Vauban and the French Military Under Louis XIV: An Illustrated History of Fortifications and Strategies

301 Pages·2005·17.513 MB·English

by  Jean-Denis G. G. Lepage

Vauban and the French Military
Under Louis XIV
ALSOBYJEAN-DENISG.G. LEPAGE
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Vauban and
the French Military
Under Louis XIV
An Illustrated History of
Fortifications and Strategies
J -D G. G. L
EAN ENIS EPAGE
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
Acknowledgments:I would like to express my gratitude for
the friendly and helpful collaboration of Jeannette à Stuling,
Anne Chauvel, Eltjo Jakobus De Lang and Ben Marcato,
Nicole and Robert Fresse, Jan van Groningen à Stuling,
Wim Wiese, Michèle Clermont, Véronique Janty,
Christiane “Kiki” and Ludovic Morandeau, and Jean-Pierre Rorive.
—Jean-Denis Gilbert Georges Lepage, Groningen, Fall 2009
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Lepage, Jean-Denis.
Vauban and the French military under Louis XIV : an illustrated
history of fortifications and strategies / Jean-Denis G.G. Lepage.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-4401-4
softcover : 50# alkaline paper
1. Vauban, Sébastien Le Prestre de, 1633–1707. 2. Vauban, Sébastien
Le Prestre de, 1633–1707—Influence. 3. Marshalls—France—Biography.
4. Military engineers—France—Biography. 5. France—History, Military—
1643–1715. 6. Fortification—France—History—17th century. 7. France.
Armée—Biography. 8. France—History—Louis XIV, 1643–1715. I. Title.
DC130.V3L46 2010 623'.194409032—dc22 2009034538
British Library cataloguing data are available
©2010 Jean-Denis G.G. Lepage. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
On the cover: Port Louis (Morbihan) Salient of
Demi-Lune Richelieu (courtesy of the author)
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
To my parents, Simone and Bernard Lepage,
for their love and encouragement,
and their guidance during childhood
that often included holiday visits to castles, forts,
historical and military sites and battlefields.
This page intentionally left blank
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments iv
Introduction 1
1. The Reign of Louis XIV and Vauban’s Life and Career . . . 5
Vauban’s Personality 5 Commissioner General of
Fortifications (1678–1688) 18
Youth (1633–1651) 7
Nine Years’ War (1688–1697) 21
The Rebellious Frondeur (1651–1653) 8
War of the Spanish Succession
Captain Vauban (1653–1659) 9
(1702–1714) 24
King’s Engineer (1659–1667) 9
Marshal Vauban’s Last Combats
War of Devolution (1667–1668) 11 (1700–1707) 26
Four Years of Peace (1668–1672) 14 Louis XIV’s Death (1714) 28
Dutch War (1672–1678) 15
2. Artillery and Engineering Corps  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Artillery 30 Engineering Corps 39
Matchlock Musket 38
3. Siege Warfare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Siege Warfare Advocated by Vauban 42 Sieges Directed by Vauban 57
Advantages and Disadvantages of
Vauban’s Method 54
4. Vauban’s Bastioned Fortifications  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Italian Bastioned Fortifications 59 Covered Way and Place of Arms 106
Vauban’s Predecessors 65 Advance Works 110
Vauban’s Three “Systems” 72 Detached Works 115
Bastioned Front 78 Flooding 122
Bastion 78 Entrenched Camp 123
Curtain 86 Military Buildings 124
Ditch 90 Design of Fortifications 134
Gatehouse 92 Construction of Fortifications 135
Outworks 98 The Relief Maps Collection 139
vii
viii Table of Contents
5. France Fortified by Vauban  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Northeast Frontier 143 Roussillon 218
Ardennes and Lorraine 170 Western Pyrenees 229
Alsace 180 Defenses of Bordeaux 234
Franche-Comté 188 Defenses of the Pertuis 240
Dauphiné and Savoy 193 Bretagne (Brittany) and Normandy 255
Mediterranean Coast 206
6. Vauban’s Oisivetés  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Agriculture and Inland Navigation 274 Politics and Organization of the State 278
Colonies 275 Fiscal Considerations 279
Religion 277 List of Vauban’s Written Works 280
Conclusion  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Vauban’s Legacy in France 282 Vauban’s Influence Abroad 284
Bibliography 287
Index 289
Introduction
It was the great philosopher Voltaire (1694–1778) who gave to the seventeenth cen-
tury the name that it retains to this day: the Century of Louis XIV. This designation is not
just a tribute to a favorite king, it is a factual description of an age during which France
became the most powerful and most brilliant country in Europe. The reign of Louis XIV
(1643–1715) was the longest in French history, and represents the highlight of the Capet-
ian-Bourbon dynasty. It was the era in which the secular state of France finally won its
independence from ecclesiastical supervision and interference. It marked the triumph of
absolutism, a political theory holding that all power should be vested in one supreme ruler
in order to keep national cohesion and unity. “A king,” proclaimed Louis XIV with his cus-
tomary lack of modesty, “is superior to all other men, occupying, so to speak, the place of
God.” It was also the epoch of Baroque art, a heroic attempt to transcend the contradic-
tion between order and motion. Having usurped the place of Spain in the leadership of polit-
ical matters, France surmounted Italy in the artistic and cultural domains. Science was
dominated by names such as René Descartes and Blaise Pascal, but it was in art that the
brightness of the reign was the most remarkable. Louis XIV subsidized and housed writ-
ers, artists and scientists, who in return were encouraged to glorify him. All the immense
energies and talents of the age were harnessed and shaped by the power of Louis XIV’s state
into a magnificent spectacle. Literature was marked by poets such as La Fontaine and
Boileau, theater and drama by Corneille, Racine and Molière. The period featured moral-
ists and chroniclers such as La Bruyère, Saint-Simon and Madame de Sévigné as well as
theoreticians and orators like Fénelon, Boileau and Bossuet. Music was enhanced by the
works of Lully, Charpentier, Delalande and Couperin. Painting was dominated by Le Brun,
Van der Meulen, Poussin, Claude Gellée (called le Lorrain), Philippe de Champaigne, and
both Le Nain brothers, Georges de La Tour and Watteau. Illustrious names in sculpture
were Le Bernin, Coysevox and Girardon.
This artistic brightness, financed by a policy of state patronage, was not limited to
France but also drew attention from the whole of Europe. This tendency continued into
the following century, and French cultural prestige was at its peak in the eighteenth cen-
tury. Civilian and military architecture, stimulated by Louis XIV’s personal interest in con-
struction, developed the French classical style, combining clearness, order, splendor,
grandiosity and majesty, and imposed itself as the main reference. The French style dom-
inated the whole continent in construction of palaces, gardens, public buildings and
fortifications. During this period in Paris were built part of the Louvre, the Salpétrière, the
Hôtel des Invalides, the Place des Victoires, the Place Royale and, of course, Versailles cas-
tle. This period also saw the triumph of Vauban’s French classical bastioned fortification.
The necessity to fortify France with a belt of strongholds had been felt as early as the
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