LOUIS FRANCCOIS

See also:

• LOUIS FRANCCOIS BOUFFLERS
• BOUFFLERS, STANISLAS JEAN, CHEVALIER DE (1737-1815)

BOUFFLERS  , Duc DE, comte de Cagny (1644-1711), marshal of France, was born on the loth of January 1644 . He entered the army and saw service in 1663 at the siege of Marsal, becoming in 1669 colonel of dragoons . In the conquest of Lorraine (167o) he served under Marshal de Crequi . In Holland he served under Turenne, frequently distinguishing himself by his skill and bravery; and when Turenne was killed by a cannon-shot in 1675 he commanded the rear-guard during the retreat of the French army . He was already a brigadier, and in 1677 he became marechal de camp . He served throughout the campaigns of the time with increasing distinction, and in 1681 became lieutenant-general . He commanded the French army on the Moselle, which opened the War of the League of Augsburg with a series of victories; then he led a corps to the Sambre, and reinforced Luxemburg on the eve of the battle of Fleurus . In 1691 he acted as lieutenant-general under the king in person; and during the investment of Mons he was wounded in an attack on the town . He was present with the king at the siege of Namur in 1692, and took part in the victory of Steinkirk . For his services he was raised in 1692 to the rank of marshal of France, and in 1694 was made a duke . In 1694 he was appointed governor of French Flanders and of the town of Lille . By a skilful manceuvre he threw himself into Namur in 1695, and only surrendered to his besiegers after he had lost 8000 of his 13,000 men .

In the conferences which terminated in the

peace of Ryswick he had a principal share . During the following war, when Lille was threatened with a siege by Marlborough and Eugene, Boufflers was appointed to the command, and made a most gallant resistance of three months . He was rewarded and honoured by the king for his defence of Lille, as if he had been victorious . It was indeed a species of triumph; his enemy, appreciating his merits, allowed him to dictate his own terms of capitulation . In 1708 he was made a peer of France . In 1709, when the affairs of France were threatened with the most urgent danger, Boufflers offered to serve under his junior, Villars, and was with him at the battle of Malplaquet . Here he displayed the highest skill, and after Villars was wounded he conducted the retreat of the French army without losing either cannon or prisoners . He died at Fontainebleau on the 22nd of August 171I . See F .. ., Vie du Mal. de Boufflers- (Lille, 1852), and Pere Delarue's and Pere Poisson's Oraisons funebres du Mal . B . (1712) .