389 



VILLEHARDOUIN, GEOFFROY DE. 



VILLEMAIN, ABEL-FRANgOIS. 



390 



berg, and concentrate their forces against Austria ; but the invitation 

 was declined. Troops were again withdrawn from him, and he was 

 obliged to re-cross the Rhine. In 1708 he was sent to command on 

 the frontier of Savoy, but the tardiness of those to whom the arrange- 

 ments were intrusted caused the campaign to terminate without effect. 

 In 1709 he was sent to re-organise the dispirited and demoralised 

 army of Flanders. At the battle of Malplaquet he was wounded early 

 in the day : he endeavoured to continue to direct the troops from a 

 litter, but fainted, and was borne from the field. His wound was 

 dangerous, and kept him inactive the rest of the year. The campaign 

 of 1710 was desultory : repeated attempts were made to open nego- 

 ciations. In the autumn of that year Villars's wound broke open, 

 and he was obliged to resign for a time the command of the army, 

 lu 1711 the exhausted state of French finances hampered the military 

 operations and kept Villars on the defensive within the frontier. In 

 1712 the battle of Denain (24th July), the capture of Marchiennes, 

 Douai, and a number of forts by Villars, restored courage to tbe 

 French. Prince Eugene was obliged to give ground, and retire 

 beneath the walls of Brussels. The peace of Utrecht was concluded 

 (separately) by Holland and England in 1713. Austria refused to 

 sign the treaty; Villars was sent into Germany at the head of an 

 army, and on the 7th of March 1714, the peace of Rastadt was 

 concluded. 



The military labours of Villars were now to experience a long inter- 

 mission, and only to be renewed when he approached the termination 

 of his career. From 1714 to 1732 he was exclusively engaged in the 

 turmoil of state intrigue. He had set off to visit his government of 

 Provence, when he was recalled to witness the last momenta of 

 Louis XIV. Villars stood on delicate ground with the regent. In 

 concluding the treaty of Rastadt he had made two secret stipulations : 

 that tho right of succession to the French throne, to the exclusion of 

 the Duke of Orleans, should be reserved to Philip V. and his descend- 

 ants. The regent was pacified however by Villars's producing the 

 autograph commands of Louis XIV. to insist upon those conditions. 

 Villars was appointed by the duke a member of his council, in which 

 he steadily opposed every deviation from the policy of his old master. 

 In particular he laboured to prevent the adoption of the course pro- 

 posed by Dubois, under the name of the quadruple alliance. He 

 opposed energetically the adoption of the financial schemes of Law. 

 Dubois advised the regent to have Villars arrested, and attempted to 

 implicate him in the conspiracy of Alberoni, but the mare"chal, by 

 serving the regent with the same entire devotion as he had served 

 Louis XIV., gained his confidence, and the affection entertained for 

 him by the young king was an additional protection. After the death 

 of Dubois the regent reserved to himself the office of prime minister, 

 and regulated his conduct in a great measure by the advice of Villara 

 in military and foreign affairs. The Duke of Bourbon, who succeede'd 

 the regent, showed no less confidence in him. His only rival was the 

 Abbe* Fleury. The marriage of Louis XV. with the daughter of the 

 king of Poland appeared for a time to strengthen the influence of 

 Villars, but the Abbe" Fleury having determined the queen's power 

 with the king, the marechal was obliged to give way to the favourite. 

 This continued till 1732, when the rupture with Austria on account of 

 the Spanish possessions in Italy rendered the military services of 

 Villars indispensable. In his eighty-first year he was sent to command 

 iu Italy with the rank of marechal-ge'ne'ral de la France, which had 

 never been conferred on any one before him, except Turenne. In the 

 campaigns of 1733 and 1734 he evinced all the ardour, activity, and 

 contempt of danger which characterised his youth. The ingratitude of 

 the king of Sardinia however decided Villars to solicit his recall early 

 in the course of the second. His wish was granted. He was taken ill 

 at Turin on his way to France, and died on the 17th of June 1734, 



The predominant features of Villars's character were humanity, 

 sincerity, quickness of apprehension, and promptitude without pre- 

 cipitancy in action. He was not free from the lax gallantry of his 

 day, and is said, with or without cause, to have been extremely 

 jealous of his wife. In advanced life he evinced a degree of avarice, 

 contracted probably from the habits of economy forced upon him by 

 the circumstances of his youth. He is among the most brilliant mili 

 tary characters of France, yet without that restless desire of show 

 which detracts from the merits of so many of them. He was capable 

 of deep, disinterested, and lasting attachment. His conduct in the war 

 of the Cevennes will ever endear his memory to the lover of humanity 

 and of religious liberty. 



VILLEHARDOUIN, GEOFFROY DE, was born near Arcis-sur- 

 Aube about 1167, aud was descended from one of the most ancient 

 and distinguished families of the Comtd de Champagne. He was 

 Marshal of Champagne when, in 1199 his sovereign lord Thibault, 

 Count of Champagne and of Brie, determined upon joining the cause of 

 the crusades, and Villehardouin was among the first chosen to accom- 

 pany him. Previous to the departure of his lord he was sent as 

 ambassador to Venice, to solicit the aid and co-operation of that 

 Republic in their enterprise. He arrived at that city with five other 

 deputies in the beginning of Lent, 1201, and met with an honourable 

 reception from Henry Dandolo, the Doge. Admitted before the 

 council of state, Villehardouin eloquently explained the motives of his 

 mission, aud the reasons which had induced the Count of Champagne 

 to apply to the Venetians for assistance, in preference to other powers. 



