Anne Hilarion de Tourville
Cretan War
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Awards | Order of Saint Michael |
Relations | Louise-Françoise d'Hymbercourt |
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Anne-Hilarion de Costentin, Comte de Tourville (French pronunciation: [an ilaʁjɔ̃ də kɔstɑ̃tɛ̃ kɔ̃t də tuʁvil]; 24 November 1642 – 23 May 1701) was a French naval officer and nobleman who served under King Louis XIV. Born in Paris, he was made Marshal of France in 1693. Tourville is considered by some as one of the most talented naval officers in French military history.
Military career
At age 17, as a Knight of Malta, he fought his first naval battle on a frigate of the Order of Malta.[1] At 25, he joined the French Royal Navy and began an active career, fighting the 1673 campaign of the Franco-Dutch War on the Sans-Pareil, at the Battle of Augusta where he was in command of the Syrene, and later in command of the Sceptre.
He served under Abraham Duquesne during the campaigns of 1676, and became a commander in 1690 during the Nine Years' War. He flew his personal flag on the Soleil Royal, where it would stay until the battles of Barfleur and La Hougue in 1692. At the Battle of Beachy Head in 1690, he defeated an Anglo-Dutch fleet, sinking, destroying or capturing seven enemy ships.[1]
On 29 May 1692, at the
Honours and tributes
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Wooden statue of Tourville, on display at Toulon naval museum
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Marble statue of Tourville, by Joseph Charles Marin in Tourville-sur-Sienne
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Marble statue of Tourville, by Joseph Charles Marin in Tourville-sur-Sienne
Tourville retired after the 1697 Peace of Ryswick and died in Paris on 23 May 1701, regarded as a national hero.
A number of French naval vessels from the 18th through 20th centuries were named in Tourville's honour. An 1816 marble statue of Admiral Tourville, by French sculptor Joseph Charles Marin, formerly in the Jardin de Versailles, features prominently in the Village of Tourville-sur-Seine (Normandy, Manche Département) hometown of Tourville ancestors, though Anne-Hilarion de Tourville himself was born in Paris and not in the ancestral castle of Tourville-sur-Sienne.
Related articles
References
- ^ a b c d Chisholm 1911.
Attribution:
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.