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Duc de Villars

Marshal General
Claude Louis Hector de Villars
Hyacinthe Rigaud -Portrait of Claude Louis Hector de Villars (1704) - Palace of Versailles.jpg
Secretary of State for War
In office
1 October 1715 – 24 September 1718
Monarch Louis XV
Preceded by Daniel Voysin de la Noiraye
Succeeded by Claude le Blanc
Personal details
Born 8 May 1653
Moulins, Kingdom of France
Died 17 June 1734 (aged 81)
Turin, Kingdom of Sardinia
Nationality French
Military service
Allegiance  France
Service/branch French Army
Years of service 1671-1734
Rank Marshal General
Battles/wars Franco-Dutch War
Nine Years' War
War of the Spanish Succession
War of the Polish Succession

Claude Louis Hector de Villars, Prince de Martigues, Marquis then Duc de Villars, Vicomte de Melun (8 May 1653 – 17 June 1734) was a general of Louis XIV of France, one of only six Marshals who have been promoted to Marshal General of France.

Villars was born at Moulins (in the present-day département of Allier) in a noble but poor family — his father was the diplomatPierre de Villars. He entered the French army through the corps of pages in 1671. He distinguished himself at twenty in the Siege of Maastricht in 1673 during the Franco-Dutch War and after the bloody Battle of Seneffe a year later he was promoted on the field to mestre de camp (colonel) of a cavalry regiment.

The next promotion would take time in spite of a long record of service under Turenne, The Great Condé and Luxembourg, and of his aristocratic birth. The reason was that he had incurred the enmity of the powerful Louvois, he was finally made maréchal de camp in 1687.

In the interval between the Dutch wars and the formation of the League of Augsburg, Villars, who combined with his military gifts the tact and subtlety of the diplomatist, was employed in an unofficial mission to the court of Bavaria, and there became the constant companion of Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria.


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