Comte de frontenac facts biography

Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac et Palluau , was a controversial governor general of New France , architect of French westward expansion, and commander of French forces against the Iroquois and the English colonies during King William's War. Louis XIII was his godfather. Entering the army in his teens, Frontenac campaigned during the Thirty Years War and at the age of 21 was colonel of the Regiment of Normandy.

He was also a courtier, lived extravagantly, and ran up huge debts. In he obtained a lucrative appointment with the Venetian forces defending Crete against the Turks, but within 3 months he was dismissed by the commanding general.

Why is louis de buade, comte de frontenac important

Three years later he obtained the appointment of governor general of New France. Plagued by an irascible temper and an exalted opinion of his own capacities, Frontenac quickly quarreled with the senior officials and the clergy. Many of these disputes centered about the fur trade. The minister of marine, Jean Baptiste Colbert , was striving to keep it within bounds to prevent its crippling his plans to diversify the colony's economy, while Frontenac encouraged the expansion of the western fur trade.

This brought the French into conflict with the Iroquois, who were allied with the English of New York. By , however, Frontenac had carried his internal disputes to such lengths that the civil administration was disrupted, and the following year he was dismissed. Frontenac's successors struggled to curb the Iroquois and retain control of the west, with scant success.