Louis Victor de Rochechouart de Mortemart

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Louis Victor de Rochechouart, Duke of Mortemart and Vivonne (born August 25, 1636 in Paris - † December 15, 1688 ) was Marshal of France and high-ranking court official under Louis XIV.

Louis Victor de Rochechouart

family

He came from the Rochechouart family . He was the son of Gabriel de Rochechouart de Mortemart , a close confidante of Louis XIII. His oldest sister was Gabrielle de Rochechouart de Mortemart. His best-known sister was Madame de Montespan , who later became the mistress of Louis XIV. Another sister was the abbess Marie Madeleine de Rochechouart. He himself married Antoinette Louise de Mesmes. With this he had six children.

Life

He joined the army in 1653 and became captain of the royal guard. He served in Flanders under the command of Turenne . He went through several sieges. He became a colonel of the Royal Etrangers and took part in two campaigns in Italy. He switched to the Navy in 1659 and became Grand Maître de la Navigation.

In 1664 he was appointed Marshal. He led an attack against the pirates of the barbarian states . In 1669, after the intercession of his sister, the Marquise de Montespan, he was appointed in command of the galleys. He took part in the final stages of the siege of Candia . He was wounded and unable to break through the Turkish lines. He then returned to Toulon .

During the Dutch War he fought again with the land troops and was seriously wounded in 1672 when crossing the Rhine. He was appointed governor of Champagne and Brie in 1674 . A year later he landed in Sicily with an expeditionary force and took Augusta . He was officially called the Viceroy of Sicily. As an admiral, he defeated the Spanish-Dutch fleet in the naval battle of Palermo in 1676 . However, it was not possible to conquer the entire island with his weak forces.

He then went back to the army and took part in the war again in 1678.

After the war he lived at the court of Louis XIV, held high court offices and was a patron of various authors. He himself emerged as an essayist.

Individual evidence

  1. John Albert Lynn: The French wars: 1667-1714: the Sun King at war. Oxford 2002, p. 45.

literature

  • William James Roberts: France: a reference guide from the Renaissance to the present. New York 2004, pp. 609f.