François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois

French administrator

• Born: January 18, 1639
• Birthplace: Paris, France
• Died: July 16, 1691
• Place of death: Versailles, France

Louvois used his administrative genius and harsh discipline to create and maintain France’s first military complex. He established unprecedented civilian control over the military and heavily influenced King Louis XIV’s foreign policy.

Early Life

François-Michel Le Tellier, the marquis de Louvois (mahr-kee deh lewv-wah), was born in Paris. His father, Michel Le Tellier, had a tremendous impact upon his son’s life. Yet while the elder Le Tellier was gentle, modest, and intelligent, Louvois, who was equally intelligent, was often brusque, violent, and arrogant. Like his father, however, Louvois hated extravagance and inefficiency. Michel Le Tellier was an excellent administrator and passed his skills on to his son. He also taught his son how to survive and prosper as a minister in the king’s council. Le Tellier, well versed in courtly intrigue, taught his son to use flattery and to bow with humble submission. Furthermore, he instructed that no act of servility was too great in satisfying the needs of the monarch.

Le Tellier, as secretary of state for war, perceived himself as rivaled in the eyes of King Louis XIV by one man only: Jean-Baptiste Colbert , the king’s minister of finance. Le Tellier passed on this jealousy and animosity to his son. Under Colbert, France’s economy and treasury had recovered from severe depression, and France was enjoying great prosperity. Louvois’s intent was to rival Colbert for the king’s confidence and eventually replace him by bringing him into disgrace. Eventually, Louvois would have more influence over the king than Colbert, but, for most of his life, many of Louvois’s actions were motivated by this jealousy.

Louis, who became king of France at age four in 1643, was only a few years younger than Louvois. The two boys went to school at the same time, experienced similar problems of youth, and developed an unusual relationship. The king quickly recognized Louvois’s talents; Louvois was energetic, ruthless, persistent, and an administrative genius. Louis knew that he could always depend upon Louvois to finish any project he began. Louis liked Louvois not only because of his abilities but also because he played to the king’s vanity and pettiness.

In 1656, Louvois was guaranteed succession to his father’s position, which Le Tellier had held since 1643. For five years, beginning in 1661, Louvois was an assistant in his father’s office. In 1666, Louvois was given the title minister of war; however, Le Tellier did not relinquish complete control of the war ministry to his son at this time. Louvois was astute enough to recognize his father’s brilliance and to capitalize upon it. He spent the first few decades of his career building upon his father’s work. When Le Tellier became chancellor in 1677, Louvois was formally named secretary of state for war and became a member of the king’s inner council.

Life’s Work

Louvois knew that through military victory he could ingratiate himself to Louis and possibly undermine Colbert. Thus, in 1667, he devised his first military campaign with the Spanish Netherlands (particularly Flanders) as the target. Louis’s wife, a Spanish princess, had renounced her claim to this land in exchange for payment of a dowry when she married Louis. Thus, even though Louis was attracted to the idea, he was hesitant. Quickly, Louvois found several lawyers and theologians who eased the king’s conscience by citing the fact that the dowry had never been paid.

The greatest obstacles to Louvois’s plans came from the minister of finance and from one of Louis’s greatest generals. Colbert, whose economic policies depended upon the continuation of peace, told Louis that France could continue to prosper only if internal and external tranquillity were maintained. At the same time, General Henri de La Tour d’Auvergne, viscount de Turenne, warned that France’s neighbors were already envious and that if France attempted any military action against Holland or Germany, it might cause the formation of a league of European nations against France. Louvois realized that Louis was heavily influenced by these two adversaries. Therefore, he played upon the king’s intense interest in the military and his need for glory. Louvois brought Louis to one of the various encampments constructed to maintain military habits during peace. Louis, predictably, was totally captivated with the pomp and pageantry and immediately announced his military intentions. Louvois won his first victory over Colbert and Turenne, who now had to support their king’s military effort.

Louvois’s great administrative talents were demonstrated for the first time during this military campaign. With ease and brilliance, he transported several large forces. He developed an excellent system of storage places to provide food and supplies anywhere on the frontier. Louvois also enlisted Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban , the chief engineer responsible for constructing fortifications. Louvois was often on the battlefield making certain that all the troops’ needs were met.

Thus, his first military action was an easy victory over a veteran army. In less than three months, France controlled a substantial number of fortifications as well as Flanders. Louis returned to Paris victorious and with an appetite for military conquest, which his minister of war would happily try to satisfy.

