Everything about Fran Ois-henri De Montmorency Duc De Luxembourg totally explained
François Henri de Montmorency-Bouteville, duc de Piney, called
de Luxembourg (
January 8,
1628 -
January 4,
1695), was a
French general,
marshal of France, famous as the comrade and successor of
the great Condé.
Early years
François Henri de Montmorency-Bouteville was born at
Paris. His father, the Comte de Montmorency-Bouteville, had been executed six months before his birth for participating in a
duel against the marquis de Beuvron. His aunt,
Charlotte de Montmorency, Princess de Condé, took charge of him and educated him with her son, the
Duc d'Enghien. The young Montmorency (or Bouteville as he was then called) attached himself to his cousin, and shared his successes and reverses throughout the troubles of the
Fronde. He returned to France in
1659 and was pardoned, and Condé, then much attached to the Duchesse de Châtillon, Montmorency's sister, contrived the marriage of his adherent and cousin to the greatest heiress in France, Madeleine de Luxemburg-Piney, Princesse de Tingry and heiress of the Luxemburg dukedom (1661), after which he was created Duc de Luxembourg and peer of France.
Luxembourg as general
War of Devolution and the Franco-Dutch War
At the opening of the
War of Devolution (1667-68),
Condé, and consequently Luxembourg, had no command, but during the second campaign he served as Condé's lieutenant general in the conquest of
Franche Comté. During the foul years of peace which followed, Luxembourg cultivated the favour of
Louvois, and in 1672 held a high command against the Dutch. He defeated the
Prince of Orange at
Woerden and ravaged the
Netherlands, and in 1673 made his famous retreat from
Utrecht to
Maastricht with only 20,000 men in face of 70,000, an exploit which placed him in the first rank of generals.
In
1674 he was made captain of the
Garde du Corps, and in
1675 Marshal of France. In 1676 he was placed at the head of the
army of the Rhine, but failed to keep the Duke of Lorraine out of Philipsburg. In 1677 he stormed
Valenciennes; and in 1678 he defeated the
Prince of Orange, who attacked him at
St Denis after the signature of the
Peace of Nijmegen. His reputation was now high and it's reputed that he quarrelled with Louvois, who managed to involve him in the "
affair of the poisons" and get him sent to the
Bastille.
Rousset in his
Histoire de Louvois has shown that this quarrel is probably apocryphal. Luxembourg doubtlessly spent some months of
1680 in the Bastille, but on his release took up his post at court as
capitaine des gardes.
War of the Grand Alliance 1688-97
By 1690, during the
War of the Grand Alliance, Luxembourg was entrusted with the command of King Louis' army in the
Spanish Netherlands, superseding
Louis de Crevant, Duke of Humières. On
July 1,
1690 he won a great victory over William's allied commander, the
Prince of Waldeck, at
Fleurus. In the following year he was again victorious at
Leuze on
September 18,
1691.
In the next campaign he covered the king's
Siege of Namur, and defeated
William at
Steenkerque in
1692; and on
July 29,
1693, he won his greatest victory over his old adversary at
Neerwinden, after which he was called
le tapissier de Nôtre Dame from the number of captured colours that he sent to the cathedral. He was received with enthusiasm at Paris by all but the king, who looked coldly on a relative and adherent of the Condés.
St-Simon describes in the first volume of his
Memoirs how, instead of ranking as eighteenth peer of France according to his patent of 1661, he claimed through his wife to be duc de Piney of an old creation of
1571, which would place him second on the roll. The affair is described with St-Simon's usual interest in the peerage, and was chiefly checked through his assiduity.
In the campaign of
1694, Luxembourg did little in Flanders, except that he conducted a famous march from
Vignamont to
Tournay in face of the enemy.
Death
On his return to
Versailles for the winter he fell ill, and died. In his last moments he was attended by the famous
Jesuit priest Bourdaloue, who said on his death, "I have not lived his life, but I'd wish to die his death." Luxembourg's morals were bad even in those times, and he'd shown little sign of religious conviction. But as a general he was Condé's grandest pupil. Though slothful like Condé in the management of a campaign, at the moment of battle he seemed seized with happy inspirations, against which no ardour of William's and no steadiness of Dutch or English soldiers could stand. His death and
Catinat's disgrace close the second period of the military history of the reign of
Louis XIV, and Catinat and Luxembourg, though inferior to Condé and
Turenne, were far superior to
Tallard and
Villeroi. He was distinguished for a pungent wit. One of his retorts referred to his deformity. "I never can beat that cursed humpback," William was reputed to have said of him. "How does he know I've a hump?" retorted Luxembourg, "he has never seen my back." He left four sons, the youngest of whom was a marshal of France as Marechal de Montmorency.
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