Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum
   You are in: Museum of History >> Hall of North and South Americans >> Louis de Bnade Frontenac





The Seven Flags of the New Orleans Tri-Centennial 1718-2018

For more information go to New Orleans 300th Birthday

 

Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited by James Grant Wilson, John Fiske and Stanley L. Klos. Six volumes, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887-1889 and 1999. Virtualology.com warns that these 19th Century biographies contain errors and bias. We rely on volunteers to edit the historic biographies on a continual basis. If you would like to edit this biography please submit a rewritten biography in text form . If acceptable, the new biography will be published above the 19th Century Appleton's Cyclopedia Biography citing the volunteer editor




Virtual American Biographies

Over 30,000 personalities with thousands of 19th Century illustrations, signatures, and exceptional life stories. Virtualology.com welcomes editing and additions to the biographies. To become this site's editor or a contributor Click Here or e-mail Virtualology here.



A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

 



Louis de Bnade Frontenac

FRONTENAC, Louis de Bnade, Comte de, governor of New France, born in France in 1620; do in Quebec in 1698. His father held a high post in the household of Louis XIII., who became the child's godfather." At fifteen, young Louis, who had shown an uncontrollable passion for military life, was sent to serve in Holland, under the Prince of Orange. He distinguished himself in various battles and sieges, and at twenty-three was made colonel of the regiment of Normandy. Three years later, after being several times wounded, he was raised to the rank of brigadier. He soon afterward became enamored of Mademoiselle de la Grange Trianon, and married her at Paris in spite of the opposition of her relatives. Madame de Prontenac conceived an aversion for her husband, who was self-willed and violent, and she presently left him to follow the fortunes of the famous Mademoiselle de Montpensier. Being, however, almost as willful as Frontenac himself, she at last quarreled with the princess, and was dismissed from her service. A partial reconciliation followed between her husband and her self.

In 1672, having gained a high military reputation, Frontenac was made governor of Canada, with all the other countries thus included under the name of New France. Some say that he sought the appointment because he could not endure his wife" others, that his wife, unable to tolerate him, used her influence at court to send him into an honorable banishment" others, again, that the king, jealous of his attentions to Madame de Montespan, who is said to have smiled upon him, sent him to Canada to get rid of a rival. On arriving at Quebec he proceeded to model his government after the old feudal pattern. This revival of bygone liberties excited the ire of Louis XIV., and Frontenac was sharply rebuked. He next quarreled with the Jesuits, then all-powerful in Canada, and soon afterward fell into a dispute with Perrot, the governor of Montreal, whom he charged with insubordination, rebellion, and unlawful trade in furs. This brought him into collision with the priests of St. Sulpiee, feudal proprietors of Montreal, and scenes ensued that were more lively than edifying. He had thus far ruled alone, but the court now sent him a colleague in the person of Duchesneau.

The government of Canada was of a dual nature" the governor held the place of honor anti the military command, while the civil administration was the proper function of the intendant, who was designed as a check, and even as a spy, upon his military partner. Hence their relations were always critical, and on this occasion they quarreled bitterly. Duchesneau sought support from the bishop and the priests. Frontenac set at defiance intendant, bishop, and ecclesiastics alike. Sometimes the contest was for precedence at Church and in public ceremonies" sometimes it took the form of charges of mal-administration and mutual accusations of illegal trade in furs, accusations well founded on both sides.

Rebukes and warnings proving useless, the king in 1682 recalled both contestants. In spite of his outrageous temper, Frontenac had shown great abilities and gained the confidence of the Canadian people; for, while quarrelling with those in power, he was considerate and friendly toward the humbler classes of the colonists. In his dealings with the Indians he mingled haughtiness with conciliation, and showed an extraordinary power of commanding both their respect and their affection. Never, probably, was any white man at once so much feared and loved by them.

Le Febvre de la Barre, followed by the Marquis de Denonville, succeeded him. The government of the former was disastrous to the colony, and that of the latter brought it to the brink of ruin. Denonville waged against the Iroquois a war meant to humble, but which served only to enrage them. In 1689 they descended in force on the colony, burned and ravaged all the upper part of the Island of Montreal, threatened the town itself, and spread blood and havoc everywhere. Canada seemed paralyzed, and terror turned almost to despair when it became known that war with England had begun, and that both white men and red men were arming for her destruction.

