Conde Louisde Bourbon

Conde, Louis de Bourbon, Prince of, founder of the house of Conde, was the younger brother of Anthony, King of Navarre, and was born in 1530. Though deformed, he was yet extremely brave, and adopted a military career. After distinguishing himself in the wars between Henry II. and Charles V., he joined the Huguenots, who were struggling for state recognition, and was implicated in the conspiracy of Amboise of 1560, which aimed at the subversion of the power of the Guises. On the failure of the plot Conde escaped execution only through the death of the king, and the assumption of the regency by Catherine de' Medici. The massacre of 200 Huguenots in 1562, at Vassy, by Duke Francis of Guise, led to the first civil war, Conde and Coligny enrolling an army of Huguenots. Defeated and taken prisoner at Dreux, Conde was liberated under the pacification of Amboise in 1563. In 1567, however, the concessions granted by the pacification were revoked, and the second Huguenot war broke out. At the battle of Jarnac in 1569 Conde again suffered defeat, and on yielding his sword to the enemy, a Catholic officer, Baron de Montesquieu, treacherously shot him.