Louis de Buade de Frontenac

Frontenac was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, the son of Henri de Buade, colonel in the regiment of Navarre, and Anne Phélypeaux, daughter of Raymond Phélypeaux. The details of his early life are meager, as no trace of the Frontenac papers has been discovered. The de Buades, however, were a family of distinction in the principality of Béarn. Antoine de Buade, seigneur de Frontenac, grandfather of the future governor of New France, attained eminence as a councilor of state under Henri IV; and his children were brought up with the dauphin, afterwards Louis XIII. Frontenac entered the army at an early age. In 1635 he began his military career and he served under the prince of Orange in Holland, and fought with credit and received many injuries during engagements in the Low Countries and in Italy. He was promoted to the rank of colonel in the regiment of Normandy in 1643, and three years later, after distinguishing himself at the siege of Orbetello, where he had an arm broken, he was made maréchal de camp. Such a lavish lifestyle proved to be costly, and his time at the King's court only led him to amass more debt. His growing debt led him to seek an arrêt du Conseil d'état later in his life to protect his properties from his creditors, who otherwise would have been able to seize them. in October 1648. His service seems to have been continuous until the conclusion of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, when he returned to his father's house in Paris and married, without the consent of her parents, Anne de la Grange-Trianon which had not been repaid by 1672, when his property was seized by creditors. Frontenac, however, was offered the position of governor-general of New France which deferred his debts until the end of his governorship. Frontenac was appointed governor and lieutenant general of New France, Acadia, the island of Newfoundland on 6 April 1672 and arrived in Quebec on 7 September that same year. A 17th-century painting of Anne de la Grange-Trianon can be seen at the Château de Versailles. ==First term in New France==

At this period the affairs of New France claimed the unexpected attention of the French court. From the year 1665 the colony had been successfully administered by three men: Daniel de Rémy de Courcelle, the governor, Jean Talon, the intendant, and the Marquis de Tracy, who had been appointed lieutenant general for the French king in America; but a difference of opinion had arisen between the governor and the intendant, and each had demanded the other's recall in the public interest. At this crisis in the administration of New France, Frontenac was appointed to succeed Rémy de Courcelle. He exercised an independence of action that did not coincide with the views of his minister Colbert. Although the governor was not allowed to intervene in matters handled by the Sovereign Council and the intendant, persons in these formal posts had to respect the governor as the ultimate voice of authority. Such compliance was based on the notion that the governor was the king's representative. The governor was not merely an intermediary or a stand-in but extended the king's authority from France to the North American colony. As one of his first acts as governor, he established the three estates in Canada – nobles, clergy and people – and convened a colonial Estates General to have the estates pledge fealty to him. Pledging fealty to the governor implied that all of the colony's settlers also pledged allegiance to the king and Frontenac did not take this lightly. The royal policy, however, was averse to the granting of extensive political rights to the Canadian settlers, and Frontenac's reforms in this direction were disapproved of. Thus, measures were adopted to curb his ambition by increasing the power of the Sovereign Council and by once again reviving the office of intendant. Frontenac was a dominant man, jealous of authority, and prepared to exact obedience from all and yield to none. In the course of events he soon became involved in quarrels with the intendant regarding questions of precedence and with the ecclesiastics, one or two of whom ventured to criticize his proceedings. The church in New France had been administered for many years by the religious orders; for the see of Quebec, so long contemplated, had not yet been erected. But three years after the arrival of Frontenac, a former vicar apostolic, François-Xavier de Montmorency-Laval, returned to Quebec as bishop, with a jurisdiction over the whole of New France. The governor found a vigorous opponent in Laval, who was determined to render the state subordinate to the church. Frontenac, following in this respect in the footsteps of his predecessors, had issued trading licenses which permitted the sale of intoxicants. The bishop, supported by the intendant, tried to suppress this trade and sent an ambassador to France to obtain remedial action. The views of the bishop were upheld and authority was divided. Troubles ensued between the governor and the Sovereign Council, over its expansion and over the corvées required to build the new forts. Under the king's edict of 1679, it was forbidden for a governor to arbitrarily imprison any subjects. After a deliberation in Versailles, both governor and intendant were recalled to France in the year 1682. The progress of events during the next few years proved that the recall of the governor had been ill-timed. The Iroquois were assuming a threatening attitude towards the inhabitants, and Frontenac's successor, La Barre, was quite incapable of leading an army against such foes. At the end of a year, La Barre was replaced by the Marquis de Denonville, a man of ability and courage, who, though he showed some vigour in marching against the western Iroquois tribes, angered rather than intimidated them, and the massacre of Lachine on 5 August 1689 must be regarded as one of the unhappy results of his administration. ==Second term in New France==

