Sébastien Le Prestre, Marquis of Vauban
Sébastien Le Prestre, Marquis of Vauban was a French Royal Army officer who served under Louis XIV. One of the most important military engineers in European history, his defensive principles remained in use for nearly 100 years after his death, while aspects of his offensive tactics were employed into the 20th century.
Viewing civilian infrastructure as closely connected to military effectiveness, Vauban upgraded many of France's major ports, as well as new projects like the Canal de la Bruche, which is still in use today. He founded the Corps royal des ingénieurs militaires, whose curriculum was based on his own principles of design, strategy and training.
His economic tract, La Dîme royale, used statistics in support of his arguments, making it a precursor of modern economics. Later destroyed by royal decree, it contained radical proposals for a more even distribution of the tax burden. His application of rational and scientific methods to solving engineering and social issues anticipated an approach common in the Age of Enlightenment.
Perhaps the most enduring aspect of Vauban's legacy was his view of France as a geographical entity. His advocacy of giving up territory for a more coherent and defensible border was unusual for the period; the boundaries of the French state he proposed in the north and east have changed very little since.
Personal details
Sébastien le Prestre de Vauban was born May 1633 in Saint-Léger-de-Foucheret, renamed Saint-Léger-Vauban in 1867, in what is now the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region. His parents, Urbain Le Prestre and Edmée de Cormignolle, were members of the minor nobility from Vauban in Bazoches.In 1570, his grandfather, Jacques Le Prestre, acquired Château de Bazoches when he married Françoise de la Perrière, an illegitimate daughter of the Comte de Bazoches, who died intestate. The 30-year legal battle by the Le Prestre family to retain the property proved financially ruinous, forcing Urbain to become a forestry worker. He also designed gardens for the local gentry, including the owners of the Château de Ruère, where Vauban spent his early years.
Vauban had only one sibling, a sister Charlotte who died young, but his cousin, Paul le Prestre, was an army officer who later supervised construction of Les Invalides. Three of Paul's sons served in the army, two of whom were killed in action in 1676 and 1677. The third, Antoine, became Vauban's assistant and later a lieutenant-general; in 1710, he was appointed Governor of Béthune for life, while he inherited Vauban's titles and the bulk of his lands.
Like many contemporaries, Vauban's family was deeply affected by the Huguenot rebellions of the 1620s, the Franco-Spanish War, and 1648 to 1653 Fronde. His maternal grandfather was a Catholic who married a Protestant from La Rochelle, and served Huguenot leader Admiral Coligny, while two of his uncles died in the war with Spain.
Career
In 1643, at the age of ten, Vauban was sent to the Carmelite college in Semur-en-Auxois, where he was taught the basics of mathematics, science and geometry. This was relevant, not only for his future career but also his father's work, since the design of neo-classical gardens and fortifications both concerned managing space. These skills were commonly combined; the gardens at Blenheim Palace were laid out by John Armstrong, Marlborough's chief military engineer.In 1650, Vauban joined the household of his local magnate, Louis, Grand Condé, where he met de Montal; a close neighbour from Nièvre, the two were colleagues for many years, and often worked together. During the 1650–1653 Fronde des nobles, Condé was arrested by the Regency Council, led by Louis XIV's mother Anne of Austria and Cardinal Mazarin. After being released in 1652, he and his supporters, among them Vauban and de Montal, went into exile in the Spanish Netherlands and allied with the Spanish. At the time, it was common for young men to follow the lead of local powerful magnates which would explain the future eagerness of the crown to offer him service in the royal army. Vauban first saw action at Clermont-en-Argonne and was noticed by Condé as a diligent and energetic soldier that took a keen interest in the practices of siege warfare even at such a young age and he was sometimes entrusted with directing the improvement of local fortifications.
In early 1653, when Vauban worked on the defences of Sainte-Menehould, one of Condé's principal possessions, he was captured by a Royalist patrol and switched sides, serving in the force led by Louis Nicolas de Clerville that took Sainte-Menehould in November 1653. Clerville, later appointed Commissaire général des fortifications, employed him on siege operations and building fortifications. In 1655, Vauban was appointed Ingénieur du Roi or Royal Engineer, and by the time the war with Spain ended in 1659, he was widely known as a talented engineer of energy and courage.
Image:Low Countries 1700 and entrenched lines.png|thumb|right|upright=1.3|Vauban's Pré carré or 'duelling zone' on France's northern border, defended by a line of fortresses known as the Ceinture de fer
Under the terms of the Treaty of the Pyrenees, Spain ceded much of French Flanders, and Vauban was put in charge of fortifying newly acquired towns such as Dunkirk. This pattern of French territorial gains, followed by fortification of new strongpoints, was followed in the 1667–1668 War of Devolution, 1672–1678 Franco-Dutch War and 1683–1684 War of the Reunions.
The first fortification Vauban designed was the 1673 siege of Maastricht, although he was subordinate to Louis, who ranked as the senior officer present, and thus took credit for its capture. Vauban was rewarded with a large sum of money, which he used to purchase the Château de Bazouches from his cousin in 1675.
