Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet, duc de Belle-Isle
| Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet | |
|---|---|
Half-Length Portrait of Charles-Louis-Auguste Fouquet (1684-1761), Maréchal de France and Duc de Belle-Isle by Maurice Quentin de La Tour (exhibited at the Salon of 1748). Private collection.
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| Born |
22 September 1684 Villefranche-de-Rouergue |
| Died | 22 January 1761 (aged 76) |
| Allegiance | France |
| Rank | Maréchal de France |
| Battles/wars | Siege of Philippsburg (1734), Battle of Assietta |
Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet, duc de Belle-Isle (22 September 1684 – 26 January 1761) was a French general and statesman.
Born in Villefranche-de-Rouergue, Belle-Isle was the grandson of Nicolas Fouquet, who served as Superintendent of Finances under Louis XIV. His family was in disgrace because of Fouquet’s brash ambition in the eyes of Louis XIV. Determined to blot out his family’s prior disgrace, he entered the army at an early age and was made proprietary colonel of a dragoon regiment in 1708. He rose during the War of the Spanish Succession to the rank of brigadier, and in March 1718 to that of Maréchal de Camp. He was present at the capture of Fuenterrabía in 1718 and of San Sebastián in 1719 during the War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718-1720.)
Aided by the rise of Cardinal Fleury, Belle-Isle was made lieutenant-général, and grew in influence over French military policy. In the War of the Polish Succession he commanded a corps under the orders of Marshal Berwick, capturing Trier and Traben-Trarbach and taking part in the Siege of Philippsburg in 1734. When peace was made in 1736, Louis XV gave Belle-Isle the governments of three important fortresses: Metz, Toul, and Verdun offices that he would hold until his death. This was in recognition of both his military services and of his taking part in the negotiations for the cession of Lorraine.
Belle-Isle’s military and political reputation was now at its height, and he was one of the government’s principal advisers on military and diplomatic affairs. In 1741 he was sent on diplomatic mission to Frankfurt, Germany as French Plenipotentiary to carry out, in the interests of France, a grand scheme of political reorganization in the moribund empire, and especially to obtain the election of Charles Albert, Elector of Bavaria as emperor. The long tradition of Franco-Austrian rivalry had crystallized around Belle-Isle, who had emerged as the leader of the bellicose bloc of French policy makers towards the House of Austria. In the eventful year of 1741, he was at the masthead of French interventionist policy in Germany—characterized by scholar Richard Lodge as a “scheme for the humiliation of the House of Austria,”—and of the beginnings of the War of the Austrian Succession. French aggression was in large part made possible by the precedent set by the Frederick II of Prussia and his conquest of Silesia—often referred to as the Rape of Silesia. France’s initial victories—including the election of Charles Albert to Holy Roman Emperor—were short lived, and by 1743 the war was proving to be very disappointing for France, as Belle-Isle’s military command in Germany was full of setbacks and losses. His aggressive strategy towards Austria was predicated on the swift defeat of an impotent and disorganized Austria, along with the lynchpin that was Franco-Prussian alliance.
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