Louis de Buade de Frontenac
Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac et de Palluau was a French soldier, courtier, and Governor General of New France in North America from 1672 to 1682, and again from 1689 to his death in 1698. He established a number of Forts on the Great Lakes and engaged in a series of battles against the English and the Iroquois.
In his first term, he supported the expansion of the fur trade, establishing Fort Frontenac and came into conflict with the other members of the Sovereign Council over its expansion and over the corvée that were required to build the new forts. In particular, despite the opposition of Bishop François de Laval, he supported selling brandy to the aboriginal tribes, which Laval considered a mortal sin. The conflict with the Sovereign Council led to his recall in 1682.
His second term was characterised by the defence of Quebec from an English invasion during King William's War, a successful campaign against Iroquois and English settlements that resulted in the elimination of the Iroquois threat against New France and a large expansion of the fur trade using Canadian coureurs des bois. He died before his second recall to France.
Early life
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. In the 17th century, warfare ceased during the winter months, and Frontenac, being a soldier, needed to keep occupied. Like many military officers, Frontenac took residence at the King's court. 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.
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 in October 1648. Frontenac courted her because she was set to inherit a large sum of money from her deceased mother and her father upon his death. Anne de la Grange-Trianon's father had remarried and had a second child to ensure that his fortune would not go to his daughter and the son-in-law that he disapproved of. Therefore, when Frontenac's father-in-law died, Frontenac did not receive the money he was hoping for as his wife's father left his fortune to his new wife. The marriage was not a happy one, and after the birth of a son incompatibility of temper led to a separation, the count retiring to his estate on the Indre, where by an extravagant course of living, he became hopelessly in debt. Little is known of his career for the next fifteen years beyond the fact that he held a high position at court, but in 1669, when France sent a contingent to assist the Venetians in the defense of Crete against the Ottomans, Frontenac was placed in command of the troops on the recommendation of Turenne. In that expedition he won military glory, but his fortune was not improved.
In 1664, Frontenac admitted to owing debt of 325,878 livres, plus 17,350 livres of interest to his creditors, 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.From the beginning of Frontenac's term, it was evident that he was prepared to effect a policy of colonial expansion. He was also eager to inaugurate an era of prosperity for Canada. He exercised an independence of action that did not coincide with the views of his minister Colbert. As governor, Frontenac was the most powerful figure within the colony and among his duties as governor, Frontenac maintained control over military matters as well as foreign affairs. In the context of being a French colony, foreign affairs largely encompassed maintaining amicable relations between French settlers and indigenous peoples. 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. In relation to the hierarchy of authority within the colonial setting, any check on the governor's power was absent. In Frontenac's case, France's finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who resided in France, was the only person who could impose any restraints upon the governor's powers. 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. Responding to this reduction in the Sovereign Council to nothing more than a figurehead, he expressed his frustration by challenging the authority of the intendant, Jacques Duchesnau and demanding that the council refer to him as the "chief and president".
Frontenac, was a dominant man, jealous of authority, prepared to exact obedience from all and to 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. In particular, despite the opposition of the bishop, he supported selling brandy to the First Nations, which Laval considered a mortal sin. The king and his minister had to listen to and adjudicate upon the appeals from the contending parties until one incident tried their patience. After the adolescent son of Duchesneau was verbally abused on the street by a follower of Frontenac, he physically assaulted him with his cane when Frontenac deemed his explanation unacceptable and, after negotiation between himself, the intendant and the bishop, an officer of Frontenac detained and imprisoned Duchesneau's son. 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.
During Frontenac's first administration many improvements had been made in the country. The defenses had been strengthened, a fort was built at Cataraqui, bearing the governor's name, and conditions of peace had been fairly maintained between the Iroquois on the one hand and the French and their allies, the Ottawas and the Hurons, on the other. Frontenac made his way to Cataraqui to build his post that would facilitate trading with the Iroquois Confederacy. Even though Frontenac was disobeying Colbert's policies, he was able to continuously act in such a way because he represented the king. Throughout his first term, Frontenac was engaging in the fur trade to increase his own fortune and those of his associates. According to La Salle's personal memoir, Frontenac was also trying to secure a monopoly over a large part of the fur trade. 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.