Even as negotiations for Flanders were being conducted, Louis was looking for yet another conquest. At the suggestion of Louvois, Louis asked his cousin, Louis II de Bourbon, prince de Condé (later known as the Great Condé), to command an army against Franche-Comté. Louvois employed all of his wiles in this war effort and established an ingenious precedent. He began a war of corruption in the area before the advancement of troops. His plan called for secret agents to bribe many of the magistrates. The area would then split into factions, making it easy prey. The plan worked without incident, and Condé led a military force into the region. Louvois preceded him, undermining local control and maintaining the flow of supplies. Within less than three weeks, all of Franche-Comté was invaded. Meanwhile, in 1668, Louvois became the superintendent general of the mail in France, and he organized a “black chamber,” which enabled him to observe foreign correspondence. He always informed Louis of any questionable information.

By this time, the Triple Alliance of 1668 (England, Sweden, and the United Provinces) formed and forced Louis into negotiations. Louis was given Franche-Comté as a peace offering and hostilities ended. By the early 1670’s, Louis was interested in conquering Holland, and Louvois encouraged him. Louvois began a campaign to develop apathy regarding Holland in France’s neighbors. He entered into negotiations with various rulers who granted France two towns on the Dutch frontier as French depots. Thus, he was able to move magazines and military stores far into the territory before hostilities began. He sent agents in disguise to buy supplies and munitions from the Dutch for the French army.

Louvois then recommended invasion. In the beginning of the Franco-Dutch War (1672-1678), Condé and Turenne faced little resistance. As the army advanced, it systematically destroyed fortified cities. Louvois recommended that these cities be spared. Playing on the king’s vanity, Louvois suggested that Louis keep the captured cities, thereby increasing his own power and prestige. Again, Louis heeded Louvois’s advice. Many of the troops were used as occupation forces, however, and thus fewer could be used on the battlefield.

By 1673, French troops were approaching Amsterdam. The Dutch government sent diplomats to meet with Louvois to discuss terms. When Louvois finally opened negotiations, he treated the envoys rudely and made excessive demands. The Dutch responded with greater resistance. Because the number of battle-ready French troops was now reduced, France was unable to crush the renewed resistance.

On August 30, 1673, the United Provinces, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, and Lorraine composed the first important military coalition against Louis XIV. By the end of 1673, the French army experienced severe military reversals. Coalition forces took the offensive. Turenne needed reinforcements, which Louvois refused to send. Louvois, apprehensive about the military reversals, drafted very specific battle plans, which he issued to the generals in the field. Insulted by this interference, Turenne and Condé blamed Louvois for the military failures. Le Tellier heard rumors of the plot to disgrace his son and successfully bribed Condé. When Turenne brought his charges against Louvois, Condé did not support these charges, and they were dropped. Louis forced Louvois and Turenne to reconcile, but the issue was never resolved. By this time, the French treasury was nearly exhausted, and Louvois was losing favor with the king. Louvois regained Louis’s respect by uncovering a conspiracy to overthrow the king. Louvois named the conspirators and was instrumental in their arrest.

In 1675, Turenne was killed in battle and Condé retired. The war was not going well for France, but by 1678 Louis and Louvois managed to turn potential defeat into victory. After the fall of Ghent, the Treaty of Nijmegen (1678) was signed against Louvois’s recommendation. The next year, French troops advanced toward Strasbourg. On September 30, 1681, the French army and Louvois captured the city in less than twenty-four hours. Again, Louvois had employed intrigue, bribery of local magistrates, and terrorism to facilitate the conquest of a city known for its defensive complement of nine hundred cannons.

By the 1680’s, France was torn by religious conflict with the Huguenots . The Catholic church and Louvois urged Louis to take action against them. Louvois saw an opportunity to disgrace Colbert (who had always favored the Huguenots) by Colbert’s association with the Reformers. By 1681, the Crown forced Colbert to issue a decree banning the Huguenots from certain business associations and Louvois obtained a decree that stated that all Huguenot children at age seven had to renounce their religion. Children not complying would be arrested and soldiers would be quartered in their parents’ homes. Many Huguenot families fled France. As many of the Huguenots were artisans and sailors, the council issued a decree that made it illegal for these professionals to leave France. Many of the Huguenot ministers were persecuted, and places of worship were closed. The Huguenots were stripped of their noble rank, and certain professions were closed to them. Many of the Huguenot leaders were physically tortured and executed.

After the death of Colbert in 1683, Louvois dominated the royal council. He was named superintendent of buildings, arts, and manufacturing. By 1685, Louvois recommended that stronger measures be taken against the Huguenots. Places of worship were demolished, Huguenots were forced to renounce their religion or die, and the Edict of Nantes (1598), which guaranteed religious toleration, was revoked by the Edict of Fontainebleau. This last act proved disastrous for France, as a mass exodus of Huguenots occurred, and most of the Protestant nations of Europe united against Louis. Once again, the advice of Louvois did not serve the best interests of France.

