François de Vendôme, duc de Beaufort

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François de Vendôme, the Duc de Beaufort (January 16 1616 – 25 June 1669) was the illegitimate grandson of Henri IV of France. He was a prominent figure in the Fronde, and later went on to fight in the Mediterranean.

In 1669 he led the newly arrived French troops defending Candia against the Ottoman Turks, and was presumed to be killed in a night sortie, on June 25, 1669. His body was never recovered.

A fictional portrayal of Beaufort was a main character in Alexander Dumas's Twenty Years After, and reappeared in the Man in the Iron Mask, the final installment of the d'Artagnan Romances. Ironically, Vendôme was one of the suspects to be the Man in the Iron Mask.

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