Since his recall Frontenac had lived in France, poor and half forgotten. The crisis drew him from his obscurity. It was plain that he, and he alone, was the man for the hour. He was summoned before the king and charged once more with the government of New France. In spite of his sixty-nine years, he did not hesitate, accepted the burden and the peril, sailed for the St. Lawrence, and, reaching Quebec, found the whole colony plunged in dejection and distress. The first necessity was to revive the courage of the colonists and impose respect on the haughty and triumphant Iroquois. To these ends he sent three war parties' of French and Indians against the English borders. The first advanced on snowshoes, in the dead of winter, against Schenectady, approached it toward midnight during a snowstorm, entered it undiscovered, roused the sleeping villagers with the war whoop, killed sixty on the spot, captured ninety, and burned the place to the ground. The second party, after toiling for three months in the snow clogged forests, fell by night on the hamlet of Salmon Falls, and surprised, captured, and destroyed it. The third attacked a small wooden fort that stood within the limits of what is now the City of Portland, Maine, and, after an obstinate defense, captured and burned it.

These successes compelled the respect of the Iroquois, but were far from daunting the English. On the contrary, they roused them to reprisals that placed Canada in imminent danger. Sir William Phips sailed up the St. Lawrence with thirty-two vessels and twenty-two hundred men, anchored before Quebec, and sent an officer with a summons to surrender. Frontenac received him in the hall of the Chateau St. Louis, and, enraged by his peremptory tone, the fiery old man bade him return whence he came, and tell those who sent him that his cannon should give them his answer.

Phips opened fire, but, as his guns were light, his ammunition scanty, and the fortifications of Quebec, from their lofty position, impregnable to artillery from the River, the bombardment did little harm. At the same time he landed fifteen hundred men below the town, but, after spirited efforts, they were unable to cross the River St. Charles, and were forced to re-embark.

Frontenae triumphed, and Phips retired discomfited. Meanwhile the governor did not neglect his Indian allies, and, at a grand council of the friendly tribes, took up a hatchet, brandished it in the air, and sang the war song, his officers following his example. The Christian Indians of the neighboring missions rose and joined them, and so also did the Hurons and the Algonquins of Lake Nipissing, stamping and screeching like a troop of ,had men, while Frontenac led the dance, whooping like the rest. The delighted savages, roused to martial frenzy, promised war to the death, and several years of conflict followed.

The sufferings of the colony, infested by Iroquois war parties, were extreme. The fur trade, which formed its only resource for subsistence, was completely cut off, and a great accumulation of furs remained in the trading posts of the upper lakes, prevented from descending by the watchful enemy. At length, after three years of destitution and misery, Frontenac broke the blockade of the Ottawa; the coveted treasure came safely to Montreal, and the colonists hailed him as their father and deliverer.

In 1696, when seventy-six years old, he led in person an invasion of the Iroquois country. At his approach the warriors burned their chief town, Onondaga, and fled into the forests. After destroying the town of Oneida the expedition returned. The Iroquois were never again a peril to the colony, which, during the past half century, they had repeatedly threatened with destruction. But Frontenac was near his end. Overcome at last by age, toils, and passions, he closed his stormy life in 1698, beloved by the Canadian peasantry and hated by the ecclesiastics, except always, his favorites and proteges, the Recollet friars. With all his faults, he had done priceless service to the colony, and his name stands in its annals as that of the most remarkable man who ever represented the crown of France in America.

Edited Appletons Encyclopedia, Copyright © 2001 VirtualologyTM

Start your search on Louis de Bnade Frontenac.


 

 


 


Unauthorized Site: This site and its contents are not affiliated, connected, associated with or authorized by the individual, family, friends, or trademarked entities utilizing any part or the subject's entire name. Any official or affiliated sites that are related to this subject will be hyper linked below upon submission and Evisum, Inc. review.

