François de Vendôme, duc de Beaufort was the son of César, Duke of Vendôme, and Françoise de Lorraine. He was a prominent figure in the Fronde, and later went on to fight in the Mediterranean. He is sometimes called François de Vendôme, though he was born into the House of Bourbon, Vendôme coming from his father's title of Duke of Vendôme.
In March 1665 he led a small fleet which defeated a small Algerian fleet near the Goletta, Tunisia. In 1669 he led the newly arrived French troops defending Candia against the Ottoman Turks, and was presumed to have been killed in a night sortie, on 25 June 1669. His body was brought back to France for a state funeral.