The Gloire-class ironclads were a group of three wooden-hulled armored frigates built for the French Navy in the late 1850s and early 1860s.

Designed by the French naval architect Henri Dupuy de Lôme, the ships of the class were intended to fight in the line of battle, unlike the first British ironclads.

[2] The ships of the Gloire class had a single horizontal return connecting-rod compound steam engine that drove a six-bladed, 5.8-meter (19 ft 0 in) propeller.

[4] The Gloire-class ships were initially fitted with a light barquentine rig with three masts that had a sail area around 1,100 square metres (11,800 sq ft).

[3] All three ships of the class had very uneventful careers, spending the bulk of their time with the Mediterranean Fleet aside from a few excursions to foreign waters.