Jean-Charles de Folard

Jean-Charles Chevalier de Folard (born February 13, 1669 in Avignon ; † March 23, 1752 ibid) was a French officer and military theorist who became known for the fact that he was already at the time when linear tactics were in their prime Use of columns occurred. The significance of his ideas was only fully recognized after his death and posthumously earned him the honorable epithet Vegetius of France .

Life

Illustration to Folard's story of Polybius

Allegedly animated by reading Caesar's Gallic War , Folard ran away from home early on and became a soldier. In 1702, at the age of 33, he became captain and adjutant to the Duke of Vendome , who at the time was commanding the French army in Italy. In 1705, now under the command of Vendôme's brother Philip , he acquired the Order of the Cross from Saint Louis for an excellent deed in arms and distinguished himself in the same year at the Battle of Cassano (August 16, 1705), in which he was seriously wounded. During the lengthy recovery he developed his tactical theories, which he devoted the rest of his life to explaining. In 1706 he resumed his service in Italy. In 1708 he distinguished himself again, this time by participating in the attempts of the Duke of Vendôme and the Duke of Burgundy to relieve the enclosed fortress of Lille . The attempts were unsuccessful because of differences of opinion between the two military leaders. The fact that Folard was able to maintain the goodwill of both can be seen as a testimony to his tact and integrity. In 1709 he was wounded again in the battle of Malplaquet and in 1711 his services were rewarded by making him governor of Bourbourg . Not unusual for the time, he was later in the service of the Swedish King Charles XII. in the Northern War after serving in Malta in 1714 . In 1719, during the short war of the Quadruple Alliance, he returned to French service under the Duke of Berwick . Folard considered Charles XII, whose ingenious tactical talent had already caused a stir at the time, as the best general of all time. So he began to write down his tactical ideas in Stockholm in a commentary on the Historíai des Polybios . On the way back to France, he was shipwrecked and lost all of his records. He immediately began to write again and in 1724 was able to publish his Nouvelles Découvertes sur la guerre dans une dissertation de Polybe (New discoveries about the war ...). From 1727 to 1730 further tactical publications followed under the title Histoire de Polybe traduite par. . . de Thuillier avec un commentaire de M. de Folard, Chevalier de l'Ordre de St Louis . He spent the rest of his life defending his ideas, which were hotly contested. Without friends and largely unknown, he died in his native Avignon in 1752.

Work and effect

Folard's military writings do not develop a comprehensive theory of war, but develop a multitude of independent tactical ideas of varying value. While some can be considered to be trend-setting, others are merely unconventional or even reach fantastic. The linchpin of his theories, which sparked most of the controversy, was his proposal to form the infantry in columns. He recognized the obvious weakness of the thin lines of the linear tactics of the time . Based on the wedge and column formations of ancient warfare, he wanted to supplement the fire tactics of the 18th century with the push of deeply echeloned troops. The infantry columns, however, should act together with infantry lines. He also assumed that fixed columns gave the order of battle greater stability in defense.

The Polybius edition in particular impressed Frederick the Great so much that he made it the basis of his own handbook for his officers, which he published. While other famous generals such as Moritz von Sachsen and Guido von Starhemberg agreed in principle to his ideas and put them into practice, most of the European military establishment turned against Folard's ideas.

Today it is assumed that his ideas reflected, among other things, the short range and accuracy of the firearms of the time. However, it was only Napoleon who made effective use of these ideas. The column tactic proposed by Folard held its own in Europe for more than half a century and was only gradually abandoned when the further development of firearms prohibited their further use.

Works

• Nouvelles découvertes sur la guerre , Paris, 1724
• Defense des places ;
• Commentaires sur l'Histoire de Polybe , Amsterdam, 1735, 7 volumes
• History of Polyb, with the interpretations and comments of the knight Herr von Folard, French colonel, in which he clearly and thoroughly dealt with the art of war in all its parts together with his teaching structure of the column and presented it in many copperplate engravings , Vienna, Prague and Trieste, Trattner , 1759-1760

literature

• Hanns Eggert Willibald von der Luehe, Militair-Conversations-Lexicon , Volume 3, S.148f