The Fronde gradually loses steam and ends in February 1653, when Mazarin returns unopposed.

The Fronde as a civil war is now over.

The whole country, wearied of anarchy and disgusted with the princes, have come to look to the king's party as the party of order and settled government, and thus the Fronde has prepared the way for the absolutism of Louis XIV.

The general war continues in Flanders, Catalonia, and Italy wherever a Spanish and a French garrison are face to face, and Condé, with the wreck of his army, openly and defiantly enters the service of the king of Spain.

This "Spanish Fronde" is almost purely a military affair.