DUQUESNE

_DUQUESNE (di-kan), Abraham, French admiral, born 1610, died 1688. In his seventeenth year he was in the sea-fight off Rochelle, and distinguished himself during and after the year 1637 in the war against Spain. In 1647 he commanded the expedition against Naples. In the Sicilian War he thrice defeated the combined fleets of Holland and Spain, under the renowned De Ruyter. After he had reduced Algiers and Genoa, Louis XIV conferred upon him the fine estate of Bouchet, and made it a marquisate, with the title of Duquesne. He was a Protestant, and the only person exempted from the banishment of his sect, occasioned by the repeal of the Edict of Nantes.