Fronde, a political faction in France which headed an insurrectionary movement during the latter part of the minority of Louis XIV. The name of frondeurs, which means literally slingers, was applied to its members in derision; in their sneering and flippant attacks upon Cardinal Mazarin they were said to resemble boys throwing stones from slings. But the name, though given in derision, was soon accepted by those to whom it was applied. The long and powerful rule of Richelieu had completed the work of centralizing all the power of France in the hands of the royal government, and finally broken the might of the independent families in the kingdom. The spirit of opposition, which was crushed in its last conspiracies, revived under his feebler successor, Mazarin, who was hated by the nobles as a foreigner and friend of foreigners, and by the people for his extortions. The movement assumed a warlike aspect in 1648, when Mazarin declared the decrees of parliament, which had acted as an independent political body, to be attempts upon the rights of the crown, and arrested the president and one of the members. The next day the people of Paris rose in arms, dispersed the Swiss guards, and erected barricades in the streets adjoining the royal palace.

The frightened court repealed the recently imposed taxes and promised a better administration of justice. This still more encouraged the frondeurs of the parliament, whose continued opposition finally compelled the court to retire to St. Germain (Jan. 6,1649). Paris was now in the hands of the insurgents, and Prince Louis Conde at the head of 7,000 men undertook to besiege it. The parliament called the people of the city to arms; the prince of Conti, the dukes of Longueville, Beaufort, Orleans, Bouillon, Elbeuf, Vendome, and Nemours, the marshal de la Mothe, and the popular De Retz, came forward as their leaders; spirited and beautiful ladies, among whom the duchess de Longueville was the most conspicuous, inspired their courage; and foreign aid was expected from the Netherlands. But the leaders of the movement, having it in their power to change it into a complete revolution like that which had just been achieved in England, became afraid of the consequences of their own victory, and hastened to conclude (March 11) a treaty with the court at Ruel. The subsequent phases of the Fronde were composed of intrigues and contentions for power between the princes of the blood and the cardinal-minister. After the return of the court to the capital (Aug. 18), Mazarin again used violence, and had Longueville and the princes of Conde and Conti arrested (Jan. 18, 1650). This caused risings in the provinces, and Marshal Turenne hastened to the rescue of the princes; but after several advantages he was routed in the engagement of Rethel (Dec. 15). The triumphant minister could not long enjoy his success; the united opposition of all parties compelled Queen Anne to release the princes, and to sacrifice Mazarin, who withdrew to Cologne (February, 1651). Anne recalled her minister when the leaders of the insurrection, Conde and Conti, were quarrelling, and Conde fled, repaired to Bordeaux, armed his numerous adherents, and marched toward the capital; but Turenne now commanded against him, and Conde would have been routed near Paris (July 2, 1652) if the gates of the city had not been thrown open to him.

Paris, however, tired of commotions, treated with the court, which had withdrawn, and Louis promised an amnesty and the dismissal of the hated minister. Conde, having received a reenforcement of 12,000 men from Lorraine, rejected the propositions, and marched into Champagne; but finding no adherents, he went over to the Spaniards in the Netherlands. Louis XIV., having returned to his capital (Oct. 21), proscribed Conde, and forbade all political action on the part of the parliament. Mazarin also returned triumphantly (Feb. 3,1653) to his post. Many who had distinguished themselves in the parliament or under Conde were temporarily banished, and the movement in the provinces soon subsided. It is noteworthy that a number of women were the leading spirits of this faction, and that everything was done with unparalleled frivolity, which gave to the whole war rather a ridiculous aspect. Count Saint-Aulaire undertakes in his Hutoire de la Fronde (2 vols., Paris, 1841) to present it as a genuine attempt at obtaining a constitutional monarchy.

See also Barante, Le parlement et la Fronde (1850), and The Great Cond6 and the Period of the Fronde," by Walter Fitzpatrick (2 vols., London, 1873).