The Gloire class consisted of five armored cruisers built for the French Navy () during the first decade of the 20th century. Fitted with a mixed armament of and guns, the ships were designed for service with the fleet. After their completion in 1903–1904, the five sister ships were initially assigned to the Northern Squadron (), often serving as flagships. was transferred to the Far Eastern Squadron () shortly afterwards and was wrecked when she struck an uncharted rock in February 1905. and were transferred to the Mediterranean Squadron () in 1905–1906. The surviving sisters were generally divided between the Northern and Mediterranean Squadrons until a reorganization in 1910 caused all but to be concentrated in the Mediterranean. The following year another reorganization reduced Amiral Aube to reserve and her sisters were transferred to the 2nd Light Squadron (), as the Northern Squadron had been renamed. became a training ship in 1913 and Amiral Aube was reactivated to replace her. Condé was transferred to the French West Indies in early 1914 where she could monitor events during the Mexican Revolution.
When World War I began in August 1914, the three ships in French waters were assigned to defend Allied shipping in the English Channel and enforce the blockade of Germany while Condé was tasked to hunt down German commerce raiders in the Western Atlantic. Once the defenses of the Channel were completed in 1915, the sisters spent most of the rest of the war patrolling the Atlantic or on convoy escort duties based in either France or the West Indies. Amiral Aube was sent to the Eastern Mediterranean in late 1915 where she patrolled off the coast of Ottoman-controlled territory, but returned to France in early 1916. The ship was sent to Murmansk in early 1918 to support Allied forces when they intervened in the Russian Civil War. Returning home in October, she joined her sisters in the Atlantic Division (), based in the West Indies, in early 1919.
Marseillaise was assigned to the Baltic Division () on after the war's end in November 1918 and remained there until late 1919. Condé supported Allied forces in North Russia in mid-1919 and covered the evacuation of Allied troops later that year. The Gloire-class ships began to be reduced to reserve in 1920; Amiral Aube and Gloire were stricken from the naval register in 1922 and subsequently sold for scrap. Marseillaise served as a training ship in 1925–1929 and was scrapped in 1933. Condé was converted into a barracks ship in 1925 and was seized by the Germans when they invaded France in 1940. They used her as a submarine depot ship before converting her into a target ship; she was sunk by Allied aircraft in 1944.
Background
By mid-1897 the three factions of the navy, the (Young School) that wanted fast, lightly armed ships for commerce raiding, the traditionalists that wanted cruisers to defend the colonies and the modernists who desired armored cruisers and small scout cruisers to operate with the fleet had come to a consensus that armored cruisers could fulfill all these roles. Five cruisers intended to work with the fleet had been authorized in the 1896 construction program and only three, the , would be ordered in 1897. Later that year Navy Minister () Vice Admiral () Armand Besnard ordered Louis-Émile Bertin, the Director of Naval Construction (), to begin design work on an enlarged successor to the Gueydons with an extra of displacement.
The 1896 construction program was amended in 1898 to include six more armored cruisers, of which three were intended to be laid down under the 1898 budget. Édouard Lockroy, the new Naval Minister, approved the new design on 17 September and ordered the first two ships from naval dockyards that same day; the remaining three ships were ordered in 1899.
Design and description
Most of the additional weight allotted to the Gloire-class ships was invested in increasing the height of the waterline armored belt and adding three more torpedo tubes. The ships measured overall, with a beam of and a draft of . They displaced . Their crew numbered 25 officers and 590 enlisted men.
The ships had three vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller shaft. The engines were rated at a total of , using steam provided by 28 Belleville water-tube boilers, except for Condé and Gloire, which had an equal number of Niclausse boilers. They had a designed speed of , demonstrating speeds of from during their sea trials. The Gloires carried up to of coal and could steam for at a speed of .