VILLARS, LOUIS HECTOR, DUKE OF

VILLARS, LOUIS HECTOR, DUKE OF, one of the most illustrious of the French generals, was a son of the Marquis of Villars, and was born at Moulins in 1653. Having finished his early education at the college of Juilly, he became one of the pages de la grande écurie, and afterwards entered the army as a volunteer. He served with great distinction in Germany and the Low Countries under Turenne, Condé and the Duke of Luxembourg, and obtained the command of a regiment of horse when he was only twenty-one years of age. After the peace of Nimeguen in 1678, he was for many years chiefly employed in diplomatic services, especially at the courts of Vienna and Munich, and he showed himself not less skilful as a diplomatist than as a soldier. On the breaking out of the war of the Spanish succession in 1701, Villars was recalled from Vienna, where he then was, and attached to the army in Italy. In 1702 he was intrusted with the chief command of an army in Germany to succour the Elector of Bavaria. On the 14th of October he defeated at Friedlingen Prince Louis of Baden, who commanded the Austrian forces, and for this service he received the baton of maréchal of France. In 1703 he, by a bold and sudden march, captured Kehl, and afterwards succeeded in effecting a junction with the troops of the elector. An attack was afterwards made by the united forces on the Austrians under General Sterum near Hochstädt, in which the latter were completely routed. Disgusted, however, with the pusillanimity of the elector, Villars requested to be recalled from his command, to which the king reluctantly gave his consent. He was next intrusted with the difficult office of reducing to submission the reformers of the Cévennes known under the name of Camisards, in which he proceeded less by violence than by moderate and conciliatory measures. In 1705, the French arms having suffered many reverses in Germany, Villars was again sent there with the chief command. He established himself in so strong a position at Fronsberg, that Marlborough, at the head of a large army, was afraid to attack him. He then took Treves and Sarrebourg, passed into Alsatia, and forced the lines of Weissenburg. The following year he took Lauterburg and Hagenau; but these successes were neutralized by the defeat of Ramilies in Flanders, occasioned by Villeroi. In 1707 he forced the lines of Stollhofen, occupied Stuttgart, and passed into Franconia and Swabia. In 1708 he was sent to the army in Dauphiné, with which he penetrated into Piedmont. In 1709 he was sent into Flanders to oppose the progress of Marlborough and the Prince Eugene; and on the 11th September of that year was fought the great battle of Malplaquet, in which the French were defeated, Villars having been severely wounded in the beginning of the action. In the two following years little was done; but in 1712 he defeated the Austrians at Denain, forced Eugene to raise the siege of Laudrecy, and took several fortresses.

In 1713 he penetrated into Germany, and took Landau and Friburg. In 1714 the peace of Rastadt was concluded; and on the death of Louis XIV. in 1715, Villers was made a minister of state and a member of the regency. From that time till 1732, when war with Austria again broke out, Villers was chiefly occupied with political affairs. In 1733 he was sent into Italy with the title of maréchal-général, which had never been conferred on any one before him except Turenne. He was then in his eighty-first year, but he still evinced all the ardour, activity, and contempt of danger which had characterised his youth. He died at Turin on the 17th of June 1734.