Almost as soon as he re-entered France, Condé began to occupy himself with matrimonial projects on behalf of his son. If we are to believe _la Grand Mademoiselle_, overtures were made to her, and the Duc d’Enghien was “ardently desirous for this marriage, and very assiduous in his attentions to her.” The princess, however, excused herself, “on the ground of the great disparity of age between herself and the duke,” though she informs us, in her “Mémoires,” that it was her suitor’s “want of merit,” and his “base mind,” to which she objected. No difficulty would, however, have presented itself had Condé been willing for his son to marry _Mademoiselle’s_ half-sister, Mlle. d’Alençon. _Madame la Princesse_ was very anxious for this alliance, as were several of the prince’s counsellors; but Condé had other views for his heir, and had determined to marry him to Anne of Bavaria, second daughter of Edward of Bavaria, Prince Palatine, and of Anne de Gonzague, sister of the Queen of Poland.[208] His reason for preferring an alliance with a foreign princess of the second rank and of little fortune to one which would have strengthened the position of the Condés, by uniting them to the younger branch of the Royal Family with its great possessions, was the belief that his son’s marriage with a niece of the King and Queen of Poland would be of material assistance to him in the realization of an ambition which he had for some time cherished. This ambition was nothing less than Enghien’s succession to the elective crown of Poland, which the reigning sovereign, the childless John Casimir, was prepared to abdicate so soon as a candidate likely to be acceptable to the great majority of his subjects could be found. This idea seems to have originated with the Queen of Poland, one of Condé’s most intimate friends, who was using all her influence to secure the support of her husband and the Polish nobles, who in that State were masters of the throne, for the Duc d’Enghien.