Louis, Prince of Condé (1530–1569)

Coat-of-arms of Louis, Prince of Condé.

Born in Vendôme, he was the fifth son of Charles de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme.[1] His mother was Françoise d'Alençon, the eldest daughter of René, Duke of Alençon, and Margaret of Lorraine.[2] His older brother Antoine de Bourbon married Jeanne d'Albret (Queen of Navarre). [3] Their son, Condé's nephew, became Henry IV of France. Condé's cousin, through his father - who was the brother of Antoinette de Bourbon - was Mary of Guise.

As a soldier in the French army, Condé fought at the Siege of Metz in 1552,[4] when Francis, Duke of Guise successfully defended the city from the forces of Emperor Charles V, and again at the Battle of St. Quentin in 1557.[4]

Whilst returning from a campaign in Italy, Louis stopped in Geneva to hear a sermon.[5] After his conversion to Protestantism, he is suspected to have become involved in the Conspiracy of Amboise in 1560,[lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2][6] a plot by the Huguenots and members of the House of Bourbon to abduct the adolescent King Francis II and usurp the power of the House of Guise, who were the leaders of the Catholic party. The plot failed, leading to the massacre of many Huguenots.[7] Condé was arrested in late October 1560,[8] but later released 20 December 1560, upon the King's death.[9][10]

On 2 April 1562, Condé, commanding a Huguenot army, captured Orléans, with it he issued a draft stating that King Charles IX was being held hostage by the House of Guise.[11] However, Queen-mother Catherine de' Medici proclaimed she and her son were not hostages and that Condé's actions were unlawful and constituted a rebellion.[11] Condé was captured at the battle of Dreux in 1562.[12] At Orléans, the duke of Guise was assassinated, and when the Queen's fears that the war might drag on led her to negotiate a truce, Condé negotiated the Peace of Amboise with the Catholic party in 1563, which gave the Huguenots some religious toleration.[13] In the Battle of Jarnac, Louis I de Bourbon, prince de Condé was killed after his surrender[14] and his body paraded on a donkey in Jarnac, to Catholic jeers.

His son, Henri, also became a Huguenot general.[15]

Louis Condé is played by British actor Sean Teale in the TV show Reign. He has an affair with Mary, Queen of Scots and leads a coup against the monarchy.[18]

• Bourbon family tree
• Château de Condé

• de Boislisle, A. (1902). "Trois Princes de Conde: A Chantilly". Annuaire-Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de France (in French). 39 (2).
• Holt, Mack P. (1999). The French Wars of Religion, 1562-1629. Cambridge University Press.
• Knecht, R.J. (1989). The French Wars of Religion, 1559-1598. Longman.
• Knecht, R.J. (2000). The French Civil Wars. Pearson Education Limited.
• Mullett, Michael (2010). Historical Dictionary of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. Scarecrow Press.
• Potter, David (1995). Keen, Maurice (ed.). A History of France, 1460–1560: The Emergence of a Nation State. Macmillan.
• Strage, Mark (1976). Women of Power: The Life and Times of Catherine de' Medici. Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich.
• Tucker, Spencer C., ed. (2010). "March 13, 1569:Battle of Jarnac". A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East. ABC-CLIO.