MONTALEMBERT, MARL RENil, Marquis de, 1714-1800; b. and educated In Angouleme; entered the army at the age of 18. and while engaged in military service made a specialty of scientific stiffly, and in 1747 became a member of the :leadenly of sciences of Paris. In 1751 he constructed foundries at Rouelle for cannon of larger caliber than previously used, which were employed in the seven years' war (1736 –63), in which he was general in the service of Sweden and Russia He aided Todleben in the capture of Berlin in 1760: the year had finished, it great work on fortifications, which he was about to publish, when the French Minister, Choiseul, interdicted the publication in order to have it for the sole benefit of France. He became the chief military engineer of France, and his systems proved superior to all others. In 1779 he constructed a fort of wood on the Isle d' Aix, which was found to have wonder ful resistance in proportion to its cost. At the beginning of the French revolution
Mirabeau undertook to make him inspector-general of the fortifications of France, but his rank was a bar-sinister. In 1792 the French war office, under Carnot, purchased his collection of models, and he became the trusted adviser of that minister. He lived to see his inventions and theories, following in general the system of Vauban, adopted in France and throughout Europe, after many years of almost contemptuous opposition. llis main work is Fortification perpendiculaire, 11 quarto vols., 1776-78 ; re-edited and published in 1193 under the title of L' Art defensif superior a Part 8 l'offehsif. He was author also of many memoirs on various subjects, of poems, and of comedies.