François de Vendôme duc de Beaufort

Beaufort, François de Vendôme, duc de (fräNswä' də väNdōm' dük də bōfôr'), 1616-69, French courtier and politician; grandson of King Henry IV of France and his mistress Gabrielle d'Estrées. Implicated in the conspiracy of the Marquis de Cinq Mars against Louis XIII's minister Cardinal Richelieu, he fled (1642) to England but returned after Richelieu's death. He was one of the Importants, a clique opposing Richelieu's successor, Cardinal Mazarin, and was imprisoned from 1643 to 1648. A leader of the Fronde, he was nicknamed King of the Markets because of his popularity with the Parisian mob. Exiled in 1652, he was later recalled and given command (1666) of the French fleet against the Turks and the Barbary pirates.