François de Neufville, duc de Villeroy

François de Neufville, Marshal of France.

François de Neufville, 2 ^e duc de Villeroy or Villeroi (born April 7, 1644 in Lyon , † July 18, 1730 in Paris ) was a French military leader and Marshal of France .

Early life and marriage

François de Neufville, duc de Villeroy was a son of Marshal Nicolas de Neufville, duc de Villeroy . He was brought up with Louis XIV and was his playmate. He spent his youth amid the intrigues and distractions of the court, was a darling of ladies and was considered a model of elegance and fashion.

Villeroy married Marie-Marguerite de Cossé-Brissac (* 1648; † 1708) in Paris on March 28, 1662 and had 7 children with her:

1. Louis Nicolas de Neufville, Duke of Villeroy (* 1663; † 1734), ⚭ Marguerite Le Tellier de Louvois, daughter of the Marquis de Louvois ( Le Tellier de Louvois )
2. Camille de Neufville († 1671), died young
3. François Paul de Neufville (* 1677; † 1731), Archbishop of Lyon (since 1714)
4. François Catherine de Neufville († 1700)
5. Madeleine Thérèse de Neufville (* 1666; † 1723), nun
6. Françoise Madeleine de Neufville († 1730), ⚭ 1688 João de Sousa, 3rd Margrave of Minas
7. Catherine de Neufville (* 1674; † 1715), nun

Although he was a lifelong favorite of Louis XIV, Villeroy had to avoid court at a young age because of love intrigues with a chambermaid of Louis and a duchess still unknown to this day, and spent several years in Lyon , where his father was governor. The king did not even allow him to participate in the Dutch War (1672) in the French army. Not until 1680 did he get permission to return to the court. A close friend of the king, a consummate courtier, and a man of great gallantry, Villeroy was destined for a career in the army that he loved very much, but for which he was hardly suited.

Military career

On July 23, 1693, Villeroy captured the town of Huy and took part in the Battle of Neer winds on the following July 29 . Without having distinguished himself in particular, he was made marshal. After Luxembourg's death in January 1695 , he commanded the Netherlands , but showed great ineptitude. He could Wilhelm III. not to force the lifting of the siege of Namur and not to drive out the prince Vaudémont who covered it. So he finally left the heavily fortified city to its fate in order to withdraw the Dutch from Namur by attacking Brussels . He almost completely incinerated Brussels by heavy bombardment in August 1695, but withdrew again because Wilhelm III. did not let himself be disturbed during the siege of Namur. From 1696 to 1697 he remained in command in the Netherlands without anything important being undertaken by the warring but battle-weary parties. When he returned to Paris in 1697 after the peace treaty in Rijswijk , he was scorned for his military mistakes.

Nevertheless, Villeroy received through Louis XIV during the War of the Spanish Succession in the summer of 1701 the command of the French army fighting in Italy against Prince Eugene , whose previous leaders, Nicolas Catinat and Duke Viktor Amadeus II of Savoy, had to come under his command. He reached the army on August 22nd and, against Catinat's advice, undertook the unwise and unsuccessful attack on Chiari , where Eugene had holed up, on September 1st, 1701 . Villeroy moved his army to winter quarters in the Cremonese and Milanese and took his headquarters in Cremona in order to be able to attract the replacement troops necessary to supplement his weakened army. On February 1, 1702, he was attacked by Eugene at night in Cremona and taken prisoner.

Jokes in the army composed a famous mocking verse at Villeroy's expense:

"Par la faveur de Bellone,

et par un bonheur sans égal,

Nous avons conservé crémone

--et perdu notre général. "

By the favor of Bellona,

and through incomparable happiness

could we keep Cremona

but lost our general.

Soon set free again, Villeroy was reinstated in the Netherlands by his royal patron and then commanded an army corps that occupied the passes of the Black Forest during the Battle of Höchstädt (August 13, 1704) to keep Prince Eugene from being connected with To hold Marlborough . Villeroy, however, was deceived by the imperial general and could do nothing but secure the retreat of Tallard's defeated army . In May 1705 he covered the siege of Huy. Although this was taken, it was soon lost again when Marlborough blew up the French lines behind the Meuse , which Villeroy was occupying, on July 17 and 18, 1705 .

At the beginning of 1706, Villeroy took over the command of the army in the Netherlands and advanced in May with the Elector Maximilian II. Emanuel of Bavaria over the Dyle . Marlborough advanced towards him, and on May 23, 1706 the battle of Ramillies broke out , in which Villeroy was defeated, not without his own fault, and lost about 20,000 men of dead and prisoners as well as all his artillery and baggage. Brabant , Flanders and even part of the French border fell into the hands of the Allies. Vendôme then took the place of Villeroy.

Next life

Louis XIV retained his constant confidence in his favorite despite his military failures. Villeroy stayed for a few years partly in Paris, partly on his estate near Lyon, from which he helped suppress a revolt of the butchers' guild in Lyon in 1714. When the king, at the instigation of Madame de Maintenon , drew up a will shortly before his death in 1715, which was intended to limit the power of the future regent, the Duke of Orleans , Villeroy was also initiated into the secret. In his last will, the king appointed Villeroy to be the governor (supervisor of education) of the young Louis XV. as well as a member of the Regency Council. However, this will was repealed on September 2, 1715, one day after the death of Louis XIV. Although Villeroy had declared himself in favor of the Duke of Maine , Louis XIV's natural son, and against the regent, the Duke of Orleans, the latter still left him with the person of Louis XV until the offended Cardinal Dubois on his Distance urged. After an appearance brought about by the regent, in which Villeroy refused to speak to the king without witnesses (August 12, 1722), the regent had him arrested and banished to his Villeroy estate. He was later allowed to take over the governorate of Lyon.

After Louis XV. At times, Villeroy returned to court when he was of legal age, but without gaining any influence. He died on July 18, 1730 in Paris at the age of 86.

literature

• Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon: "Mémoires de Saint-Simon" Nouvelle édition collationnée sur le manuscrit autographe, augmentée des additions de Saint-Simon au Journal de Dangeau. Hachette, Paris 1879. (online at: gallica.bnf.fr )
• Jean de Viguerie: Histoire et dictionnaire du temps des Lumières. 1715-1789. Robert Laffont, coll.Bouquins, Paris 2003, ISBN 2-221-04810-5 .

Web links

Commons : François de Neufville, duc de Villeroy  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

1. ↑ Family tree of the Neufville-Villeroy family