VILLARS, CUARLES-LOUIS-HECTOR, Due de, Marshal of France, one of the most illustrious of the great captains of Louis XIV.'s time, was born at Moulins, in the department of Allier, May 8, 1633. Being of. a noble family, his education, with a view to the military profession, was prosecuted at the college of Juilly, and he subse quently volunteered into the army which was employed in Holland; and having attracted Louis XIV,'s attention by his daring courage and striking elegance of figure, obtained a troop of horse in 1672, served for two years under Turenne in Germany, and after the battle of Seneffe received a regiment of cavalry, when yet in his 21st year. After a further term of service under Luxembourg and Crequi, he returned to Paris with the reputation of being one of the most promising young officers of the time. During the next ten years (1678-88) he was employed in diplomatic service, chiefly at the court of Bavaria. In 1688 Louvois appointed him commissary-gen. of cavalry; and, in the war which immediately followed the league of Augsburg, placed him at the head of the cavalry in Flanders. He was subsequently distinguished in the campaigns on the Rhine and in Italy. From 1609 till 1701 be represented France at the court of Vienna, and watched with sleepless vigilance the tortuous policy of the Austrian ministers, foiling by his pene tration their most promising schemes, till he came to be regarded personally with extreme dislike, was shunned by all the court (prince Eugene excepted), and even his life threatened. On his return, he was employed in Italy under Villerm; and, after a brief period of service under Catinat, was for the first time (1702) raised to independent command, when he was sent to succor the elector of Bavaria, who had taken up arms on the side of France. Toward the close of 1702 Villars crossed the Rhine, defeated the markgraf of Baden at Priedlingen, took Treves, Traerbach, and Nancy; and early in the following year, again crossed the Rhine, traversed the almost impassable defiles of the Black Forest, and, debouching from the mountains at Villingen, joined the elector near Dutlingen, on May 12. His bold and well-conceived scheme for carrying the war into the enemy's country by advancing upon Vienna, while so many Austrian troops were employed on the middle Rhine, in Italy, and against Ragotski in Hungary, was foiled by the stupid obstinacy of his colleague, the elector; and after his skill and genius had been tasked to the utmost to keep the Austro-Germans under the markgraf of Baden and Stirum at bay, and he had been relieved by the return of his ally (who had been soundly beaten by the Tyrolese mountaineers), be reopened his line of communica tion westward, and, leaving Marsin in command, returned in disgust to France. He was next commissioned to put down the insurrection of the Camisards (q.v.), which had been zealously fostered, for strategic reasons, by English and Dutch agents. Villars's manly moderation and soldierly frankless fairly won over Cavalier, the ablest of the insurgent leaders; and might, with his consummate military skill, have suppressed the insurrection. However, he was not allowed to manage matters for himself, and all he could do was to reduce the ferment to insignificant proportions. Villars was then sent
to watch over the north-eastern frontier, and took post on the heights of Fronsberg, when Marlborough advanced upon him with 110,00 men; but Villars had shown such skill and strategy in the selection and fortification • of his position, and such wise self-control in remaining strictly on the defensive, that the great English hero declined to risk an attack, and retreated; upon which Villars burst into Alsace, captured the enemies' reserves of supplies and artillery, and advanced to Rastadt and Stuttgart. The with drawal of some of his troops to re-enforce the north French army forced him to recross the Rhine; yet, with his small army, lie, in 1708, completely foiled all the attempts of prince Eugene to penetrate into France. In 1709 he was sent to oppose Marlborough in the north; but unfortunately, at the commencement of the battle of Malplaquet (q.v.), he was severely wounded, carried off the field insensible, and rendered unfit for service till the following year; and the reopening of his wound in the autumn of 1710 forced him again to resign the command. But in 1711 he returned to his post, headed the last T` • firtiay rat e cOuld raise, and with it fell upon the British and Dutch under Albermarle, who were intrenched at Denain (July 24, 1712), carried their intrenchments sword in band, and captured the most of them; he then turned upon prince Eugene, and drove him under the walls of Brussels. This magnificent series of successes saved the national honor, and even life, of France, and brought about the peace of Rastadt (see UTRECUT), which Villars signed as plenipotentiary, May 6, 1714. After the peace, he became, at. court, the principal adviser on military affairs and on questions of foreign policy; was a strong opponent of Law's financial measures; but, through the intrigues of Fleury, lost favor at court. The outbreak of war in 1739, however, brought out the old hero front his retirement, and with the title of " marshal-gen. of the camps and armies of France " he went to head the French army in the Milanese. The campaigns of showed that the weight of years had left Villars's military genius and spirit untouched; but the ill-behavior of his ally, the king of Sardinia, determined him to solicit his recall; and he accordingly set out for France; but falling ill at Turin, he died there, June 17, 1734. Villars was the last of the great military geniuses of the French monarchy, and was wholly free from the restless anxiety for which detracts from the merits of so• many of them. As a general, he possessed in a high degree rapidity of apprehension, skill in disposition, and promptitude (without precipitancy or rashness) in action. Humanity and sincerity, joined to thorough self-reliance, may be traced through the whole of his long and eventful life; and the two latter qualities occasionally exhibited themselves so prominently at court as to cause the "professional courtiers" of Louis. XIV. to look askance upon him as a "rude and immodest" person. His memoirs have been printed in Holland, and his autobiography by Anquetil.