Copyright© 2000 by Evisum Inc.TM. All rights reserved.
Evisum Inc.TM Privacy Policy

Search:

About Us

 

 

Image Use

Please join us in our mission to incorporate The Congressional Evolution of the United States of America discovery-based curriculum into the classroom of every primary and secondary school in the United States of America by July 2, 2026, the nation’s 250th birthday. , the United States of America: We The People Click Here

 

Historic Documents

Articles of Association

Articles of Confederation 1775

Articles of Confederation

Article the First

Coin Act

Declaration of Independence

Declaration of Independence

Emancipation Proclamation

Gettysburg Address

Monroe Doctrine

Northwest Ordinance

No Taxation Without Representation

Thanksgiving Proclamations

Mayflower Compact

Treaty of Paris 1763

Treaty of Paris 1783

Treaty of Versailles

United Nations Charter

United States In Congress Assembled

US Bill of Rights

United States Constitution

US Continental Congress

US Constitution of 1777

US Constitution of 1787

Virginia Declaration of Rights

 

Historic Events

Battle of New Orleans

Battle of Yorktown

Cabinet Room

Civil Rights Movement

Federalist Papers

Fort Duquesne

Fort Necessity

Fort Pitt

French and Indian War

Jumonville Glen

Manhattan Project

Stamp Act Congress

Underground Railroad

US Hospitality

US Presidency

Vietnam War

War of 1812

West Virginia Statehood

Woman Suffrage

World War I

World War II

 

Is it Real?



Declaration of
Independence

Digital Authentication
Click Here

 

America’s Four Republics
The More or Less United States

 
Continental Congress
U.C. Presidents

Peyton Randolph

Henry Middleton

Peyton Randolph

John Hancock

  

Continental Congress
U.S. Presidents

John Hancock

Henry Laurens

John Jay

Samuel Huntington

  

Constitution of 1777
U.S. Presidents

Samuel Huntington

Samuel Johnston
Elected but declined the office

Thomas McKean

John Hanson

Elias Boudinot

Thomas Mifflin

Richard Henry Lee

John Hancock
[
Chairman David Ramsay]

Nathaniel Gorham

Arthur St. Clair

Cyrus Griffin

  

Constitution of 1787
U.S. Presidents

George Washington 

John Adams
Federalist Party


Thomas Jefferson
Republican* Party

James Madison 
Republican* Party

James Monroe
Republican* Party

John Quincy Adams
Republican* Party
Whig Party

Andrew Jackson
Republican* Party
Democratic Party


Martin Van Buren
Democratic Party

William H. Harrison
Whig Party

John Tyler
Whig Party

James K. Polk
Democratic Party

David Atchison**
Democratic Party

Zachary Taylor
Whig Party

Millard Fillmore
Whig Party

Franklin Pierce
Democratic Party

James Buchanan
Democratic Party


Abraham Lincoln 
Republican Party

Jefferson Davis***
Democratic Party

Andrew Johnson
Republican Party

Ulysses S. Grant 
Republican Party

Rutherford B. Hayes
Republican Party

James A. Garfield
Republican Party

Chester Arthur 
Republican Party

Grover Cleveland
Democratic Party

Benjamin Harrison
Republican Party

Grover Cleveland 
Democratic Party

William McKinley
Republican Party

Theodore Roosevelt
Republican Party

William H. Taft 
Republican Party

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic Party

Warren G. Harding 
Republican Party

Calvin Coolidge
Republican Party

Herbert C. Hoover
Republican Party

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic Party

Harry S. Truman
Democratic Party

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican Party

John F. Kennedy
Democratic Party

Lyndon B. Johnson 
Democratic Party 

Richard M. Nixon 
Republican Party

Gerald R. Ford 
Republican Party

James Earl Carter, Jr. 
Democratic Party

Ronald Wilson Reagan 
Republican Party

George H. W. Bush
Republican Party 

William Jefferson Clinton
Democratic Party

George W. Bush 
Republican Party

Barack H. Obama
Democratic Party

Please Visit

Forgotten Founders
Norwich, CT

Annapolis Continental
Congress Society


U.S. Presidency
& Hospitality

© Stan Klos

 

 

 

 


Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum