Born in Vendôme, he was the fifth son of Charles de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, and the younger brother of Antoine de Bourbon. His mother was Françoise d'Alençon, the eldest daughter of René, Duke of Alençon and Margaret of Lorraine. As a soldier in the French army, Condé fought at the Siege of Metz in 1552 and again at the Battle of St. Quentin in 1557. On 2 April 1562, Condé, commanding a Huguenot army, captured Orléans, with it he issued a draft stating that King Charles IX was being held hostage by the House of Guise. Condé negotiated the Peace of Amboise with the Catholic party in 1563, which gave the Huguenots some religious toleration.In the third French religious civil war, Condé was killed at the Battle of Jarnac in 1569.

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