The Gloire class consisted of five armored cruisers built for the French Navy (Marine Nationale) during the first decade of the 20th century.

After their completion in 1903–1904, the five sister ships were initially assigned to the Northern Squadron (Escadre du Nord), often serving as flagships.

Sully was transferred to the Far Eastern Squadron (Escadre de l'Extrême-Orient) shortly afterwards and was wrecked when she struck an uncharted rock in February 1905.

Once the defenses of the Channel were completed in 1915, the sisters spent most of the rest of the war patrolling the Atlantic or on convoy escort duties based in either France or the West Indies.

Amiral Aube was sent to the Eastern Mediterranean in late 1915 where she patrolled off the coast of Ottoman-controlled territory, but returned to France in early 1916.

The Gloire-class ships began to be reduced to reserve in 1920; Amiral Aube and Gloire were stricken from the naval register in 1922 and subsequently sold for scrap.

Later that year Navy Minister (Ministre de la Marine) Vice Admiral (Vice amiral) Armand Besnard ordered Louis-Émile Bertin, the Director of Naval Construction (Directeur centrale des constructions navales), to begin design work on an enlarged successor to the Gueydons with an extra 500 metric tons (490 long tons) of displacement.

[2] Most of the additional weight allotted to the Gloire-class ships was invested in increasing the height of the waterline armored belt and adding three more torpedo tubes.

The Gloires carried up to 1,660 long tons (1,690 t) of coal and could steam for 6,500 nautical miles (12,000 km; 7,500 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

[4] The main battery of the Gloire class consisted of two quick-firing (QF) 194 mm (7.6 in) Modèle 1893–1896 guns mounted in single-gun turrets fore and aft of the superstructure.

[7] For defense against torpedo boats, the Gloire-class ships were fitted with eighteen 47-millimeter (1.9 in) and four 37-millimeter (1.5 in) Hotchkiss guns, all of which were in single mounts.

[9] The main-gun turrets were protected by 161 millimeters (6.3 in) of Harvey armor, but their barbettes used 174-millimeter (6.9 in) plates of ordinary steel.

The lower armored deck consisted of mild steel plates 25 mm (0.98 in) thick, both on the flat and where it curved downwards to meet the bottom of the belt.

The upper armored deck was at the level of the top of the belt and was made from 24 mm (0.94 in) of hardened steel.

[14] When World War I began in August 1914, Condé was tasked to search for German commerce raiders and Gloire joined her sisters providing distant cover for the ships enforcing the blockade at the western entrance to the Channel.

After the eastern entrance to the Channel was sealed off with anti-submarine nets and minefields in 1915, the armored cruisers were no longer required and Amiral Aube was transferred to the Mediterranean where she patrolled off the Egyptian and Levantine coasts until early 1916.

[15] New cruises by Möwe and other commerce raiders at the beginning of 1917 caused Amiral Aube, Gloire and Marseillaise to return to the West Indies.

Condé replaced the armored cruiser Jeanne d'Arc in November and Gloire became the flagship of the division.

While visiting Dakar, French West Africa, in September, Marseillaise became infested with malaria-laden mosquitoes that caused 70 percent of her crew to catch the disease.

The division was tasked with escorting convoys bound for Europe from Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, beginning on 15 February 1918.

She relieved Gueydon in the Arctic on 25 June and covered the withdrawal of French troops from Arkhangelsk and the subsequent evacuation of Murmansk by Allied forces on 12 October.