Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet de Belle-Isle

Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet, Duke of Gisors , called de Belle-Isle , (born September 22, 1684 in Villefranche-de-Rouergue , † January 26, 1761 in Versailles ) was a French minister, and Marshal of France .

Life

Marshal of Belle-Isle by Maurice Quentin de la Tour

The Count, later Marquis, de Belle-Isle was a grandson of the Intendant Fouquet and therefore came from a family that had fallen out of favor under Louis XIV . From 1701 to January 1702 he served with the Gray Musketeers . He fought first in Italy, received a dragoon regiment in 1705, with which he took part in the Battle of Turin in 1706 , distinguished himself in 1708 at the siege of Lille . In 1709 he was appointed Mestre de camp general of the Dragoons . In 1714 he accompanied Marshal Villars to Rastatt and was then transferred to the government of Hüningen .

After the war of the Spanish Succession was over , the Duke of Orléans had him arrested in the Bastille ; soon freed, he won the trust of Cardinal Fleury and in 1727 became governor of the Trois-Évêchés with seat in Metz , which he remained until his death. In Metz he developed a brisk construction activity, including the opera in 1738, the oldest opera still in use in France. In 1732 he was made Lieutenant-General and in 1734 served under Marshal Berwick . In the War of the Polish Succession , Belle-Isle captured Trier , defended Philippsburg against Eugene and made a significant contribution to the advantageous peace of 1735 and to securing the Duchy of Bar and the Duchy of Lorraine for France

Promoted to Maréchal de France in 1740 , as the main opponent of the Pragmatic Sanction he was a supporter of the war against Austria , brokered the alliances with Spain , Bavaria , Prussia , Electoral Palatinate and Cologne and, as the ambassador of France, campaigned for the electoral votes of the clerical electors , Prussia and Saxony in 1741 Person for the Elector of Bavaria as successor to Emperor Charles VI, who died in 1740 .

In the War of the Austrian Succession he led a French army to Germany and stormed Prague on November 26, 1741 . After that, in January 1742, he attended the coronation of Karl Albrecht of Bavaria in Frankfurt as agent for France .

The misfortune of the French army called him back to Bohemia . Abandoned by Saxony and Prussia, Belle-Isle and Broglie were attacked by the overall Austrian power and forced to retreat to Prague, from where in December 1742 he managed an admirable retreat to Eger through the middle of the opposing forces .

In order to persuade Prussia to join the Federation against Austria, he traveled to Berlin , but was arrested in Elbingerode with his brother in 1744 by the Hanoverian bailiff Johann Hermann Meyer and transported to England. After his replacement in 1745, appointed Commander-in-Chief in Provence in 1746 , he compelled the Austrian General Browne to lift the siege of Antibes . After the Peace of Aachen , Belle-Isle became Duke (1742) and Peer of France (1748), also a member of the Academy (1749). He was a knight of the Golden Fleece .

The redesign of the Place d'Armes in Metz was started in 1754 on his behalf by Jacques-François Blondel . Louis XV demanded the creation of a place around which all powers were represented.

As a sworn enemy of the House of Austria, he tried in vain to prevent the alliance with Austria against Prussia in 1756. Since 1758 Minister of War ( Secrétaire d'État à la Guerre ), he made great contributions to the French army by expanding military schools, restricting the excessive luxury in the camp, introducing a fair promotion system, etc. Shortly before his death, he founded the Academy of Sciences in Metz.

Belle-Isle died on January 26, 1761 as the last male descendant of his house.

His brother Armand Fouquet de Belle-Isle (1693-1746), known under the name Chevalier de Belle-Isle , also distinguished himself on the battlefield as in diplomacy and tried in 1746, at the head of 50 battalions in Sardinia-Piedmont to penetrate, but found death on July 19 at the Col de l'Assiette .

The name is reminiscent of the island of Belle-Île , which was owned by the family from Fouquet until the Marshal ceded it to the crown for the county of Gisors .

medal

• Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece
• Knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit

Web links

• Short biography and list of works of the Académie française (French)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Correspondance inédite de Victor-François, duc de Broglie, maréchal de France, avec le prince Xavier de Saxe, Cte de Lusac, lieutenant général, pour servir à l'histoire de la Guerre de Sept-Ans (Campagnes de 1759 à 1761) , Vol. 1, Paris 1903, p. 36 Google Books .

predecessor	Office	successor
Antoine René de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson	Minister of War of France March 3, 1758 - January 26, 1761	Étienne-François de Choiseul