Henri II d'Orléans, Duke of Longueville Henri II d'Orléans, Duke of Longueville Henri II d'Orléans, duc de Longueville or Henri de Valois-Longueville (6 April 1595 – 11 May 1663), a legitimated prince of France (of royal descent) and peer of France, was a major figure in the civil war of France, the Fronde, and served as governor of Picardy, then of Normandy. He was the only son of Henri I d'Orléans, duc de Longueville and Princess Catherine Gonzaga. Longueville headed the French delegation in the talks that led to the Treaty of Westphalia which ended the Thirty Years War (1648). In his role as sovereign prince
Piracy in the Caribbean of the Americas all beckoned to those eager to make their fortunes and a large assortment of Frenchmen and Englishmen began new colonial ventures during the early 17th century, both in North America, which lay basically empty of European settlement north of Mexico, and in the Caribbean, where Spain remained the dominant power until late in the century. As for the Dutch Netherlands, after decades of rebellion against Spain fueled by both Dutch nationalism and their staunch Protestantism, independence had been gained in all but name (and that too would eventually come with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648). The