in 1646, Condé, who had hitherto been known as the Due d'Enghien, became the head of the house, and was thenceforth addressed as Monsieur le Prince. The capture of Dunkirk in 1646, and a great victory at Lens in 1648, in which the famous Spanish infantry were again completely beaten, were the other achievements of Condé during this the first period of his career. The war of the Fronde, occasioned by the quarrels of the court and the parliament, had now broken out, and Condé was required to support the power of the queen and Mazarin. With the aid of Condé the court party came to terms with the Fronde; but Condé himself, who after this service expected to be chief in the state, gave such offence to the queen and Mazarin by his arrogant conduct, that they had himself and his brothers arrested and imprisoned for a year at Vincennes, a proceeding approved alike by the Fronde and the people of Paris. Popular feeling, however, soon changed in his favour, and grew so strong against Mazarin that he was forced to leave Paris and set Condé at liberty. But Mazarin's power over the queen was still absolute, and Condé, disappointed once more in his ambition, and finding the queen, Fronde, and people once more all against him, retired to Guienne, and raised an army on the plea of rescuing the young king, Louis XIV., from bad advisers. Thus began what is known as the third war of the Fronde. At Blenau he defeated the royal troops, but was at length forced by Turenne to make for Paris. Here in the Faubourg St Antoine he sustained a defeat which deprived him of all hope of ultimate success, and a peace was concluded in 1653. The terms of this peace, however, were such as Condé would not accept, and deprived of all support in France, he went over to Spain, and for six years served in all the campaigns against his country. Hampered in his action by the Spanish generals, he could effect little against the strategy of Turenne. The battle of the Dunes, near Dunkirk, where Turenne, aided by 6000 of Cromwell's Ironsides, inflicted a severe defeat on the Spaniards, put an end to the war. At the peace of the Pyrenees (1659) which followed, it was said that the affairs of Condé were more difficult to settle than those of Europe. So formidable was he deemed, that the young king found it advisable to restore him to all his honours and estates, and even to his government of Burgundy. Retiring to his estate at Chantilly, Condé remained here till his services were required in another war between France and Spain, when at his suggestion and by his action, Franche Comté was overrun and conquered (1668). The next year, on the resignation of Casimir, king of Poland, Condé would probably have been chosen his successor but for the jealousy of Louis. In 1674 he fought his last battle. This was at Seneffe in Belgium, where he had for his opponent William, Prince of Orange. The battle lasted seventeen hours, and both sides claimed the victory. On the death of Turenne in 1675, Condé succeeded him in the command of the army on the Rhine, but his health was now such as to render him unfit for active service. Retiring again to Chantilly, he lived there till his death on 11th December 1686, associating much with the great men of letters of the period, Molière, Racine, Boileau, and La Bruyère. Condé had all his life been noted as a scoffing at religion, but the year before his death he publicly announced his conversion. He took especial pleasure in the society of Bossuet, whose oration on his death, regarded as one of the masterpieces of French literature, has served ever since to throw a deceptive lustre round the name of Condé. He had no political genius, and even as a commander he owed his successes more to the fiery energy of his character than to sheer military talent. There is no ground to suppose that in his public career he was influenced by any other motive than selfish ambition; and in his private character, though he could on occasion display a certain magnanimity, he was in intense degree self-willed and overbearing. When all deductions have been made, however, Condé still remains in the first rank of the Frenchmen of his century.
See Mahon's Life of Condé, Fitzpatrick's The Great Condé and the Period of the Fronde: Histoire des Princes de Condé, by the Due d'Aumale (7 vols. 1862-95); also the various Mémoires of the period, such as those of Cardinal de Retz, Madame de Motteville, &c.