After 1673, French strategy in Flanders was based on a memorandum from Vauban to Louvois, Minister of War, setting out a proposed line of fortresses known as the Ceinture de fer, or iron belt. He was made Maréchal de camp in 1676, and succeeded Clerville as Commissaire general des fortifications in 1677.
During the Nine Years' War, Vauban inflicted a stinging defeat on an Anglo-Dutch invasion force at Camaret, supervised the capture of Namur in 1692, the major French achievement of the war, while the 1697 siege of Ath is often considered his offensive masterpiece. He was rewarded with money and rank: he was made Comte de Vauban, a member of the Order of the Holy Spirit and Order of Saint Louis, and an Honorary Member of the French Academy of Sciences.
The numbers needed to conduct a siege, and prevent interference from opponents meant armies of the Nine Years' War often exceeded 100,000 men, sizes unsustainable for pre-industrial societies. This limitation prompted a change in tactics; Marlborough argued that winning one battle was more beneficial than taking 12 fortresses. The armies of the War of the Spanish Succession averaged around 35,000, and siege warfare was superseded by a greater emphasis on mobility.
In 1702 Vauban was ordered by Louis to attack Hulst. He had however insufficient means available to him and so the Siege of Hulst remains the only siege in which Vauban was not successful as he was forced to retreat. The next year, Vauban directed his final siege, capturing Alt-Brisach and was promoted to Maréchal de France, marking the end of his military career, although the Ceinture de fer proved its worth after the French defeat at Ramillies in 1706. Under pressure from superior forces on multiple fronts, France's northern border remained largely intact despite repeated efforts to break it. Capturing Lille cost the Allies 12,000 casualties and most of the 1708 campaigning season; the lack of progress between 1706 and 1712 enabled Louis to negotiate an acceptable peace at Utrecht in 1713, as opposed to the humiliating terms presented in 1707.
With more leisure time, Vauban developed a broader view of his role. His fortifications were designed for mutual support, so they required connecting roads, bridges and canals; garrisons needed to be fed, so he prepared maps showing the location of forges, forests and farms. Since these had to be paid for, he developed an interest in tax policy, and in 1707 published La Dîme royale, documenting the economic misery of the lower classes. His solution was a flat 10% tax on all agricultural and industrial output, and eliminating the exemptions which meant most of the nobility and clergy paid nothing. Although his work was confiscated and destroyed by royal decree, the use of statistics to support his arguments "... establishes him as a founder of modern economics, and precursor of the Enlightenment's socially concerned intellectuals."
In the course of his career, Vauban supervised or designed the building of more than 300 separate fortifications. By his own estimate, he supervised more than 40 sieges from 1653 to 1697.
Personal life and death
In 1660, Vauban married Jeanne d'Aunay d'Epiry ; they had two daughters, Charlotte and Jeanne Françoise, as well as a short-lived infant son. He also had a long-term relationship with Marie-Antoinette de Puy-Montbrun, daughter of an exiled Huguenot officer, usually referred to as 'Mademoiselle de Villefranche.'Vauban died in Paris on 30 March 1707; he was buried near his home in Bazoches. His grave was destroyed during the French Revolution. In 1808, Napoleon I ordered his heart reburied in Les Invalides, the resting place of many of France's most famous soldiers.
Doctrines and legacy
Offensive doctrines; siege warfare
While his modern fame rests on the fortifications he built, Vauban's greatest innovations were in offensive operations, an approach he summarised as 'More powder, less blood.' Initially reliant on existing concepts, he later adapted these on lines set out in his memorandum of March 1672, Mémoire pour servir à l'instruction dans la conduite des sièges.In this period, sieges became the dominant form of warfare; during the 1672–1678 Franco-Dutch War, three battles were fought in the Spanish Netherlands, of which only Seneffe was unrelated to a siege. Their importance was heightened by Louis XIV, who viewed them as low-risk opportunities for demonstrating his military skill and increasing his prestige; he was present at 20 of those conducted by Vauban.
The 'siege parallel' had been in development since the mid-16th century but Vauban brought the idea to practical fulfilment at Maastricht in 1673. Three parallel trenches were dug in front of the walls, the earth thus excavated being used to create embankments screening the attackers from defensive fire, while bringing them as close to the assault point as possible. Artillery was moved into the trenches, allowing them to target the base of the walls at close range, with the defenders unable to depress their own guns enough to counter this; once a breach had been made, it was then stormed. This approach was used in offensive operations well into the 20th century.
However, Vauban adapted his approach to the situation, and did not use the siege parallel again until Valenciennes in 1677. Always willing to challenge accepted norms, at Valenciennes, he proposed assaulting the breach during the day, rather than at night as was normal practice. He argued this would reduce casualties by surprising the defenders, and allow better co-ordination among the assault force; he was supported by Louis, and the attack proved successful.
Vauban made several innovations in the use of siege artillery, including ricochet firing, and concentrating on specific parts of the fortifications, rather than targeting multiple targets. His Dutch rival Menno van Coehoorn employed a similar approach. While the 'Van Coehoorn method' sought to overwhelm defences with massive firepower, such as the Grand Battery of 200 guns at Namur in 1695, Vauban preferred a more gradual approach. Both had their supporters; Vauban argued his was less costly in terms of casualties, but it took more time, an important consideration in an age when far more soldiers died from disease than in combat.