CONDE, Louis DE BOURBON, Prince de, was b. 7th May, 1530, and first distinguished himself under marshal Brissac. In the dissensions between the houses of Guise and Bourbon. C. was the soul of his party, which was for the most part Calvinistic or Huguenot. It was he who directed the conspiracy of Amboise, which had for its aim the banishment of the Guises, and the capture of Francis II. On its discovery, he fled to his brother at Nerac, and there projected a plan for securing possession of all the large towns of France, which, however, miscarried, and C. himself was taken prisoner, and condemned to be executed; from which fate he was luckily saved by the opportune death of the king. On the accession of Charles IX. to the throne, C. obtained his liberty and the governorship of Picardy; but the harsh treatment which the Iluguenots in general received, drove him into rebellion; and on the 11th of April, 1562, he com menced a civil war by the capture of Orleans, Rouen, and other places. Defeated and taken prisoner at the battle of Dreux, in the same year; he was employed by the victors in concluding a treaty of peace, which lasted only a short time. C. recommenced hos
tilities by a daring but unsuccessful attempt to possess himself of the person of his sovereign (28th Sept., 1567). After the battle of St. Denis, 10th Nov., 1567, a second peace was concluded; but having reason to believe that Catharine de' Medici was against his liberty, he once more renewed the war against the Catholic party, in the beginning of 1569, and was again defeated and taken prisoner at the battle of Jarnac, 13th Mar. of the same year. While his wounds were being dressed on the field, a captain of the Swiss guard, named 3Iontesquieu, approached, and shot him through the head. C. was of a joyous and amorous disposition. His gallantries were far from being in accordance with the austere character of the religion he professed, and it cannot be doubted that the feeling of political rivalry to the house of Lorraine, which animated the Bourbon family, explains the career of C. quite as much as his religious convictions.