The affairs of the colony were now critical. A man of experience and decision was needed to cope with the difficulties, and Louis XIV, chose Frontenac to represent and uphold the power of France. When on 17 October 1689, Frontenac arrived in Quebec as governor for the second time, he received an enthusiastic welcome, and confidence was at once restored in the public mind. Quebec was not long to enjoy peace. Despite the tensions created during his first term as governor-general, Frontenac was still unwilling to share power with the Sovereign Council and continued to profit from the Canadian fur trade. In January 1690, Frontenac approved the use of raiding parties composed of French and Indigenous raiders to attack English border settlements. The parties raided the towns of Schenectady and Salmon Falls and murdered English colonists, but spared the Iroquois. The raids were intended to deter the English from forming an alliance with the Iroquois, but instead united the English colonies against New France. On October 16, 1690, several New England ships under the command of Sir William Phips, governor of Massachusetts, appeared off l'Île d'Orléans, and an officer was sent ashore to demand the surrender of the fort. In the ensuing Battle of Quebec, Frontenac's forces completely repulsed the English, who in their hasty retreat left behind a few pieces of artillery on the Beauport shore. To meet the threat, he dispatched Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes to establish a trading post and fort at Kekionga, present day Fort Wayne, Indiana. At a grand council of the friendly tribes, Frontenac 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 did the Hurons and the Algonquins of Lake Nipissing, while Frontenac led the dance, whooping like the rest. His allies promised war to the death, and several years of conflict followed. 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. After waging a war of attrition between 1690 and 1698, the Iroquois fled the raided territory and negotiated for peace with the French. The result was that the threat of the Iroquois to New France was finally diffused. At the time of his second appointment as governor in 1689, France authorized the importation of enslaved Africans to Quebec from French colonies in the West Indies. Frontenac died on 28 November 1698 at the Chateau St-Louis after a brief illness and was deeply mourned by the Canadian people. The faults of the governor were those of temperament. His nature was turbulent, and from his youth he had been used to command, but underlying a rough exterior there was evidence of a kindly heart. He was fearless, resourceful and decisive, and triumphed as few men could have done over the difficulties and dangers of a most critical position. ==Honours==

Many sites and landmarks were named to honour Louis de Buade de Frontenac. They include: • Fort de Buade, St. Ignace, Michigan, United States • Le Château Frontenac, located in Québec City, Québec, Canada • Frontenac National Park in Québec, Canada. • Avenue Frontenac, located in Shawinigan, Quebec, Canada • Rue Frontenac and Métro Frontenac, in Montréal, Québec, Canada • Frontenac Street, located in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada; • The provincial electoral district of Frontenac, Quebec. • Frontenac County, Ontario, the sites of Fort Frontenac • Frontenac, Missouri, a wealthy suburb of St. Louis. • Frontenac, Minnesota, an old resort town on the Mississippi River. • Forward Operating Base Frontenac, Argandab Valley, Afghanistan • The Frontenac rose, developed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. • The Kingston Frontenacs team of the Ontario Hockey League • Frontenac Squadron at the Royal Military College of Canada • Frontenac School and Frontenac Park in the Windsor Park neighbourhood of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada • Frontenac Public School and Frontenac Park in Burlington, Ontario, Canada • Frontenac Axis: One of the few outcroppings of the Canadian Shield to extend into the United States; situated at Kingston, Ontario and upper New York State. • Frontenac, Kansas is the second largest city in Crawford County. ==Folklore==

Frontenac's coat of arms marks the entrance to the Château, part of which lies on the site of his former home. Some claim to have spotted him, dressed in 17th-century garb while he wandering the halls or floating through the ballroom. ==See also==