On May 22, 1622 Louis Compte de Frontenac and a Canadian ghost story were born.

Well, technically only Frontenac was born, the ghost story didn’t pop up until long after his death.  I can hear you now “WHOA WHOA! Back up! A ghost?” Yes. Quebec City’s very own ghost. Stay with me and all will be revealed.

 Frontenac was the dapper fellow above. Or so history likes to pretend. There are no contemporary portraits of him nor any written descriptions. Yet all the statues and portraits use this image. Compte de Frontenac played a huge role in the development of Canada. He was a soldier, popular courtier in the French courts during the reign of Louis XIV, the Sun King, shameless spendthrift and a capable administrator of New France. 

Frontenac entered the French army while in his teens and was commissioned a colonel in the Normandie Regiment. He provided cannon fodder in Louis XIV’s wars and while commanding the regiment his right arm was crippled and to compensate him for this injury he was created a brigadier. He was an excessively vain person who was quick to take offense. Like so many of his class Frontenac’s life style was extravagant and he lived well beyond his means. As a result he became encumbered with debt and was forced to relinquish his colonelcy to pay off a portion of what he owed. The fact that Frontenac was a seasoned soldier was all-important at a time when France’s colony was at risk from the ever-present English.

Frontenac would have functioned very well in the cloak and dagger age of the Three Musketeers for he was a member of the old nobility with the sword. Despite his all too evident faults Frontenac was possessed of great personal charm. While it was not easily detectable in his written documents, without it his career is difficult if not impossible to explain. The feudal aristocracy also served as figureheads in the provinces like New France. Frontenac received his appointment as governor general in 1672. While compensation for the position was limited, it relieved him of the necessity of paying off his creditors for while he held it, they could not seize his properties. 
LOUIS DE BUADE, COMTE FRONTENAC

300th Anniversary of Frontenac’s Appointment to New France
Issued by Canada Post in 1972
Designer: Laurent Marquart

Saint Pierre and Miquelon issued a stamp around the same time

Frontenac (1620-1698)
Airmail
Designer & engraver: Jacques Gauthier

 As Governor of New France (1672–1682; 1689–1698), Frontenac shaped the military destiny of the colony. He resisted the British assault in 1690 and countered attacks by the Haudenosaunee, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy, by invading their territory in 1696. In order to profit from the fur trade, he contravened official policy prohibiting westward colonial expansion and founded, in 1673, Fort Frontenac (Cataracoui), initiating a network of fur trade posts that extended French presence on the continent. Through his correspondence and actions, this controversial governor became a legendary figure in Canadian history.
https://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dfhd/page_nhs_eng.aspx?id=1355

 So important was Frontenac to early Canadian history, his name has been slapped onto parks, hotels, schools, administrative districts and metro stations. Here’s a sampling:

• Frontenac, Quebec: provincial municipality in Quebec.
• Frontenac County: Administrative regions in Quebec and Ontario
• Frontenac Provincial Park & Parc national de Frontenac: provincial parks in Quebec and Ontario.
• Fort Frontenac: French fort and trading post in Kingston, Ontario, built in 1673.
• Château Frontenac- the storied Quebec City hotel named after him.

And it is here where his ghost strides into the story. 

Le Château Frontenac, Québec
From Canada Post’s Historic Hotels series
Issued 1993
Designer: Kosta Tsetsekas

Frontenac couldn’t have picked a better spot to haunt. The hotel sits on the banks of the St Lawrence River, overlooking Quebec City. The city is considered the most haunted city in Canada. Given it’s long history and beauty, well it’s no wonder ghosts come to visit and never go home. The hotel itself, is the most photographed in the world and rightly so. It is majestic and fit for a man such as Frontenac to haunt.   

By 1698, at the age of  78, Frontenac was ailing. In the waning autumn days, his breathing became so laboured he slept sitting up. On November 28th, he breathed his last, dying at Chateau St. Louis in Quebec City.  But this isn’t where the story of Louis Compte de Frontenac ends. 

The Fairmont Le Château Frontenac’s Ghostly Governor Louis Compte de Frontenac
From the Haunted Canada (1st series) 
Designers: Context Creative & Lionel Gadoury

He was buried at the Récollets church, where the hotel was built nearly 200 years later. According to some sources, on his deathbed, Frontenac insisted his heart be sent back to his wife in France. She was too heartbroken to accept the “gift” and returned the gilded box containing his heart, unopened. Another legend has it, Frontenac was so heartbroken upon hearing his wife was having an affair with the King himself, he directed his heart be sent to Madame Frontenac as a reminder of their marriage. 

Since the early years of the hotel, there have been sightings of a man strolling about in 17th century clothing. Staff who have reported seeing him say he is commanding, imperial but not frightening. He’s still keeping watch over Quebec. 

Previous SODS covered more French and Canadian history:

Victor Hugo died May 22, 1885 in Paris France

Rick Hansen Man in Motion World Tour completes