Fronde in the context of "Bastille"

Jules Mazarin (born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino or Mazarini; 14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661), from 1641 known as Cardinal Mazarin, was an Italian Catholic prelate, diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Louis XIII and Louis XIV from 1642 to his death. He was made a cardinal in 1641.

After serving as a papal diplomat for Pope Urban VIII, Mazarin offered his diplomatic services to Cardinal Richelieu and moved to Paris in 1640. After the death of Richelieu in 1642, Mazarin took his place as first minister of Louis XIII, and then of Louis XIV, when he succeeded to the throne in 1643. Mazarin acted as the head of the government for Anne of Austria, the regent for the young Louis XIV, and was also responsible for the king's education until he came of age. The first years of Mazarin in office were marked by military victories in the Thirty Years' War, which he used to make France the main European power and establish the Peace of Westphalia (1646–1648). A major uprising against Anne of Austria and Mazarin, called the Fronde and led by the nobles of the Parlement of Paris, broke out in Paris in 1648, followed by a second Fronde, led by Louis, Grand Condé, who had turned from his chief ally to his chief enemy. Mazarin took Anne of Austria and Louis XIV out of Paris and then shifted his base to Germany for a time. Turenne, a general loyal to Louis XIV and Mazarin, defeated Condé, and Mazarin made a triumphal return to Paris in 1653.

The Franco-Spanish War, May 1635 to November 1659, was fought between France and Spain, each supported by various allies at different points. The first phase, from May 1635 to the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, is a related conflict of the Thirty Years' War, while the second continued until the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659.

Major areas of conflict included northern Italy, the Spanish Netherlands and the Rhineland. France supported revolts against Spanish rule in Portugal (1640–1668), Catalonia (1640–1653) and Naples (1647), while Spain backed French rebels in the 1647 to 1653 "Fronde". Both also backed opposing sides in the 1639 to 1642 Piedmontese Civil War.

The Battle of the Faubourg Saint Antoine occurred on 2 July 1652 during the Fronde rebellion in France. It is named after the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, a district near the Bastille in the east of Paris, where the battle took place.

The Battle of the Dunes (French: Bataille des Dunes, Spanish: Batalla de las Dunas), also known as the Battle of Dunkirk, took place on 14 June 1658, near the strategic port of Dunkirk in what was then the Spanish Netherlands. Part of the Franco-Spanish War and concurrent Anglo-Spanish War, a French army under Turenne, supported by troops from the Commonwealth of England, had besieged Dunkirk. Led by John Joseph of Austria and Louis, Grand Condé, a Spanish force supported by the Royalist Army in Exile and French Fronde rebels attempted to raise the siege but suffered a severe defeat.

Despite this victory, both the French and Spanish were financially exhausted by the long running war and negotiated the Treaty of the Pyrenees in November 1659. England retained possession of Dunkirk until 1662 when the port was sold to France by Charles II.

The siege of Dunkirk in 1658 was a military operation by France and the Commonwealth of England intended to capture the fortified port city of Dunkirk, Spain's greatest privateering base, from a Spanish garrison strengthened with English Royalists and French Fronduers. Dunkirk (Dutch for 'Church in the dunes') was a strategic port on the southern coast of the English Channel in the Spanish Netherlands that had often been a point of contention previously and had changed hands a number of times. Privateers operating out of Dunkirk and other ports had cost England some 1,500 to 2,000 merchant ships in the past year. The French and their English Commonwealth allies were commanded by Marshal of France Turenne. The siege would last a month and featured numerous sorties by the garrison and a determined relief attempt by the Spanish army under the command of Don Juan of Austria and allied English Royalists led by Duke of York and rebels of the French Fronde under the Great Condé that resulted in the battle of the Dunes.