Claude Louis Hector de Villars Claude Louis Hector de Villars , Prince de Martigues , Marquis then Duc de Villars , Vicomte de Melun ( 8 May 1653 – 17 June 1734 ) was the last great general of Louis XIV of France and one of the most brilliant commanders in French military history , one of only six Marshals who have been promoted to Marshal General of France . Early career . Villars was born at Moulins ( in the present - day département of Allier ) in a noble but poor family - his father was the diplomat Pierre de Villars . He entered the French army through the corps of pages in 1671 . He distinguished himself at twenty in the Siege of Maastricht in 1673 during the Franco - Dutch War and after the bloody Battle of Seneffe a year later he was promoted on the field to mestre de camp ( colonel ) of a cavalry regiment . The next promotion would take time in spite of a long record of excellent service under Turenne , The Great Condé and Luxembourg , and of his aristocratic birth . The reason was that he had incurred the enmity of the powerful Louvois , he was finally made " maréchal de camp " in 1687 . In the interval between the Dutch wars and the formation of the League of Augsburg , Villars , who combined with his military gifts the tact and subtlety of the diplomatist , was employed in an unofficial mission to the court of Bavaria , and there became the constant companion of Maximilian II Emanuel , Elector of Bavaria . He returned to France in 1690 and was given a command in the cavalry of the army in Flanders , but towards the end of the War of the Grand Alliance he went to Vienna as ambassador . War of the Spanish Succession . It was Villars ' part in the next war , beginning with Friedlingen ( 1702 ) and Hochstadt ( 1703 ) and ending with Denain ( 1712 ) , that has made him most famous . For his part in the battle of Friedlingen he received the marshalate , and for the pacification of the insurgent Cévennes he received the Saint - Esprit order and the title of duke . Friedlingen and Hochstadt were barren victories , and the campaigns of which they formed were characterized by lost opportunities . Villars ' glory thus begins with the year 1709 when France , apparently helpless , was roused to a great effort of self - defence by the stringent demands of the Coalition . In that year he was called to command the main army opposing Prince Eugène of Savoy and Marlborough on the northern frontier . During the famine of the winter he shared the soldiers ' miserable rations . When the campaign opened the old Marshal Boufflers volunteered to serve under him , and after the terrible battle of Malplaquet , in which he was gravely wounded ( by a musketball to the knee ) , he was able to tell the king : " If it please God to give your majesty ' s enemies another such victory , they are ruined . " Two more campaigns passed without a battle and with scarcely any advance on the part of the invaders , but at last Marlborough manoeuvred Villars out of the famous " Ne plus ultra " lines , and the power of the defence seemed to be broken . But Louis made a last effort , the English contingent and its great leader were withdrawn from the enemy ' s camp , and Villars , though still suffering from his Malplaquet wounds , outmanoeuvered and decisively defeated Eugène at Denain . This victory saved France , though the war dragged on for another year on the Rhine , where Villars took Landau , led the stormers at Freiburg and negotiated the Treaty of Rastatt with Prince Eugène . Regency . Villars played a conspicuous part in the politics of the Regency period as the principal opponent of Cardinal Dubois , and only the memories of Montmorency ' s rebellion prevented his being made constable of France . He took the field for the last time in the War of the Polish Succession ( 1734 ) , with the title " marshal - general of the king ' s armies " , that Turenne had held before him . But he was over eighty years old at this point , and after opening the campaign energetically he died at Turin on 17 June 1734 . Legacy . Villars ' s memoirs show us a " fanfaron plein d ' honneur " , as Voltaire calls him . He was indeed boastful , and also covetous of honours and wealth . But he was an honourable man of high courage , moral and physical , and certainly a very skilled soldier despite the defeats inflicted on him by the Duke of Marlborough The memoirs , part of which was published in 1734 and afterwards several times republished in untrustworthy versions , were for the first time completely edited by the Marquis de Vogüé in 1884 – 92 .