Armand de Gramont, Count de Guiche ( French Armand de Gramont, comte de Guiche ; 1637 - November 29, 1673 , Kreuznach ) - French lieutenant general and courtier.
Armand de Gramont, Count de Guiche | |
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Armand de Gramont, comte de Guiche | |
Date of Birth | 1637 |
Date of death | November 29, 1673 |
Place of death | Bad Kreuznach |
A country | |
Occupation | courtier, minion of Philip of Orleans , lieutenant general |
Father | Antoine III de Gramont |
Mother | Francoise Margarita du Plessis Sivre |
Biography
Born into the family of Antoine III de Gramont and Francoise Margarita du Plessis Sivre (niece of Cardinal Richelieu ).
Received a good education. Possessing a very beautiful appearance, pleasant and refined manners, dexterous and witty, Gramont was very successful among the ladies of the frivolous court of Louis XIV and in the history of France is as famous for his romantic adventures as for military exploits. He was one of the favorite minions of Philip of Orleans , brother of Louis XIV , and was also close to his wife, Henrietta of England .
Count Guiche was the most beautiful, graceful, gracious, brave and the most daring of all the court nobles. Only the excessive vanity and arrogant appearance, found in all features of his face, overshadowed all his wonderful qualities [2] . |
Gramon first distinguished himself in Flanders, during the siege of Landresi in 1655, and then during the siege of Valenciennes in 1656 and the capture of Dunkirchen in 1658.
In 1660, Gramon left for Poland and took part in the war with the Turks in the ranks of its troops; then he returned to France and, taking a place among the king’s close associates, in 1663 accompanied him on a campaign to Lorraine.
After the next year his help to Henrietta was revealed in intrigues against the favorite of King Louise de Lavalier , the count was removed from the yard and expelled from France.
This time he went to Holland and wrote his memoirs here (Les mémoires, concernant les Provinces Unies des Pays-Bas), published after his death by Marchand, together with a description of some of the battles in which Gramont participated (“Relations du siège de Vesel et des États des Places voisines en Juin 1672, du Passage du Rhin et de la Prise d'Arnhem le 12 et le 16 du même mois ”).
Having volunteered to serve the Dutch, he participated with them in a campaign in 1665 against the bishopric of Munster, and in 1666 he joined the fleet and, under the command of Admiral Rüiter , took part in a naval battle with the British off the island of Texel .
In the same year, the king, at the request of Marshal de Gramont, forgave de Guiche, and he went to war with Spain .
After the war ended, in 1669 , Gramont returned to France.
In 1672 , with the rank of lieutenant general, he participated in the Dutch war under the command of Prince Conde , especially distinguished himself when the French troops crossed the Rhine . Having the king's instructions to find a ford and not finding one, Gramont decided to go swimming, and, informing the king that the ford was found, he himself, at the head of the cuirassier, rushed into the water; the rest of the troops followed and, causing panic among the enemy with their unexpected appearance, easily won.
After the war ended, he returned to the court, was very warmly received by the king and became more popular than before.
In the fall of 1673, Gramon was instructed to accompany with a special detachment a large convoy sent to Germany. On November 22, Gramon was captured by the Austrian field marshal Montecuccoli , and the entire detachment accompanying the convoy was destroyed. This event had such an effect on Gramont that he died 7 days later in Kreuznach.
He became one of the characters in the “Love story of the Gauls” by Roger Bussy-Rabuten (under the name Trimale), as well as one of the protagonists of the last two parts of the musketeer trilogy of Alexander Dumas : “ Twenty Years Later ” and “ Viscount de Brazhelon ”, where he is a friend of Raul de Brazhelon (Dumas made his hero older).
Notes
- ↑ LIBRIS - 2013.
- ↑ Dumas A. Louis XIV. Biography. - M .: Zakharov , 2008 .-- S. 504. - ISBN 978-5-8159-0727-0
Literature
- Labau D. Guy-Armand de Gramont, comte de Guiche: Un franc gaulois à la cour du roi-soleil, 2006 .-- ISBN 2-84618-250-7 .
- Guiche // Military Encyclopedia : [in 18 vol.] / Ed. V.F. Novitsky [et al.]. - SPb. ; [ M. ]: Type. t-va I. D. Sytin , 1911-1915.
- Gramon, noble clans // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.