Gavard charles - Galeries historiques de Versailles - 1838

16 engravings by Marshals of France from Series IX Section II

Claude Louis Hector de Villars was a French soldier and diplomat, born on May 8, 1653 in Moulins (kingdom of France)[1] and died on June 17, 1734 in Turin (kingdom of Sardinia). Marshal of France (1702), duke (1705) and peer of France (1709), president of the War Council (1715-1718), he was raised in 1733 to the exceptional dignity of general marshal of the king’s camps and armies.

Jean du Caylar d'Anduze de Saint-Bonnet, lord of Toiras[1], born on March 1, 1585 in Saint-Jean-de-Gardonnenque (now Saint-Jean-du-Gard, Gard department) and killed on June 14, 1636 during the attack on Fontaneto d'Agogna near Milan in Italy, at the age of 51, was a French military man and gentleman of the 16th and 17th centuries. Favorite of Louis XIII, he finished his career as Marshal of France.

Ulrich Frederick Woldemar, Count of Lowendal (1700-1755) was a general who served in the armies of many European countries before entering the service of France where he was appointed marshal.

The second, third and fourth dukes were all three marshals of France. The third, fifth and sixth dukes were knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece.

Nicolas de Catinat de La Fauconnerie, lord of Saint-Gratien, born on December 1, 1637 in Paris (parish of Saint-Benoît-le-Bétourné) and died on February 22, 1712 in Saint-Gratien, was a French soldier of the 17th century. He took part in the major conflicts involving France under the reign of Louis XIV—the Dutch War, the War of the League of Augsburg, and the War of the Spanish Succession—earning him the dignity of Marshal of France (1693).

Henri II de Montmorency, born on April 30, 1595 at the château de Chantilly and died in Toulouse on October 30, 1632, was a gallant contemporary of Louis XIII. Admiral of France, viceroy of New France and governor of Languedoc, he fought against the Protestants and defeated the fleet of Benjamin de Rohan, lord of Soubise, before La Rochelle in 1625. Marshal of France in 1630, he schemed with Gaston d’Orléans, brother of the king, against Cardinal Richelieu. Sentenced to death for lèse-majesté, he was executed in Toulouse on October 30, 1632.

César Phébus d'Albret (born 1614, died in Bordeaux on September 3, 1676), Count of Miossens, lord of Pons, prince of Mortagne, sovereign of Bedeilles, was a French military man, marshal of France and knight of the king’s orders.

Distant relative of Henri IV (whose mother was Jeanne d'Albret), first cousin of the Marquis de Montespan (through his mother Anne de Pardaillan, below), his attachment to Anne of Austria and Mazarin during the Fronde led him, rather than his talents, to be named marshal of France (June 1, 1653); he then left the name Miossens to take that of Albret.

Charles II de La Porte, born in 1602 in Paris and died on February 8, 1664 in the same city, was a French gentleman and soldier of the 17th century. He was made Marshal of France in 1639.

Maurice de Saxe, born October 28, 1696 in Goslar (free imperial city) and died November 30, 1750 at the Château de Chambord, was a French soldier of Saxon origin, titled Count of the Raute (1696-1710) then Count of Saxe (1710-1750). He held the title of Marshal General of the Camps and Armies of Louis XV. He is best known for his victory at Fontenoy in 1745.

Abraham (de) Fabert d’Esternay, born in Metz on October 11, 1599 and died in Sedan on May 17, 1662, was a French soldier. Lieutenant General in 1650, he received the baton of Marshal of France in 1658. He was also governor of the former principality of Sedan in 1642-1662, distinguished himself during the Thirty Years' War and besieged Stenay in 1654.

Pierre Riel, Marquis de Beurnonville, born on May 10, 1752 in Champignol-lez-Mondeville and died on April 23, 1821 in Paris, was a French general of the Revolution and the Empire and a Marshal of France (raised to marshalate under the Restoration).

Anne-Pierre de Montesquiou then de Montesquiou-Fézensac, known as the “marquis de Montesquiou”[1],[2],[3],[4], born on October 17, 1739 in Paris and died on December 30, 1798 in Paris, was a French statesman who served as lieutenant general of the king’s armies, an agronomist, a member of the Académie française (1784), then a deputy to the Estates-General, a general in the Revolutionary armies and a deputy to the Convention which he presided over before presiding over the Finance Commission.

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, born September 6, 1757 at the château de Chavaniac near Saint-Georges-d'Aurac (Auvergne, present-day department of Haute-Loire), and died May 20, 1834 in Paris (1st arrondissement), was a French officer and politician, famous for his involvement in the ranks of the American insurgent army (1777-1783), then in the liberal and reformist wing of the French aristocracy (1784-1792), and finally in the liberal opposition to the regime of the July Monarchy which he had helped establish during the Three Glorious Days (July 1830).

Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, born July 1, 1725 in Vendôme and died May 10, 1807 at the Rochambeau estate in Thoré-la-Rochette (Loir-et-Cerr), was a French general. He distinguished himself at the head of the French expeditionary corps during the American War of Independence (1775-1783). He ended his military career with the dignity of Marshal of France.

Jacques Ier Fitz-James, Duke of Berwick, born August 21, 1670 in Moulins, in Bourbonnais, and killed June 12, 1734 at the siege of Philippsburg, was a French soldier of the 17th and 18th centuries. Natural son of King James II of St27uart, he was made Marshal of France in 1706. To recount Berwick’s campaigns is to list the wars of Louis XIV and Leopold I: the War of the League of Augsburg, the War of the Spanish Succession, the War of the Polish Succession.

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The Galeries historiques de Versailles is a monumental work gathering more than 1,750 plates. The entire Galeries historiques de Versailles was published by subscription in 460 installments (462 according to Vicaire), the first announced on May 1, 1837. Three editions were then available: a luxury edition, large folio format with engravings on Chinese paper, with text adorned with vignettes, drop caps, and wood-engraved ornaments; a small folio edition, with the same engravings and texts but without the ornaments; an edition in-4 format containing a selection of engravings from among the other editions.