Abraham Duquesne (äbrä-äm´ dükĕn´), 1610–88, French naval officer. In the Fronde outbreaks, he suppressed a revolt at Bordeaux (1650). As commander of the new French fleet, he distinguished himself in the third of the Dutch Wars, engaging Admiral De Ruyter in the Lipari Islands, and sharing in the victory of Palermo (1676). He fought the Barbary pirates (1681) and bombarded Algiers (1682–83) and Genoa (1684). Although a Protestant, he was created marquis (1681) and was exempted from proscription when the Edict of Nantes was revoked (1685).

Claude Forbin, comte de (klōd kôNt də fôrbăN´), 1656–1733, French naval commander. He fought in the Antilles (1680) and in Abraham Duquesne's Algerian campaign (1682–83) and from 1685 to 1687 was grand admiral and generalissimo of the king of Siam. Forbin distinguished himself in the War of the Grand Alliance and the War of the Spanish Succession. He failed (1708) in an attempt to land James Francis Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender, in Scotland. His memoirs were published in 1729–30.