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Rh elector of Bavaria to make peace (signed March 14, 1647). In 1647 he proposed to attack the thus weakened army of the emperor, but was ordered into Flanders instead. Not only was the opportunity thus lost but a serious mutiny broke out araongst the Weimar troops, whose pay was many months in arrear. The marshal's tact and firmness were never more severely tried nor more conspicuously displayed than in his treatment of the disaffected regiments, among whom in the end he succeeded in restoring order with little bloodshed. He then marched into Luxemburg, but was soon recalled to the Rhine, for in 1648 Bavaria had returned to her Austrian alliance and was again in arms. Turenne and his Swedish allies made a brilliant campaign, which was decided by the action of Zusmarshausen (May 17), Bavaria being subse- quently wasted with fire and sword until a second and more secure pacification was obtained. This devastation, for which many modern writers have blamed Turenne, was not a more harsh measure than was permitted by the spirit of the times and the circumstances of the case.

The peace of Westphalia (1648) was no peace for France, which was soon involved in the civil war of the Fronde (see France: History). Few of Turenne's actions have been more sharply criticized than his adhesion to the party of revolt. The army of Weimar refused to follow its leader and he had to flee into the Spanish Netherlands, where he remained until the treaty of Rueil put an end to the first war of the Fronde. The second war began with the arrest of Conde and others (January 1650), amongst whom Turenne was to have been included; but he escaped in time and with the duchesse de Longueville held Stenay for the cause of the “Princes” Conde, his brother Conti, and his brother-in-law the duc de Longueville. Love for the duchess seems to have ruled Turenne's action, both in the first war, and, now, in seeking Spanish aid for the princes. In this war Turenne sustained one of his few reverses at Rethel (December 15, 1650); but the second conflict ended in the early months of the following year with the collapse of the court party and the release of the princes.

Turenne became reconciled and returned to Paris in May, but the trouble soon revived and before long Conde again raised the standard of revolt in the south of France. In this, the third war of the Fronde, Turenne and Conde were opposed to each other, the marshal commanding the royal armies, the prince that of the Frondeurs and their Spanish allies. Turenne displayed the personal bravery of a young soldier at Jargeau (March 28, 1652), the skill and wariness of a veteran general at Gien (April 7), and he practically crushed the civil war in the battle of the Faubourg St Deiiis (July 2) and the reoccupation of Paris (October 21). Conde and the Spaniards, however, still remained to be dealt with, and the long drawn out campaigns of the "Spanish Fronde" gave ample scope for the display of scientific generalship on the part of both the famous captains. In 1653 the advantage was with Turenne, who captured Rethel, St Menehould and Muzon, while Conde's sole prize was Rocroy. The short cam- paign of 1654 was again to the advantage of the French; on the 25th of July the Spanish were defeated at Arras. In 1655 more ground was gained, but in 1656 Turenne was defeated at Valenciennes in the same way as he had beaten Conde at Arras. The war was eventually concluded in 1657 by Turenne's victory at the Dunes near Dunkirk, in which a corps of English veterans sent by Cromwell played a notable part (June 3–14); a victory which, followed by another successful campaign in 1658, led to the peace of the Pyrenees in 1659.

On the death of Cardinal Mazarin in 1661 Louis XIV. took the reins of government into his own hands and one of his first acts was to appoint Turenne " marshal-general of the camps and armies of the king." He had offered to revive the office of constable of France (suppressed in 1627) in Turenne's favour if the marshal would become a Roman Catholic. Turenne declined. Born of Calvinist parents and educated a Protestant, he had refused to marry one of Richelieu's nieces in 1639 and subsequently rejected a similar proposal of Mazarin. He had later married a daughter of the Protestant Marshal de la Force, to whom he was deeply attached. But he sincerely deplored the division of the Christian church into two hostile camps. He had always ^distrusted the influence of many dissident and uncontrolled sects; the history of Independency in the English army and people made a deep impression on his mind, and the same fear of indiscipline which drove the English Presbyterians into royalism drew Turenne more and more towards the Roman Catholic Church. How closely both he and his wife studied such evidence as was available is shown by their correspondence, and, in the end, two years after her death, he was prevailed upon by the eloquence of Bossuet and the persuasions of his nephew, the abbe de Bouillon, to give in his adhesion to the Orthodox faith (October 1668). In 1667 he had returned to the more congenial air of the " Camps and Armies of the King," directing, nominally under Louis XIV., the famous "Promenade militaire" in which the French overran the Spanish Netherlands. Soon afterwards Conde, now reconciled with the king, rivalled Turenne's success by the rapid conquest of Franche Comte, which brought to an end the War of Devolution in February 1668.

In Louis XIV.'s Dutch War of 1672 (see Dutch Wars) Turenne was with the army commanded by the king which overran Holland up to the gates of Amsterdam. The terms offered by Louis to the prince of Orange were such as to arouse a more bitter resistance. The dikes were opened and the country round Amsterdam flooded. This heroic measure completely checked Turenne, whom the king had left in command. Europe was aroused to action by the news of this event, and the war spread to Germany. Turenne fought a successful war of manceuvre on the middle Rhine while Conde covered Alsace. In January 1673 Turenne assumed the offensive, penetrated far into Germany, and forced the Great Elector of Brandenburg to make peace; later in the year, however, he was completely out-manoeuvred by the famous imperial general Mbntecucculi, who evaded his opponent, joined the Dutch and took the important place of Bonn. In June 1674, however, Turenne won the battle of Sinzheim, which made him master of the Palatinate. Under orders from Paris the French wasted the country far and wide, and this devastation has usually been considered the gravest blot on Turenne's fame, though it is difficult to say that it was more unjustifiable than other similar incidents in medieval and even in modern war. In the autumn the ajlies again advanced, and though Turenne was again outmanoeuvred, his failure on this occasion was due to the action of the neutral city of Strassburg in permitting the enemy to cross the Rhine by the bridge at that place. The battle of Enzheim followed; this was a tactical victory, but hardly affected the situation, and, at the beginning of December, the allies were still in Alsace. The old marshal now made the most daring campaign of his career. A swift and secret march in mid-winter from one end of the Vosges to the other took the allies by surprise. Sharply following up his first successes, Turenne drove the enemy to Turkheim, and there inflicted upon them a heavy defeat (January 5, 1675). In a few weeks he had completely recovered Alsace. In the summer campaign he was once more opposed to Montecucculi, and after the highest display of " strategic chess-moves " by both commanders, Turenne finally compelled his opponent to offer battle at a disadvantage at Sassbach. Here, on the 27th of July 1675, he was killed by almost the first shot fired. The news of his death was received with universal sorrow. Turenne's most eloquent countrymen wrote his doges, and Montecucculi him- self exclaimed: "Il est mort aujourd'hui un homme qui faisait honneur a. l'homme." His body was taken to St Denis and buried with the kings of France. Even the extreme revolutionists of 1793 respected it, and, when the bones of the sovereigns were thrown to the winds, the remains of Turenne were preserved at the Jardin des Plantes until the 22nd of September 1800, when they were removed by order of Napoleon to the church of the Invalides at Paris, where they still rest.