Louvois, François-Michel Le Tellier, marquis de

(1639-1691)

   political figure

   Born in Paris, François-Michel Le Tellier, marquis de Louvois is, in his achievements, inseparable from those of his father, michel le tellier, with whom he was closely associated. He succeeded his father as secretary of war when the latter became chancellor. Louvois had known how to gain the confidence of King louis XIV by flattering that monarch's desire for glory. He made himself the sole master of the army after the death of henri de turenne (1675), and began a series of reforms. The recruitment and training of the army were entirely reorganized. The most outstanding measures were the establishment of the system that opened command positions to commoners, the initiation of provincial militias (the army was thus raised to 300,000 strong), and the foundation of military schools. Louvois achieved this by ceaselessly encroaching on the authority of other government departments, with his growing influence leading to a bitter struggle with jean-baptiste colbert. Brutal, hard, and authoritarian, Louvois was largely responsible for the devastation of the Palatinate (1679), the bombardment of Genoa (1684), the annexations preceding the League of Augsburg, a coalition formed against the aggressive policies of Louis XIV that included England, Holland, Spain, Sweden, and certain German principalities, and the Dragonnades, persecutions carried out by the Royal Dragoons against the Protestants after the revocation of the edict of nantes. The Dragonnedes in Languedoc and Béarn were especially brutal.