Abraham de Fabert

Maréchal Abraham de Fabert , engraving by Gérard Edelinck

Bronze statue of Fabert, in front of the main guard on Place d'Armes in Metz .

Abraham de Fabert or Abraham (de) Fabert d'Esternay (born October 11, 1599 in Metz , † May 16, 1662 in Sedan ) was a French military leader and military engineer , Marshal of France .

Life

Abraham de Fabert

Abraham Fabert was the son of Abraham Fabert, Seigneur de Moulins († 1638), a famous printer in the service of Henry IV. He grew up in the fortress of Metz and joined the French military at an early age. First he was able to prove himself successfully in 1621 at the siege of Saint-Jean-d'Angély . Six years later, due to the protection of the Duc d'Epernon, Fabert was promoted to major (highest non-commissioned officer rank) in the Régiment de Rambures .

With this regiment he took part in the siege of La Rochelle (1627) and then fought in the Mantuan War of Succession (1628-1631) at Saluzzo , Privas and Veillane . At the end of the war, Fabert was finally able to raise the funds to acquire a company from the Régiment Cardinal-Duc cavalerie . In the same year there were clashes between France and the Duchy of Lorraine . In the course of this, Fabert took part in the sieges of Moyenvic (1631), Trier (1632) and La Mothe (1634) and acquired a reputation as a military engineer. In this capacity he was sent to Thionville in 1634 to scout this Spanish fortress. He was arrested and only after long negotiations and after the intervention of King Louis XIII. released again.

At the beginning of the French-Spanish War , which broke out in 1635 , he distinguished himself repeatedly, especially during the siege of Avesnes and Maubeuge (both 1637).

Promoted to captain in the Régiment des Gardes françaises , he gave further evidence of his skills at the siege of Arras (1640) , the battle of La Marfée in 1641, and then in Roussillon at the sieges of Collioure and Perpignan in 1642.

In 1642 the king appointed him governor of the newly acquired fortress Sedan . In 1651 he became lieutenant general and in 1654, at the siege of Stenay , he introduced new types of siege weapons, which in a way anticipated Vauban's improvements .

In 1658 Fabert became the first commoner to be appointed Marshal of France . He died in Sedan in 1662. His hometown Metz erected a bronze statue for him in 1841 on the Place d'Armes by the cathedral.

literature

• Louis Dussieux: Les Grands Généraux de Louis XIV. Notices historiques. Libraire Victor Lecoffre, Paris 1888, pp. 56-68 .