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VAUBAN

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 953 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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VAUBAN , StBASTIEN LE PRESTRE DE (1633-1707), See also:

marshal of See also:France, the most celebrated of military See also:engineers (see FORTIFICATION), was See also:born at See also:Saint-Leger-Vauban (See also:Yonne). At the See also:age of ten he was See also:left an See also:orphan in very poor circumstances, and his boyhood and youth were spent amongst the peasantry of his native See also:place. A fortunate event brought him under the care of the Carmelite See also:prior of Semur, who undertook his See also:education, and the grounding in See also:mathematics, See also:science and See also:geometry which he thus received was of the highest value in his subsequent career. At the age of seventeen Vauban joined the See also:regiment of See also:Conde in the See also:war of the See also:Fronde. His' gallant conduct won him within a See also:year the offer of a See also:commission, which he declined on See also:account of poverty. Conde then employed him to assist in the fortification of Clermont-en-See also:Argonne. Soon afterwards he was taken prisoner by the royal troops; but though a See also:rebel he was well treated, and the kindness of See also:Mazarin converted the See also:young engineer into a devoted servant of the See also:king. He was employed in the See also:siege of St Menehould (which he had helped to See also:storm as a Frondeur) and won a lieutenancy in the regiment of See also:Burgundy, and at Stenay he was twice wounded. Soon afterwards he besieged and took his own first fortress, Clermont; and in May 1655 he received his commission as an ingdnieur du roi, having served his See also:apprenticeship under the See also:Chevalier de Clerville, one of the foremost engineers 952 of the See also:time. Between that year and the See also:peace of 1659 he had taken See also:part in or directed ten sieges with distinction, had been several times wounded, and was rewarded by the king with the See also:free See also:gift of a See also:company in the famous See also:Picardy regiment. About this time he married a See also:cousin, Jeanne d'Aulnay. After the peace Vauban was put in See also:charge of the construction of several important defences, amongst other places at See also:Dunkirk, where his See also:work continued until the year before his See also:death.

On the renewal of war in 1662 he conducted, under the eyes of the king, the sieges of See also:

Douai, See also:Tournai and See also:Lille. At Lille he so distinguished himself that he received a lieutenancy in the guard (ranking as a colonelcy). The peace of See also:Aix-la-Chapelle confirmed France in the See also:possession of new fortresses, which Vauban now improved or rebuilt. Hitherto the characteristic features of his method of fortification had not been See also:developed, and the systems of preceding engineers were faithfully followed. See also:Colbert and See also:Louvois were profoundly interested in the work, and it was at the See also:request of the latter that the engineer See also:drew up in 1668 his Memoire pour servir a l'instruction clans la conduite See also:des sieges (this, with a memorandum on the See also:defence of fortresses by another See also:hand, was published at See also:Leiden in 1740). On the renewal of war Vauban again conducted the most important sieges (Rhein- See also:bergen and See also:Nijmwegen 1672, Maestricht and See also:Trier 1673, See also:Besancon 1674). In the latter he the year also supervised only defence in which he ever took part, that of Oudenarde. This was followed by the reduction of See also:Dinant, Huy and See also:Limburg. At this time he wrote for the commandants of See also:Verdun and Le Quesnoy, valuable Instructions pour la defense (MS. See also:Depot des Fortifications, See also:Paris; see also See also:Quincy, See also:Art de la guerre, Paris, 1740). In 1676 he was made marechal de See also:camp. He took Conde, Bouchain and other places in that year, See also:Valenciennes and See also:Cambrai in 1697, See also:Ghent and See also:Ypres in 1678.

It was at this time that Vauban synthesized the methods of attacking strong places, on which his claim to renown as an engineer rests far more than on his systems of fortification. The introduction of a systematic approach by See also:

parallels (said to have been suggested by the practice of the See also:Turks at See also:Candia in 1668) See also:dates from the siege of Maestricht, and in principle remains to this See also:day the See also:standard method of attacking a fortress. The peace of Nijmwegen gave more territory to France, and more fortresses had to be adapted. Vauban was named commissaire-See also:general des fortifications on the death of De Clerville, and wrote in 1679 a memorandum on the places of the new frontier, from which it appears that from Dunkirk to Dinant France possessed fifteen fortresses and forts, with thirteen more in second See also:line. Most of these had been rebuilt by Vauban, and further acquisitions, notably See also:Strassburg (1681), involved him in unceasing work. At See also:Saarlouis for the first time appeared Vauban's " first See also:system " of fortification, which remained the accepted standard till comparatively See also:recent times. He never hesitated to retain what was of See also:advantage in the methods of his predecessors, which he had hitherto followed, and it was in practice rather than in theory, that he surpassed them. In 1682 his "second system," which introduced modifications of the first designed to prolong the resistance of the fortress, began to appear; and about the same time he wrote a See also:practical See also:manual entitled Le Directeur-General des fortifications (See also:Hague, 1683-85). Having now attained the See also:rank of lieut.-general, he took the See also:field once more, and captured Courtrai in 1683, and See also:Luxemburg in the following year. The unexpected strength of certain towers designed by the See also:Spanish engineer Louvigni (fl. 1673) at Luxemburg suggested the See also:tower-bastions which are the See also:peculiar feature of Vauban's second system (see Augoyat, Memoires inedits du Ml. de Vauban, Paris, 1841) which was put into See also:execution at See also:Belfort in the same year (See also:Provost du Vernois, De la fortification depuis Vauban, Paris, 1861). In 1687 he See also:chose See also:Landau as the See also:chief place of arms of See also:Lower See also:Alsace, and lavished on the place all the resources of his art.

