In 1635 he began his military career and he served under the prince of Orange in Holland, and fought with credit and received many injuries during engagements in the Low Countries and in Italy.

He was promoted to the rank of colonel in the regiment of Normandy in 1643, and three years later, after distinguishing himself at the siege of Orbetello, where he had an arm broken, he was made maréchal de camp.

His growing debt led him to seek an arrêt du Conseil d'état later in his life to protect his properties from his creditors, who otherwise would have been able to seize them.

His service seems to have been continuous until the conclusion of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, when he returned to his father's house in Paris and married, without the consent of her parents, Anne de la Grange-Trianon[2] in October 1648.

The marriage was not a happy one, and after the birth of a son incompatibility of temper led to a separation, the count retiring to his estate on the Indre, where by an extravagant course of living, he became hopelessly in debt.

Little is known of his career for the next fifteen years beyond the fact that he held a high position at court, but in 1669, when France sent a contingent to assist the Venetians in the defense of Crete against the Ottomans, Frontenac was placed in command of the troops on the recommendation of Turenne.

Frontenac was appointed governor and lieutenant general of New France, Acadia, the island of Newfoundland on 6 April 1672 and arrived in Quebec on 7 September that same year.

But three years after the arrival of Frontenac, a former vicar apostolic, François-Xavier de Montmorency-Laval, returned to Quebec as bishop, with a jurisdiction over the whole of New France.

The defenses had been strengthened, a fort was built at Cataraqui (now Kingston, Ontario), bearing the governor's name, and conditions of peace had been fairly maintained between the Iroquois on the one hand and the French and their allies, the Ottawas and the Hurons, on the other.

The Iroquois were assuming a threatening attitude towards the inhabitants, and Frontenac's successor, La Barre, was quite incapable of leading an army against such foes.

At the end of a year, La Barre was replaced by the Marquis de Denonville, a man of ability and courage, who, though he showed some vigour in marching against the western Iroquois tribes, angered rather than intimidated them, and the massacre of Lachine on 5 August 1689 must be regarded as one of the unhappy results of his administration.

A man of experience and decision was needed to cope with the difficulties, and Louis XIV, chose Frontenac to represent and uphold the power of France.

[2] Frontenac's return to New France during the Nine Years' War offered him an opportunity to display his military capabilities against England in North America.

[18] Despite the tensions created during his first term as governor-general, Frontenac was still unwilling to share power with the Sovereign Council and continued to profit from the Canadian fur trade.

[19] In January 1690, Frontenac approved the use of raiding parties composed of French and Indigenous raiders to attack English border settlements.

On October 16, 1690, several New England ships under the command of Sir William Phips, governor of Massachusetts, appeared off l'Île d'Orléans, and an officer was sent ashore to demand the surrender of the fort.

[21] In the ensuing Battle of Quebec, Frontenac's forces completely repulsed the English, who in their hasty retreat left behind a few pieces of artillery on the Beauport shore.

New France now rejoiced in a brief respite from her enemies, and during the interval Frontenac paid some attention to the social life of the colony and encouraged the revival of drama at the Chateau St-Louis.

[23] At a grand council of the friendly tribes, Frontenac took up a hatchet, brandished it in the air, and sang the war song, his officers following his example.

The Christian Indians of the neighboring missions rose and joined them, and so did the Hurons and the Algonquins of Lake Nipissing, while Frontenac led the dance, whooping like the rest.

After three years of destitution and misery, Frontenac broke the blockade of the Ottawa; the coveted treasure came safely to Montreal, and the colonists hailed him as their father and deliverer.

This consisted generally of a capote, a breechcloth, leggings, a blanket, moccasins, a knife and two shirts, The clothing did not constitute a military uniform but was simply Canadian-style civilian wear.

At the time of his second appointment as governor in 1689, France authorized the importation of enslaved Africans to Quebec from French colonies in the West Indies.