On July 9, 1686, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, and Sweden formed the League of Augsburg as a defensive coalition to halt French expansion. In August, 1688, Louis invaded Germany, and in September, he invaded the Palatinate. England joined the coalition (now called the Grand Alliance), and the War of the League of Augsburg (1689-1697) began. In February, 1689, Louvois ordered the complete destruction of the Palatinate to interdict the league’s means of supply, to save Lorraine and Alsace, and to prevent the potential invasion of France. The army advanced into the territory, warned the citizens to evacuate, and sacked, ravaged, and burned everything. Europe was shocked at the cruelty, and army officers were ashamed of their own actions. Consequently, they blamed Louvois, who had advised Louis strongly to take such action. Louvois did, however, make provisions for the refugees. They were invited to live in Alsace and Franche-Comté and were exempt from taxation for the next ten years.

By 1689, the treasury was practically empty, and France experienced a number of military defeats that caused Louvois’s influence with Louis to diminish. Louvois managed one last great maneuver by capturing two major cities. The coalition was determined, however, and Louis was pessimistic about France’s chance for victory. On July 16, 1691, while at a strategy session with the king in Versailles, Louvois collapsed. Within hours, the secretary of state for war was dead. Louvois’s son, the marquis de Barbesieux, inherited his father’s position, but Louis assumed full responsibility for the war effort.

Significance

The marquis de Louvois revolutionized the military system in France. He accomplished this feat by the creation, maintenance, training, and disciplining of a large force (more than 100,000 troops) in times of peace, which could be transformed easily into a force more than double its size in times of war. Louvois assembled Europe’s first great standing army by actively recruiting troops from other countries such as England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. He devised a method for transporting the large force and organized a system by which he could supply this great army with munitions and other necessary supplies during war. Old fortifications were always well stocked, and new ones were inspected, redesigned, and rebuilt to Louvois’s specifications. His knowledge of the army went beyond his desk, as he had been an apprentice to Turenne on the battlefield.

Upon assumption of his position, Louvois gradually began constructing a regular military administration. First, he divided control of the army into four sections: administration, inspection, munitions, and supplies. As there was no regimentation or discipline but much corruption and abuse of privilege, he devised France’s first systematic ranking of officers, the order of seniority, which named the king as the highest ranking officer. Louvois also coordinated the various branches of service, grouped regiments into brigades, and gave permanence to companies. He introduced strict discipline by demanding it of the officers as well as of the men, a move that did not make him well liked among the noble officers. He also issued a military uniform, created specific insignia to distinguish units and ranks, and introduced the idea of marching in time. Louvois provided systematic training for artillerymen at schools located in Douai, Metz, and Strasbourg. He also appointed inspectors to maintain the high standards he had set forth. One such man was Inspector-General Jean Martinet, whose model regiment, the “King’s Regiment,” was known for its rigid militarism, and whose name became synonymous with strict discipline. These innovations and others helped Louis transform France into the leading military nation of Europe in the 1600’s.

Bibliography

James, G. P. R. “Life of François Michel Le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois.” In Lives of Cardinal de Retz, Jean Baptiste Colbert, John de Witt, and the Marquis de Louvois, Vol. 2. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea and Blanchard, 1837. A two-volume work detailing the lives of several European personalities. Volume 2 contains a chapter on Louvois, which is biased against him, often blaming him for Louis XIV’s errors or cruelties.

Levi, Anthony. Louis XIV. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2004. This comprehensive biography contains information about Louvois and other military figures during Louis’s reign.

Lynn, John A. Giant of the Grand Siècle: The French Army, 1610-1715. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. A comprehensive overview of army administration and tactics, including information about Louvois and other military officials.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. The Wars of Louis XIV, 1667-1714. London: Longman, 1999. A history of French military campaigns during the final years of Louis’s reign, including information on Louvois’s participation in those battles.

Packard, Laurence Bradford. “Louvois and the First Great Standing Army.” In The Age of Louis XIV. New York: Henry Holt, 1929. Focuses on Louvois’s positive contributions to the development of the French army.

Voltaire. The Age of Louis XIV. Translated by Martyn P. Pollack with a preface by F. C. Green. London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1966. Originally published in 1751, this work is sometimes difficult to comprehend, but presents excellent background information about France under Louis. Examines Louvois’s military campaigns and his persecution of the Huguenots.

Wolf, John B. “The First World War: Louvois.” In Louis XIV. New York: W. W. Norton, 1968. Provides excellent background information and objective information about Louvois. Emphasizes the relationship between Louvois and Louis, and Louvois’s role in their military exploits.