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The Fronde
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The Fronde
The Fronde (French pronunciation: [fʁɔ̃d] ⓘ) was 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 noble regional court assemblies (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.
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.
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. 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.
The French word fronde means "sling"; Parisian crowds used slings to smash the windows of supporters of Cardinal Mazarin. Jean François Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz, attributes the usage to a witticism in Book II of his Memoirs: "Bachaumont once said, in jest, that the Parlement acted like the schoolboys in the Paris ditches, who fling stones [frondent, that is, fling using slings], and run away when they see the constable, but meet again as soon as he turns his back." He goes on to state that emblems based on that nickname became quite popular and were placed on hats, fans and gloves and even were baked onto bread.
The insurrection did not start with revolutionary goals but aimed to protect the ancient liberties from royal encroachments and to defend the established rights of the parlements – courts of appeal rather than legislative bodies like the English parliaments – and especially the right of the Parlement of Paris to limit the king's power by refusing to register decrees that ran against custom. The liberties under attack were feudal, not of individuals but of chartered towns, where they defended the prerogatives accorded to offices in the legal patchwork of local interests and provincial identities that was France. The Fronde in the end provided an incentive for the establishment of royalist absolutism, since the disorders eventually discredited the feudal concept of liberty.
The pressure that saw the traditional liberties under threat came in the form of extended and increased taxes as the Crown needed to recover from its expenditures in the recent wars. The costs of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) constrained Mazarin's government to raise funds by traditional means, the impôts, the taille, and the occasional aides. The nobility refused to be so taxed, based on their old liberties, or privileges, and the brunt fell upon the bourgeoisie.
The movement soon degenerated into factions, some of which attempted to overthrow Mazarin and to reverse the policies of his predecessor, Cardinal Richelieu (in office 1624–1642), who had taken power for the crown from great territorial nobles, some of whom became leaders of the Fronde. When Louis XIV became king in 1643, he was only a child, so France was ruled by Anne of Austria and though Richelieu had died the year before, his policies continued to dominate French life under his successor Cardinal Mazarin. Most historians consider that Louis's later insistence on absolutist rule and depriving the nobility of actual power was a result of those events in his childhood. The term frondeur was later used to refer to anyone who suggested that the power of the king should be limited and has now passed into conservative French usage to refer to anyone who shows insubordination or engages in criticism of the powers in place.
In May 1648 a tax levied on judicial officers of the Parlement of Paris provoked not merely a refusal to pay but also a condemnation of earlier financial edicts and a demand for the acceptance of a scheme of constitutional reforms framed by a united committee of the parlement (the Chambre Saint-Louis), composed of members of all the sovereign courts of Paris.
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The Fronde
The Fronde (French pronunciation: [fʁɔ̃d] ⓘ) was 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 noble regional court assemblies (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.
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.
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. 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.
The French word fronde means "sling"; Parisian crowds used slings to smash the windows of supporters of Cardinal Mazarin. Jean François Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz, attributes the usage to a witticism in Book II of his Memoirs: "Bachaumont once said, in jest, that the Parlement acted like the schoolboys in the Paris ditches, who fling stones [frondent, that is, fling using slings], and run away when they see the constable, but meet again as soon as he turns his back." He goes on to state that emblems based on that nickname became quite popular and were placed on hats, fans and gloves and even were baked onto bread.
The insurrection did not start with revolutionary goals but aimed to protect the ancient liberties from royal encroachments and to defend the established rights of the parlements – courts of appeal rather than legislative bodies like the English parliaments – and especially the right of the Parlement of Paris to limit the king's power by refusing to register decrees that ran against custom. The liberties under attack were feudal, not of individuals but of chartered towns, where they defended the prerogatives accorded to offices in the legal patchwork of local interests and provincial identities that was France. The Fronde in the end provided an incentive for the establishment of royalist absolutism, since the disorders eventually discredited the feudal concept of liberty.
The pressure that saw the traditional liberties under threat came in the form of extended and increased taxes as the Crown needed to recover from its expenditures in the recent wars. The costs of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) constrained Mazarin's government to raise funds by traditional means, the impôts, the taille, and the occasional aides. The nobility refused to be so taxed, based on their old liberties, or privileges, and the brunt fell upon the bourgeoisie.
The movement soon degenerated into factions, some of which attempted to overthrow Mazarin and to reverse the policies of his predecessor, Cardinal Richelieu (in office 1624–1642), who had taken power for the crown from great territorial nobles, some of whom became leaders of the Fronde. When Louis XIV became king in 1643, he was only a child, so France was ruled by Anne of Austria and though Richelieu had died the year before, his policies continued to dominate French life under his successor Cardinal Mazarin. Most historians consider that Louis's later insistence on absolutist rule and depriving the nobility of actual power was a result of those events in his childhood. The term frondeur was later used to refer to anyone who suggested that the power of the king should be limited and has now passed into conservative French usage to refer to anyone who shows insubordination or engages in criticism of the powers in place.
In May 1648 a tax levied on judicial officers of the Parlement of Paris provoked not merely a refusal to pay but also a condemnation of earlier financial edicts and a demand for the acceptance of a scheme of constitutional reforms framed by a united committee of the parlement (the Chambre Saint-Louis), composed of members of all the sovereign courts of Paris.
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