"We have chosen you before all other nations in Europe," he eaid, "ag 

 being the most powerful, the most generous, and the mo*<t capable of 

 seconding so glorious an enterprise. We have come to demand your 

 assistance and the junction of your forces to oura, without which we 

 can never expect to re-conquer Jerusalem ; and, as we are resolved to 

 undertake this conquest, we have been commanded not to leave this 

 city till we have received a favourable answer to our request, leaving 

 it to you to impose the conditions on which it is to be granted." To 

 this energetic appeal were joined the tears and entreaties of the other 

 deputies, who, in the holiness of their mission, forgot the shame of 

 kneeling as suppliants before the haughty representatives of com- 

 mercial power. Moved by their appeal, and the pecuniary advantages 

 which were likely to result from the transaction, an unanimous accla- 

 mation arose from the assembly of " Nous 1'octroyons ! Nous 1'octro- 

 yons ! " A treaty was concluded between the French deputies and 

 the Republic, by which it was agreed, that the Venetians should 

 furnish the vessels necessary for the transport of 4500 horsemen and 

 9000 squires and attendants, and also 20,000 foot soldiers, with nine 

 months' provisions ; that the vessels should be equipped and ready to 

 sail in the month of June in the following year, and that their service 

 should only count from the time that they left Venice. For these 

 services the crusaders were to pay the Venetians the sum of 80,000 

 marks of silver, or, according to some accounts, 85,000. The payment 

 of so exorbitant a sum, for that period,.proves equally the generous zeal 

 of the crusaders and the attentive regard of the Venetians to their 

 interests. After the conclusion of this treaty, Villehardouin returned 

 to France, where he found the Count Thibault dangerously ill. The 

 death of Thibault, which occurred soon after, left the crusaders with- 

 out a chief. The command of the expedition having been offered to 

 the Duke of Burgundy, and afterwards to the Count of Bar, who both 

 declined it, it was finally accepted by the Marquis of Montserrat, who 

 appointed Venice as the place of general meeting. 



The first exploit of the crusaders, after leaving Venice, was, at the 

 solicitation of Alexis Comnenus, to re-establish on the throne of Con- 

 stantinople the Emperor Isaac his father. The French having after- 

 wards to complain of the conduct of Alexis, who had not ratified the 

 stipulated conditions for the succour they had lent him, sent Villehar- 

 douin as their deputy to make the necessary remonstrances. 



Villehardouin was present at the siege of Constantinople in 1204, 

 when that city was taken by the Venetians and French, and to him 

 history is indebted for a minute and graphic description of this 

 remarkable siege. The services of Villebardouin were rewarded by 

 the Emperor Baldwin, whom the victorious Franks had placed on the 

 throne, by his appointment to the important office of " Mare"chal " of 

 the province of Romania. His military skill and bravery also insured 

 him the esteem of the Emperor Henry, the successor of Baldwin, to 

 whom the Marquis of Montserrat had given his daughter in marriage ; 

 from him he received, as a free gift, the entire city of Messinopolis, 

 together with its dependencies. This valuable donation induced him 

 to reside in Thessaly, where he died about the year 1213. While 

 however enjoying the honours which his merit had acquired, he 

 appears not to have been unmindful of the country of his birth ; in 

 1207, he richly endowed the abbeys of Froissy and Troyes, to which 

 his sisters and his two daughters belonged. The lustre of his name 

 gave power and influence to his descendants, who for nearly two 

 centuries ruled over the most important principalities of Greece. 



It is chiefly as an historian that the name of Geoffrey De Villehar- 

 douin has become celebrated. To him we are principally indebted for 

 the history of one of the most important periods in the wars of the 

 crusades, from 1198 to 1207. His work is entitled ' L'Histoire de la 

 Prise de Constantinople par les Frangais et les Venitiens.' The author 

 relates the events in which he was an active participator with modest 

 simplicity and tolerable candour. His narration is remarkable for 

 brevity and clearness, and generally bears the impress of truth. His 

 talents as a negociator caused him frequently to be employed on 

 missions of importance, and to be summoned to the councils of the 

 army; he has thus been enabled to give a minute detail of several 

 events, of which we might otherwise have remained ignorant. His 

 history is rendered the more valuable from the fact, that it is probably 

 the oldest historical record in prose which the French language 

 possesses. The first edition of it was published at Venice in 1573, the 

 second in Paris in 1585 : the most valuable is that by the learned. Du 

 Cange, " whose notes," says Mills, " are as valuable as his notes on the 

 Alexiad." [BYZANTINE HISTORIANS.] The title of this edition of Du 

 Cange, which is now not easily to be met with, is as follows : ' His- 

 toire de 1'Empire de Constantinople, deviates en deux parties, &c., 

 e'crite par Geoffroy De Ville-Hardouin, avec la suite de cette Histoire 

 jusqu'en 1240, tiree du Manuscrit de Philippe Mousker, &c., le tout 

 avec Observations faites par Charles du Fresne, Sieur du Gauge ; Paris, 

 de I'lmprimerie Royale, 1657, in fol.' In this edition the old text" is 

 accompanied with a modern French version. The history of Villehar- 

 douin is also to be found in vol. xxviii. of the ' Recueil des Historiens 

 des Gaules et de la France ; ' in fol., Paris, 1822 : the text in this 

 edition has been revised on three manuscripts, and to it is appended a 

 glossary. 



* VILLEMAIN, ABEL-FRANCOIS, peer of France and one of the 

 most distinguished of French men of letters, was born in Paris on the 

 llth of June 1791, and educated at the Imperial Lyceum there, where his 



