ices there led to his appointment to
command the army in Italy, where he distinguished himself by forcing the
pass of Villafranca and winning the battle of Coni in 1744. In 1745 he
was sent to check the Imperialists in Germany, and in 1746 was
transferred to the Netherlands, where some jealousy between Marshal Saxe
and himself led to his retirement in 1747. In this year a faction among
the Polish nobles offered Conti the crown of that country, where owing
to the feeble health of King Augustus III. a vacancy was expected. He
won the personal support of Louis XV. for his candidature, although the
policy of the French ministers was to establish the house of Saxony in
Poland, as the dauphiness was a daughter of Augustus. Louis therefore
began secret personal relations with his ambassadors in eastern Europe,
who were thus receiving contradictory instructions; a policy known later
as the _secret du roi_. Although Conti did not secure the Polish throne
he remained in the confidence of Louis until 1755, when his influence
was destroyed by the intrigues of Madame de Pompadour; so that when the
Seven Years' War broke out in 1756 he was refused the command of the
army of the Rhine, and began the opposition to the administration which
caused Louis to refer to him as "my cousin the advocate." In 1771 he was
prominent in opposition to the chancellor Maupeou. He supported the
parlements against the ministry, was especially active in his hostility
to Turgot, and was suspected of aiding a rising which took place at
Dijon in 1775. Conti, who died on the 2nd of August 1776, inherited
literary tastes from his father, was a brave and skilful general, and a
diligent student of military history. His house, over which the comtesse
de Boufflers presided, was the resort of many men of letters, and he was
a patron of Jean Jacques Rousseau.

LOUIS FRANCOIS JOSEPH, prince de Conti (1734-1814), son of the
preceding, possessed considerable talent as a soldier, and distinguished
himself during the Seven Years' War. He took the side of Maupeou in the
struggle between the chancellor and the parlements, and in 1788 declared
that the integrity of the constitution must be maintained. He emigrated
owing to the weakness of Louis XVI., but refused to share in the plans
for the invasion of France, and returned to his native country in 1790.
Arrested by order of the National Convention in 1793, he was acquitted,
but was reduced to poverty by the confiscation of