While fortune thus smiled upon the cradle of Louis de Buade, some important favours were denied.  Though nobly born, Frontenac did not spring from a line which had been of national importance for centuries, like that of Montmorency or Chatillon.  Nor did he inherit large estates.  The chief advantage which the Buades possessed came from their personal relations with the royal family.  Their property in Guienne was not great, and neither Geoffroy, Antoine, nor Henri had possessed commanding abilities.  Nor was Frontenac the boyhood friend of his king as his father had been, for Louis XIV was not born till 1638.  Frontenac’s rank was good enough to give him a chance at the French court.  For the rest, his worldly prosperity would depend on his own efforts.

Inevitably he became a soldier.  He entered the army at fifteen.  It was one of the greatest moments in French history.  Richelieu was prime minister, and the long strife between France and the House of Hapsburg had just begun to turn definitely in favour of France.  Against the Hapsburgs, with their two thrones of Spain and Austria, [Footnote:  Charles V held all his Spanish, Burgundian, and Austrian inheritance in his own hand from 1519 to 1521.  In 1521 he granted the Austrian possessions to his brother Ferdinand.  Thenceforth Spain and Austria were never reunited, but their association in politics continued to be intimate until the close of the seventeenth century.] stood the Great Cardinal, ready to use the crisis of the Thirty Years’ War for the benefit of his nation—­even though this meant a league with heretics.  At the moment when Frontenac first drew the sword France (in nominal support of her German allies) was striving to conquer Alsace.  The victory which brought the French to the Rhine was won through the capture of Breisach, at the close of 1638.  Then in swift succession followed those astounding victories of Conde and Turenne which destroyed the military pre-eminence of Spain, took the French to the gates of Munich, and wrung from the emperor the Peace of Westphalia (1648).

During the thirteen years which followed Frontenac’s first glimpse of war it was a glorious thing to be a French soldier.  The events of such an era could not fail to leave their mark upon a high-spirited and valorous youth.  Frontenac was predestined by family tradition to a career of arms; but it was his own impetuosity that drove him into war before the normal age.  He first served under Prince Frederick Henry of Orange, who was then at the height of his reputation.  After several campaigns in the Low Countries his regiment was transferred to the confines of Spain and France.  There, in the year of Richelieu’s death (1642), he fought at the siege of Perpignan.  That he distinguished himself may be seen from his promotion, at twenty-three, to the rank of colonel.  In the same year (1643) Louis XIV came to the throne; and Conde, by smiting the Spaniards at Rocroi, won for France the fame of having the best troops in Europe.