Philippe de La Mothe-Houdancourt

Philippe, comte de la Mothe-Houdancourt (1605 – March 24, 1657), Duke of Cardona, was French and a Marshal of France who fought in the Thirty Years' War.

Philippe de la Mothe-Houdancourt was one of 12 children of Philippe (1558-1652), Seigneur de La Mothe-Houdancourt, de Sacy et de Rucoin, and his third wife (14/02/1594), Louise Charles du Plessis-Picquet.

Since 1622 he fought in the Chevau-légers against the Huguenots and was present at the Siege of La Rochelle and the defeat of the English in the Siege of Saint-Martin-de-Ré (1627).

He then fought in the War of the Mantuan Succession and at the taking of Pinerolo in 1630, and the battle of Carignano bridge, where he was wounded. On September 1, 1632 he fought in the Battle of Castelnaudary against Henri II de Montmorency. In the same year he was made governor of Bellegarde.

At the outbreak of the Franco-Spanish War (1635) he fought at the head of his own infantry regiment in the Siege of Nancy, the Battle of Les Avins (May 20, 1635), the Siege of Leuven and the taking of the Schenk-fortress. In 1636 he defended Saint-Jean-de-Losne against Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine and general Matthias Gallas. The next years he fought several battles in Germany at the head of his own Army Corps under Henri II d'Orléans, Duke of Longueville.

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