But See also:

side by side with this development See also:grew up the far more important See also:scheme of attack. He instituted a company of miners, and the elaborate experiments carried out under hissupervision resulted in the See also:establishment of all the necessary formulae for military See also:mining (Traite des mines, Paris, 1740 and 1799; Hague, 1744), while at the siege of See also:Ath in 1697, having in the meanwhile taken part in more sieges, notably that of See also:Namur in 1692 (defended by the See also:great Dutch engineer See also:Coehoorn), he employed See also:ricochet See also:fire for the first time as the See also:principal means of breaking down the defence. He had indeed already used it with effect at Philipsburg in 1688 and at Namur, but the See also:jealousy of the See also:artillery at outside interference had hindered the full use of this remarkable invention, which with his other improvements rendered the success of the attack almost certain. After the peace of See also:Ryswick Vauban rebuilt or improved other fortresses, and finally New See also:Breisach, fortified on his "third system "—which was in fact a modification of the second and was called by Vauban himself systeme de Landau perfectionne. His last siege was that of Old Breisach. in 1703, when he reduced the place in a fortnight. On the 14th of See also:January of that year Vauban had been made a marshal of France, a rank too exalted for the technical direction of sieges, and his active career came to an end with his promotion. Soon afterwards appeared his Traite de l'attaque des places, a revised and amplified edition of the older memoir of 1669, which contains the methods of the fully developed Vauban attack, the See also:main features of which are the parallels, ricochet fire and the attack of the defending personnel by See also:vertical fire (ed. Augoyat, Paris, 1829). But See also:Louis ?DIV. was now thrown on the defensive, and the war of the Spanish See also:Succession saw the See also:gradual wane of Vauban's See also:influence, as his fortresses were taken and retaken. The various captures of Landau, his chef-d'ceuwe, caused him to be regarded with disfavour, for it was not realized that the greatness of his services was rather in the attack than in the defence. In the darkness of defeat he turned his See also:attention to the defence; but his work De la defense des places (ed. by General Valaze, Paris, 1829) is of far less See also:worth than the Attaque, and his far-seeing ideas on entrenched camps (Traite des fortifications de campagne) were coldly received, though therein may be found the elements of the " detached forts " system now universal in See also:Europe. The See also:close of his See also:life, saddened by the consciousness of waning influence and by failing See also:health, he devoted largely to the arrangement of the voluminous See also:manuscripts (See also:Mes oisivetes) which contained his reflections on war, See also:administration, See also:finance, See also:agriculture and the like.

In 1689 he had had the courage to make a See also:

representation to the king in favour of the republication of the See also:Edict of See also:Nantes, and in 1698 he wrote his Projet d'une royale (see Economistes fanancieres du XVIII° siecle, Paris, 1851), a remarkable work foreshadowing the principles of the See also:French Revolution. Vauban was deeply impressed with the deplorable See also:condition of the peasantry, whose labour he regarded as the main See also:foundation of all See also:wealth, and protested in particular against the unequal incidence of See also:taxation and the exemptions and privileges of the upper classes. His See also:dix'" royale, a tax to be impartially applied to all classes, was a tenth of all agricultural produce payable in See also:kind, and a tenth of See also:money chargeable on manufacturers and merchants. This work was published in 1707, and instantly suppressed by See also:order Of the king. The marshal died See also:heart-broken at the failure of his efforts a few days after the publication of the order (See also:March 30, 1707). At the Revolution his remains were scattered, but in 18o8 his heart was found and deposited by order of See also:Napoleon in the See also:church of the Invalides. Vauban's attention was closely engaged, not only in general military matters, but in See also:political and See also:financial reform and the inland See also:navigation of France. He carried out the rearmament of the French See also:infantry with See also:flint-See also:lock muskets and the socket See also:bayonet. The order of St Louis was suggested by him, and lastly may be mentioned the fortress-See also:models which he constructed, most of which are in the Invalides at Paris, and some in the See also:Berlin Zeughaus. The actual See also:total of his work as an engineer is worth recording. He conducted See also:forty sieges and took part in more than three See also:hundred combats, while his skill and experience were employed on the construction or re-See also:building of more than 160 fortresses of all kinds. Mes oisivetes See also:long remained unpublished, and of the twelve volumes of ;See also:manuscript seven are lost.

The See also:

remainder were published in Paris, 1841—45, in an abridged See also:form, and of the five manuscript volumes three are in public hands, and two belong to the families of two famous engineers, Augoyat and See also:Haxo. At the Hague (1737—1742) appeared, dedicated to See also:Frederick of See also:Prussia, De Hondt's edition of De l'attaque et defense, &c., and of this work an improved edition appeared subsequently. But the first satisfactory See also:editions are those of Augoyat and Valaze mentioned above.

End of Article: VAUBAN

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