D'Arcourt, Francois-Henri

The eldest son of Marshal of France, Duke Anne-Pierre d'Arcourt and Theresa of Eulalia de Bopol de Saint-Auler.

Entered service on March 27, 1739 with a cornet in the Royal Cavalry Regiment. March 2, 1741 became the captain of the Dragoon Regiment Arcura. He commanded a company of 20 thousand. the corps of Duke d'Arcourt , sent in Bavaria in March 1742 ^[1] .

Then he served under the command of Moritz Saxon ^[2] , sent to Bohemia to join the troops of Marshal Malbois , took part in the capture of Ellenbogen and Caden, and assisted Braunau and Eger ^[1] .

He was a camp adjutant in the battle of May 28, 1743 at Deckenorf on the Danube, where the French were defeated by Austrian troops of General Kevenhüller . He was captured by enemy hussars, but after a few days he was released on parole ^[3] .

June 7, 1743 received command of his regiment, returned to France with the Bavarian army in July ^[1] .

In 1744, he participated in the victory over General Nadasdie at Saverna , then, after combining the armies of Moselle and the Rhine, he fought in Germany during the attack of retransrents and the village of Suffelsheim. Took part in the occupation of the county of Nullenburg and the territory of Austria between the Upper Danube and Lake Constance , as well as in the capture of Waldshut, Säckingen, Loffenburg and Reinfeld; spent winter in Swabia under the command of Marshal Kuanyi ^[1] .

In 1745 he was in the army of Prince de Conti , who was defending the Lower Rhine. The following year, he was again under the command of de Conti, as part of the corps of Count d'Estre, marched from the camp in Maubeuge in Brabant, before Erenthal, after which he participated in the siege of Mons , Charleroi and Namur . He finished the campaign in Namur, where he joined with his regiment on October 5 ^[4] .

In 1747, he spent three months in the camp under the command of the as part of a group of troops, which was supposed to cover the retreat of the army after the battle of Laufeld , in the event of an unfavorable development of events ^[5] .

Then he participated in the siege of Bergen op Zooma ^[5] .

January 1, 1748 produced in the foremen of the dragoons. This year's campaign was held on the Normandy coast ^[5] .

February 1, 1755 received a lieutenant general in Upper Normandy and the management of the Old Palace of Rouen. He served in the camp of Le Havre in 1755 ^[5] .

March 1, 1757 sent to the German army, participated in the conquest of East Frisia and the capture of Embden, under the authority of the Marquis de Dove . On November 12, he received permission to use ducal honors ^[5] .

May 1, 1758 produced in camp marshals ^[6] . He left his regiment and continued service in Germany, participated in the Battle of Krefeld , and in 1759 under Minden , and in many affairs in 1760-1761.

July 25, 1762 promoted to lieutenant generals ^[5] .

In 1775 he became the Duke d'Arcourt and was appointed the great Bali of Rouen and the governor of Normandy . In this position he led large-scale work on the construction of a fortified port in Cherbourg . In 1786, King Louis XVI personally arrived to inspect the works in Normandy; the duke received His royal majesty in his castle Türi-Arkur ^[2] .

The following year, the king also appointed d'Arcour as tutor to the dauphin, Louis-Joseph, and governor of the Dauphiné ^[2] .

After the death of the dauphin in 1789 he returned to Caen , where unrest began because of the high cost of food. The governor witnessed a revolutionary insurrection, a murder by a mob of an infantry major, Count de Belzens, betrayed by his soldiers, and after an unsuccessful attempt to stop the unrest, he was forced to flee to Paris ^{[7] [6]} .

In 1790 he moved to the territory of the empire in Aachen , then emigrated to England, where he settled with relatives from the British branch of the house d'Arcourt. He was received at the court of George III , from 1792 was the ambassador of Louis XVIII in Great Britain ^[7] .

In addition to military and administrative activities, François-Henri d'Arcourt was known as one of the best landscape design specialists of his time. In the Arkur manor near Caen, he broke one of the most beautiful parks in France, the Hills ( Colline ), which included esplanade and parterres located along the river and framed by fairy tales . From the hill, the park descended to the valley by terraces, where fountains and a pool and a small woods called “Fantasia” were located. Part of the park was arranged in English taste ^[8] .

About Park "Colleen" mentions Jacques Delille in his poem "Gardens" (version of 1808) ^[9] :

On the lands of Frenet, near Lillbonne , he planted thousands of trees, having built a beautiful residence outside the walls of Lillbon Castle ^[6] , where "like a true sage, he enjoyed the charms of solitude" ^[10] .

D'Arcourt’s authorship is the poem “A Treatise on Decorating Neighborhoods, Gardens and Parks” ( Traité de la décoration des dehors, des jardins et des parcs ) ^[7] , written about 1774, found by the historian Ernest de Ghana and published in 1919. Another essay of the duke, "On the education of princes", could not be found ^[7] .

In addition, Francois-Henri d'Arcourt wrote elegant theatrical plays, and on December 18, 1788 he was elected a member of the French Academy to replace Marshal Richelieu . February 26, 1789 he was admitted to the Academy by Abbot Gaillard ^[7] .

Wife (06/13/1752): Catherine Scholastica d'Aubusson de La Fayad (1733-1815), daughter of Hubert Francois d'Aubusson, Count de La Feyyada (1707-1735), and Catherine Scholastica Bazin de Bezon, viscountess de Mabli, granddaughter Marshal Bezons .

In 1757, at the court of Louis XV, she received the right of the so-called “stool”, that is, the rare and valuable privilege to sit on a folding chair during the king's dinner and in the queen's circle ^{[3] [6]} .

Daughter:

• Anna d'Arcourt-Beuvron (1753-1778). The Husband (06/11/1772): Jean-Baptiste Victernien de Rochechouart de Mortemar , Duke de Mortemar (1752–1812)

The portrait of Francois-Henri d'Arcourt by Fragonard , once owned by German collector and philanthropist Dr. Gustav Rau , was sold on December 5, 2013 by Bonhams auction house in London for £ 17,106,500 ($ 28,058,081), setting a record price for an old artist's canvas ^[11] .

• Discours prononcés dans l'Académie françoise, le jeudi XXVI février M. DCC. LXXXIX, à la réception de M. le duc de Harcourt. - P .: Demonville, 1789
• Traité de la décoration des dehors, des jardins et des parcs. - P .: Emile-Paul frères, 1919

• Aubert de la Chesnaye Des Bois F.-A. Dictionnaire de la noblesse. TX - P .: Schlesinger frères, 1867. , col. 319
• Delille J. Les Jardins ou l'art d'embellir les paysages. - P .: Chapsal, 1844.
• Zhirmunskaya N. A., Lotman Yu. M. Notes // J. J. Delile. Gardens. - L .: Science, 1987.
• Courcelles. Dictionnaire historique et biographique des généraux Francais depuis le onzième siècle jusqu'en 1820. T. VI. - P. , 1822. , pp. 406-407
• Nouvelle Biographie générale. T. XXIII. - P .: Firmin Didot frères, 1857.
• Pinard F.-J.-G. Chronologie historique-militaire. T. vi. - P .: Claud Herissant, 1763. , pp. XLV — XLVI

• François-Henri d 'Harcourt (1726-1802) en data.bnf.fr
• Un rare jeton de François-Henri de Harcourt
• Notice biographique de l'Académie française