The Bayard class was a pair of two ironclad warships built for the French Navy in the late 1870s and early 1880s.

They were intended for use overseas in the French colonial empire, and as such, they retained a sailing rig for long-range cruising and copper sheathing for their hulls to protect them when they would be unable to be dry-docked regularly.

They carried a main battery of four 240 mm (9.4 in) guns that were mounted in individual barbettes; two were in sponsons forward, abreast of the conning tower, and the other two were on the centerline aft.

Turenne was laid up upon completion in 1882, while Bayard was sent to East Asian waters, where she served much of her career as a flagship.

She saw action during the Tonkin campaign that established France's colonial empire in what became French Indochina, as well as the Sino-French War that immediately followed.

Turenne replaced her as the flagship in East Asia, but she had a much less eventful stint in the region, remaining there until 1889, when she returned to France to be placed in reserve once more in 1890.

[3] The naval architect Victorin Sabattier submitted a proposal to build a scaled-down version of his high-seas ironclad Amiral Duperré to meet requirements issued by the French Naval Minister Charles de Dompierre d'Hornoy, who wanted new designs for station ironclads.

Sabattier's initial design included four main battery guns arranged as in Amiral Duperré: all in open barbettes, two side-by-side forward and the other two on the centerline aft.

The ships had a sharply raked forecastle and relatively minimal superstructure, consisting of a small bridge directly astern of the forward main battery barbettes.

At a more economical speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph), the ships had a cruising radius of 3,000 nautical miles (5,600 km; 3,500 mi).

During this period, she cruised extensively through East Asia, visiting numerous foreign ports to show the flag.

[7] Bayard was struck from the naval register in April 1899 and was thereafter used as a storage hulk in Hạ Long Bay in northern French Indochina from 1899 to 1904, when she was sold to ship breakers.