Army of Condé The Army of Condé ( ) was a French field army during the French Revolutionary Wars . One of several émigré field armies , it was the only one to survive the War of the First Coalition ; others had been formed by the Comte d ' Artois ( brother of King Louis XVI ) and Mirabeau - Tonneau . The émigré armies were formed by aristocrats and nobles who had fled from the violence in France after the August Decrees . The army was commanded by Louis Joseph de Bourbon , Prince de Condé , the cousin of Louis XVI of France . Among its members were Condé ' s grandson , the Duc d ' Enghien and the two sons of Louis XVI ' s younger brother , the Comte d ' Artois , and so the army was sometimes also called the Princes ' Army . Financial difficulties forced Condé to appeal to foreign courts for support . Although the Army fought in conjunction with the Austrian army , many of the generals in Habsburg service distrusted Louis Joseph and policy makers in Vienna considered the army and its officers unreliable . Furthermore , conflicting goals of the French royalists and the Habsburgs frequently placed Louis Joseph at odds with the Habsburg military leadership . Composition of the army . Other than the princes , it also included many young aristocrats such as the Duc de Richelieu , the Duc de Blacas and Chateaubriand , the Duc de Choiseul , the Comte de Langéron , the Comte de Damas , the Comte de Montlosier and the Vicomte de Bonald . The insistence of the officers on the same pay to which they were entitled in France created problems for their funders , which included Spain , Portugal , and Naples , and Britain , and finally , Russia . The British funded the army the longest , from 1795 to 1797 , and again , in 1799 until its dissolution in 1801 . Originally about 25 , 000 men , the size of the prince ' s army varied , depending in great part upon the demands placed upon it , but also on the funding available . By the end of 1792 , the force had 5 , 000 men . After recruiting in 1796 , in the cities of Mainz and Mannheim , and in the Swiss cantons , it could call on 10 , 000 men , under the pay of Britain . Structure . The composition of the army varied : the regiments of Mirabeau , Rohan and Salms , for example , were almost independent corps . Conflicting goals . The army of the émigrés had but a single goal , to invade France , end the Revolution , and restore Bourbon rule . However , the various nations who funded the army were less interested in restoring order in France than in gaining new territory for themselves and keeping the Revolution confined within French borders . This often led to friction between the Prince ' s Army and its benefactors , particularly the Austrians . At one point the Emperor put the Condé himself under arrest for insubordination . Action . This army participated in the War of the First Coalition from 1792 to 1797 alongside Austria , initially sharing in the unsuccessful invasion of France by the Allies under Charles William Ferdinand , Duke of Brunswick . At Metz , 3 - 4000 French republicans faced an Austrian - Émigré siege force of 20 , 000 . Expecting the fortress to surrender without a fight , the Austrians and émigrés under command of the Prince of Bourbon , did not bring any siege cannon . Although losses were slight ( about 10 killed or wounded ) , the failure to take Thionville from 2 battalions of Infantry and some National Guardsmen rankled . In the previous 3 weeks , Austrians and Prussian forces had successfully forced the capitulation of Longwy and Verdun . Two weeks later , after the cannonade at Valmy , the émigré army and the Austrians , did not get to the battlefield until most of the fighting was over and the Prussians were withdrawing . By 1795 , the " Army of Condé " fought in conjunction with the Austrian army , under command of Archduke Charles , Duke of Teschen . In 1794 , through the negotiations of William Wickham , the British agreed to pay the Corps ' expenses . In June 1796 , the Condé ' s army and the Swabian Circle contingent guarded the Rhine river crossing at Kehl , but were pushed out when the French crossed the river in force on June 26 . Afterward , the Condé ' s corps and the Contingent fought in Swabia , as part of the division of Karl Aloys von Fürstenberg . After the contingent was disbanded , the Corps remained in Swabia , participating in the summer fighting Swabia . In October 1796 , at the Battle of Schliengen , the Corps made a spirited attack on the village of Steinstadt , which they took with a bayonet charge and remained there under severe artillery and musket fire for the rest of the daylight hours . Charles was so pleased with the performance of the Corps that he sent a formal congratulatory note to the Prince . After the interim cease fire , the Corps garrisoned in the region of Lake Constance . The agreement negotiated between Conde and Wickham expired and the Corps entered the pay of the Tsar of Russia . In October , the entire Corps , numbering about 10 , 000 , left the Bodensee region and marched toward Russia . In October 1797 , Austria signed the Treaty of Campo Formio with the First French Republic , formally ending its hostilities against the French . With the end of the First Coalition , the army marched to Poland , returning in 1799 to Switzerland under command of Alexander Suvorov . In 1800 , when Russia left the Second Coalition , the English agreed once again to pay the Conde ' s army and it fought in Bavaria until 1801 , when the Corps was disbanded .