François de Vendôme, duc de Beaufort (16 January 1616 – 25 June 1669)^[1] was the son ofCésar, Duke of Vendôme, andFrançoise de Lorraine. He was a prominent figure in theFronde, and later went on to fight in the Mediterranean. He is sometimes calledFrançois de Vendôme, though he was born into theHouse of Bourbon, Vendôme coming from his father's title ofDuke of Vendôme.

François de Vendôme
Duke of Beaufort
Portrait byJean Nocret
Born	(1616-01-16)16 January 1616 Château de Coucy,Picardy,France
Died	25 June 1669(1669-06-25) (aged 53) Candia,Crete
Names François de Bourbon
House	Bourbon-Vendôme
Father	César de Bourbon
Mother	Françoise de Lorraine

In March 1665 he led a small fleet which defeated a small Algerian fleet near the Goletta, Tunisia (Action of March 1665). In 1669 he led the newly arrived French troopsdefending Candia against theOttoman Turks, and was presumed to have been killed in a nightsortie, on 25 June 1669. His body was brought back to France for a state funeral.

François was the second son of César de Vendôme and Françoise of Lorrain-Mercoeur.^[2] His father was an illegitimate son of KingHenry IV of France by his mistress,Gabrielle d'Estrées.^[3] He began his career in the army and served in the first campaigns of theThirty Years' War, but his ambitions and unscrupulous character soon found a more congenial field in the intrigues of the court. In 1642 he joined in the conspiracy ofCinq Mars againstCardinal Richelieu, and upon its failure was obliged to live in exile in England until Richelieu's death.^[4]

Returning to France, Beaufort became the centre of a group, known as the "cabale des Importants", in which court ladies predominated, especially theDuchess of Chevreuse and theDuchess of Montbazon [fr]. For an instant after the king's death, this group seemed likely to prevail, and Beaufort to be the head of the new government.Cardinal Mazarin gained the office, and Beaufort, accused of a plot to murder Mazarin, was imprisoned in Vincennes, in September 1643.^[4]

Beaufort escaped from prison on 31 May 1648, just in time to jointhe Fronde, which began in August 1648. He was then with Parliament and the princes, against Mazarin. His personal appearance, his affectation of popular manners, and his status as a grandson (legitimized) ofHenry IV rendered him a favourite of the Parisians, who acclaimed him everywhere. He was known as theRoi des Halles ("king of the markets"), and popular subscriptions were opened to pay his debts. He had hopes of becoming prime minister. But among the members of Parliament and the other leaders of the Fronde, he was regarded as merely a tool. His intelligence was but mediocre, and he showed no talent during the war.^[4]

He killed his sister's husband,Charles-Amédée of Savoy, in a duel in 1652.^[5]

Mazarin, on his return to Paris, exiled Beaufort in October 1652; and he was only allowed to return in 1654, when the cardinal had no longer any reason to fear him. Thenceforth Beaufort no longer intrigued. In 1658 he was named general superintendent of navigation, or chief of the naval army, and faithfully served the king in naval wars from that on. In 1664 he directed theexpedition against the pirates of Algiers. In 1669, during thesiege of Candia he led the French troops defending Candia against the Turks, and was killed in a night sortie, on 25 June 1669. His body was brought back to France with great pomp, and official honours rendered it.^[4]

Beaufort is one of the characters ofTwenty Years After andThe Vicomte de Bragelonne,Alexandre Dumas's sequels toThe Three Musketeers. The first book chronicles his escape on Whitsunday - plotted byAthos - and lampoons his tendency to uttermalapropisms.

He also appears inLe Roi Soleil, a French musical which opened in Paris in 2005 where he was played byMerwan Rim. Beaufort is also one of the main characters in the trilogy "Secret d'État", by French novelistJuliette Benzoni.

• Commire, Anne; Klezmer, Deborah (2001).Women in world history: a biographical encyclopedia. Vol. 10. p. 388.
• Ladurie, Emmanuel Le Roy (2001).Saint-Simon and the Court of Louis XIV. Translated by Goldhammer, Arthur. University of Chicago Press.
• Orr, Clarissa Campbell, ed. (2004).Queenship in Europe 1660-1815: The Role of the Consort. Cambridge University Press.

Attribution:

•   This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911), "Beaufort, François de Vendôme",Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 3 (11th ed.), Cambridge University Press, p. 586 Endnotes:
  • See the memoirs of the time, notably those of La Rochefoucauld, the Cardinal de Retz, and Madame de Motteville.
  • D'Avenel Richelieuet la monarchie absolue (1884);
  • Chéruel,La France sous le ministère de Mazarin (1879)
  • La Francesous la minorité de Louis XIV (1882).