FRONDE

(frond), a French party during the minority of Louis XIV, which waged civil war against the Court party on account of the heavy fiscal impositions laid on the people by Cardinal Mazarin, whom the queen mother had appointed Prime Minister after the decease of Louis XIII (1648)At the head of the Fronde stood the Cardinal de Retz (q.yv.), and afterwards the Prince Louis Condé. The result of this contest, which lasted from 1648 to 1654, served only to strengthen the royal power. The name is from Fr. fronde, ‘a sling,’ a member of the Parliament having likened the party to boys slinging stones in the streets, who dispersed on the appears ance of the authorities.—Cf. G. S. Gordon, The Fronde.