TURENNE TURGOT. 



697 



tory at Nordlingen. In 1645, having formed a 

 junction, after a march of 150 French miles, with 

 the Swedes, under Wrangel, he defeated the Bava- 

 rians at Zusmarshausen, fell upon Bavaria, and com- 

 pelled the duke to sue for peace. This prince 

 having afterwards broken his engagements, his 

 army was once more beaten by Turenne, and he 

 himself was driven out of his territories. In the 

 war of the Fronde, 1649, Turenne was at first 

 gained over, by the duke of Bouillon, to the party 

 opposed to the court. In 1650, being defeated by 

 the marshal du Plessis-Preslin, near Rhetell, he can- 

 didly confessed that he had lost the battle through 

 his own negligence, for, he added, if any one com- 

 mit no faults in war, it is a proof that he has not had 

 long experience in it. The Spanish court, in order 

 to encourage him to continue the war, sent him 

 100,000 crowns ; but this sum Turenne returned, as 

 he expected to be reconciled to the court party. 

 This reconciliation took place in 1651, and Turenne 

 was now appointed general of the royal army. His 

 great adversary was the duke d'Enghien, afterwards 

 prince of Conde, who was in the Spanish service. 

 These two commanders carried on the war with al- 

 ternate success, until at length Turenne, by the 

 taking of Dunkirk and the occupation of a great 

 part of Flanders.enabled cardinalMazarin to Conclude 

 the peace of the Pyrenees. In 1653, he married 

 the daughter of the marshal and duke de la Force, 

 a Protestant lady ; but she bore him no children. 

 On the renewal of the war with Spain, in 1667, 

 Louis XIV. selected marshal Turenne for his 

 teacher in the art of war, gave him the title of 

 marshal-general of the French army, and made him 

 l.is lieutenant-general. Flanders and Franche- 

 Comte were subdued, and Turenne joined the 

 Catholic church in 1668. The Catholics consider 

 this religious change as the result of conviction ; 

 the Protestants, on the contrary, attribute it to 

 ambitious views ; Voltaire, perhaps more impartial 

 than either, says, " The conversion of Turenne was 

 perhaps sincere. The human heart frequently unites 

 policy, ambition, and the weakness of love, with 

 religious ideas." When Louis XIV., in 1672, re- 

 solved on the conquest of Holland, Turenne was 

 appointed again to the chief command, and compel- 

 led the elector Frederic William of Brandenburg, 

 who assisted the Dutch, to sign the peace of Vos- 

 sem. Turenne appeared on all occasions very hon- 

 ourable and disinterested. When a general made a 

 proposal to him, by the execution of which he might 

 have obtained 400,000 livres, he answered that he 

 had often rejected such proposals, and would not 

 alter his course. A city offered him a present of 

 100,000 dollars, to induce him not to march through 

 its territory. " As your city," answered Turenne, 

 " does not lie in my route, I cannot, accept your of- 

 fer." After the occupation of Franche-Comte, he 

 defended the borders of this district, and, in 1674, 

 crossed the Rhine at Philippsburg, conquered Sinz- 

 heim, and drove back the imperial army, under Ca- 

 prara and the duke of Lorraine, even to the Maine. 

 He then turned his arms against the prince of 

 Bournonville, who had arrived with fresh troops, 

 defeated him also, and prevented his junction with 

 the imperial army. The imperialists fell upon 

 Alsace, with 70,000 men, and besieged Brisach and 

 Philippsburg. Turenne had only 20,000 men, but 

 was strengthened by Conde. He then continued 

 his march over mountains covered with snow, and 

 was in the midst of the hostile army, in Upper 

 Alsace, when they supposed him in Lorraine. He 



dispersed, without any important battle, the numer- 

 ous army which opposed him, protected Alsace, and 

 compelled the Germans to retire over the Rhine. 

 The confidence of the soldiers in him was almost 

 boundless ; and this enabled him to accomplish great 

 enterprises. The glory which Turenne obtained in 

 this campaign, was the greater, as he followed his 

 own views entirely, and not the commands of the 

 king. But the dreadful devastation of the Palati- 

 nate tarnished his fame ; and we are inclined to be- 

 lieve that, in this measure, he obeyed the commands 

 of the ministry in opposition to his own opinion. 

 " After the battle of Sinzheim," says Voltaire, 

 " Turenne laid waste the Palatinate (a level and 

 fertile tract) with fire and sword. The elector of 

 the Palatinate saw, from his castle at Manheim, 

 two cities and twenty-five villages in flames. Re- 

 duced by this sight to despair, he sent a challenge 

 to Turenne in a letter full of reproaches. The 

 marshal gave the letter to the king, who forbade 

 the acceptance of the challenge ; and Turenne ac- 

 cordingly answered it by an unmeaning compliment. 

 He was accustomed to express himself with modera- 

 tion and ambiguity. He also permitted a part of 

 the cornfields of Alsace to be laid waste in cold 

 blood, in order to deprive the enemy of the means 

 of subsistence, and allowed his cavalry to ravage 

 Lorraine. He preferred to be the father of the 

 soldiers intrusted to him, rather than of the people, 

 who, according to the laws of war, are always the 

 victim. Turenne's extraordinary fortune induced 

 the imperial court to oppose to him their best gene- 

 ral ; and Montecuculi was sent, in 1673, over the 

 Rhine. After a variety of skilful movements, they 

 were about to come to an engagement at Sassbach, 

 in Baden, when Turenne, while reconnoitring for 

 the purpose of finding a place for the erection of a 

 battery, was killed by a cannon ball. The same 

 ball carried away the arm of general de St Hilaire, 

 who, upon his son's bursting into tears at the sight, 

 exclaimed, "Not for me, but for this great man, 

 must you weep." The highest honour was shown 

 by the king to the remains of Turenne. They were 

 interred, like those of the constable du Guesclin, 

 at St Denis. Turenne possessed, under a rough 

 and ordinary exterior, a great mind. His disposition 

 was cold. His manners were decorous and simple. 

 He was not always fortunate in war, and commit- 

 ted some faults ; " but," says Voltaire, " he always 

 repaired them, and accomplished much with small 

 means." He was esteemed the most skilful com- 

 mander in Europe, even at a time when the art of 

 war was more studied than it had ever been before. 

 Although reproached for deserting his party in the 

 war of the Fronde ; although, at the age of nearly 

 sixty years, he suffered himself to be seduced by 

 love to disclose a secret of state ; although he com- 

 mitted unnecessary cruelties in the Palatinate, 

 yet he maintained the reputation of a man of ver- 

 acity, wisdom and moderation ; for his virtues and 

 talents covered the weaknesses and faults which he 

 had in common with so many others. See Conde, 

 Fronde, Montecuculi, and Louis XIV. 



TURGOT, ANNE ROBERT JACQUES, a patriotic 

 and enlightened French minister, son of the presi- 

 dent of the grand council, was born at Paris, in 

 1727, and, in his youth, gave himself up to the 

 study of theology at the Sorbonne. At the age of 

 twenty-four, he commenced a translation of Virgil's 

 Georgics, and, soon after, attaching himself to 

 Quesnay and the Economists (see Physiocratic 

 System'), quitted the Sorbonne in order to accom- 



