Ezéchiel du Mas , Comte de Mélac Ezéchiel du Mas , Comte de Mélac ( about 1630 , Sainte - Radegonde , Gironde – May 10 , 1704 ) was a career soldier in the French army under King Louis XIV and war minister Louvois . He became notorious for mercilessly and brutally executing the French policy of destroying the enemy ' s lands rather than seeking major military engagements . The southwestern part of Germany , the Palatinate , the Margraviate of Baden , and the Duchy of Württemberg especially suffered from Mélac ' s execution of Louvois ' s order to " brûlez le Palatinat ! " . Under his command , numerous German towns and villages were set on fire and the livelihood of the population was destroyed . In present southwestern Germany , Mélac ' s name became a synonym for " murderer and arsonist " . As a lasting result , until today , " Mélac " has also been turned into a common dog name in this part of Germany . He is considered the godfather of the French - German enmity that ultimately contributed to causing the two World Wars . Melac ' s curriculum vitae . 1630 : Born around that year in Sainte - Radegonde , about 15 kilometers southeast of Libourne in today ' s Département of Gironde . He must have joined the military at an early age . Sources are scarce , as his file in the French military archives of Vincennes , as well as the Mélac family archive , are " strangely lost " . 1664 : Promoted to the rank of Lieutenant with a cavalry regiment in Portugal . 1666 : Entrusted with the leadership of a company . 1672 : Served in Flanders at the start of the Franco - Dutch War . 1675 : Promoted to the rank of " Maître de Camp de Cavalerie " . 1677 : Burned and sacked the ( now Dutch ) town of Sittard ( 40 km west of Aachen ) , one and a half weeks after other French troops had done the same . Only 68 buildings and two monasteries survived . 1679 : Promotion to the rank of Brigadier ; he became Governor of Schleiden ( 40 km southeast of Aachen ) . 1686 : Began service in the army of Marschal Catinat in Savoy . 1688 : In April , Mélac joined the Rhine army under the command of Marschal Duras . 1688 : Married Marschal de Duras ' s daughter . 1688 : In September , the Rhine army moved into the territory of the Palatinate without formal declaration of war , which began the Nine Years ' War , pitting France against a wide coalition of European states , including Britain ( where the Protestant William , Prince of Orange , had overthrown his father - in - law , the Catholic James II , to become King William III ) , Spain and the Holy Roman Empire . The French also moved into the territory east of the Rhine and conquered the cities of Heilbronn , Heidelberg and Mannheim ( November 10 ) and the stronghold Philippsburg ; Pforzheim had been occupied since October 10 . Mélac was stationed at the Imperial Town of Heilbronn under the command of Joseph de Montclar . Using Heilbronn as his base , Mélac devastated Southern Germany , including the Imperial Town of Donauwörth , Marbach and Schorndorf . At the year ' s end he attacked Heidelberg , the capital of the Palatinate , and many villages along the Neckar , including Ladenburg . 1689 : On February 16 , executing a command of war minister Louvois , the French army under the command of de Mélac and Comte de Tessé blew up Heidelberg Castle , on March 2 they set Heidelberg on fire ( but citizens managed to extinguish the fires ) . On March 8 , Mannheim was set on fire . Later on , Frankenthal , Worms , Speyer and numerous villages west of the Rhine were devastated . East of the Rhine , Bretten , Maulbronn , Pforzheim , Baden - Baden and numerous other towns and villages met the same fate , but it is not known in detail how heavily Mélac was directly involved in all these cases . In Pforzheim ' s case , Mélac was reportedly the commanding officer and thus directly responsible for the shelling of the town on August 10 and the devastating fire a few days later . There are also reports that he raped the young daughter of a pastor in Esslingen . 1690 : Promoted to Maréchal de camp . 1691 : Mélac ' s wife died . 1692 : On September 20 , ordered the former Benedictine St . Peter and St . Paul Monastery put to the torch to Hirsau ( formerly Hirschau ) ; the monastery had , during its heyday , been one of the largest and most powerful forces for Catholicism in Germany until the Protestant Reformation , and had been the origin point for the " Hirsau Movement " in monastery reform , but had been used by Protestants since 1556 . 1693 : Promoted to Lieutenant General . In spring , Mélac became the commander of the strategically important stronghold of Landau . From this base , he again brought terror to the surrounding areas , as far as the Rhine - Hesse and Württemberg areas . In May , he participated in the second and final destruction of Heidelberg . While in Landau , his brutality did not subside . On one occasion , he reportedly displayed six naked prostitutes on the market square of Landau for two days , for which he received an exhortation from the royal court . 1697 : The Nine Years War was concluded with the Treaty of Ryswick . Mélac stayed on as stronghold commander of Landau . 1702 : As part of the next major conflict France was involved in , the War of the Spanish Succession , the Landau stronghold was besieged by an army under the command of Baden Margrave Louis William . For four months , Mélac and his soldiers were able to resist . In order to keep his soldiers in a good mood , he had gold and silver items from his personal possessions processed and turned into coins as salary for his men . However , in September he was forced to surrender . He was allowed to withdraw with his garrison and part of his artillery . He left the Rhine army and travelled to the royal court in Fontainebleau , where he received 30 , 000 Livres as a pension , but he would not receive a final promotion to a higher military rank . 1703 : Now living a secluded life in a house in the Rue des Tournelles in today ' s 4th Arrondissement in Paris with a few servants , at the end of August he wrote his last will . 1704 : Mélac died on May 10 . References . This article represents a summary of an article that appeared in the German weekly newspaper " Die Zeit " on May 6 , 2005 , in the German language . The original article was written by historian Michael Martin , who heads the Landau city archives .