V I L 



V 1 L 



VILLAROYA, a town of Spain, in the kingdom of 

 Aragon ; 15 miles N.W. of Calataiud. 



VILLARRAMIEL, a town of Spain, in the province 

 of Leon ; 1 6 miles W. of Palencia. 



VILLARS, Louis-Hector, duke of, and marflial of 

 France, in Biography, was born at Moulins, in Bourbon- 

 nois, in 1653, and commenced a military life in his youth. 

 He ferved in Holland in 1672, fignalized his courage at the 

 liege of Maeftricht in 1673, and was wounded at the battle 

 of Senef in 1674. We cannot follow him through all his 

 gradations of advancement and difplays of military talents ; 

 but we find, at the famous battle of Blenheim, that he was 

 deftined by Lewis XIV. to check the progrcfs of Marl- 

 borough. With an inferior army he kept the vittors at bay, 

 fo that the campaign of 1 705 palTed off without any further 

 lofs to France. After various other fervices, in which he 

 diftinguifhed himfelf, he was appointed to command in 

 Flanders againft the allies in 17091 and marching to the re- 

 lief of Mons, he was attacked by Marlborough and Eugene 

 at Malplaquet. The engagement was long and bloody, and 

 though the French were driven from the field, the greateft 

 lofs of men was fuftained by the viftors. To a wound 

 which compelled Villars to withdraw from the field, he at- 

 tributed the lofs of the battle. In reference to this gaf- 

 conade (as fome would be difpofed to call it), Voltaire ob- 

 ferves, " I know that the marflial himfelf was perfnaded of 

 it, but I alfo know, that few others were fo." As a fur- 

 ther reward for his fervices, he was made a peer of France, 

 and lieutenant-general of the biflioprics of Metz and Ver- 

 dun. Although France was relieved by the feparatiou of 

 England from the alhance in 17 1 2, Eugene produced con- 

 fternation at Paris by befieging Landrecy with a fuperior 

 force. On this occafion, Villars attacked a part of the allied 

 army at Denain, which he entirely broke up, and this fuccefs 

 led to the recovery of all the places loft by the French in 

 that quarter, at the reftoration of their fuperiority. The 

 peace of Utrecht followed ; and the emperor having refufcd 

 to be comprehended in it, marflial Villars and Eugene held 

 conferences at Radlladt in 17 14, for a treaty between 

 their refpeftive Sovereigns, which they condufted with the 

 franknefs of military men, and foon brought to a conclufion. 

 Villars, who had experienced the attacks of envy and jea- 

 loufy at his own court, faid to Eugene on this occafion : 

 " Sir, we are not enemies ; your enemies are at Vienna, and 

 mine at Verfailles." 



After the death of Lewis XIV., Villars for fome time 

 maintained his credit at court ; being made prefident of the 

 council of war in 1715, and one of the council of regency 

 in 17 1 S. But v/hcn Lewis's fyllem was in agitation, he 

 thought it his duty to ilate to the regent the evils which, in 

 his apprehenfion, would refult from it ; and he thus contri- 

 buted to the difcharge of that financier, and to the appoint- 

 ment of his fncceffor. When the regency devolved upon 

 the duke of Bourbon, Villars was always confulted, who 

 was then at the height of his fortune : — 'a marflial of France, 

 a duke and peer, governor of Provence, a grandee of 

 Spain, a knight of the golden fleece, and a member of the 

 council. What more was wanting to gratify ambition ? 

 When France was excluded from the treaty that was 

 brought about by the intrigues of the principal courts of 

 Europe between the emperor, Spain and England, a war 

 broke out in 1733, and Villars, with the title of general of 

 the camps and armies (dormant fincc Turenne), wias font, at 

 the age of eighty, to command in the Milancfe. But 

 though he met with fome fuccefs, age and infirmities would 

 not allow him to make more than one campaign. On his 

 return to France, he was fcizcd with a difordcr Uiat termi- 



nated his life at Turin. When his confefTor obferved to 

 him, that God had favoured him with more time to prepare 

 for death than marfhal Berwick, who had juft been killed 

 by a cannon-ball at the fiege of Phihpfburg, " What! (faid 

 he) has he ended his life in that manner ? I always faid that 

 he was more fortunate than I." • He foon after expired in 

 June 1734, in the eighty-firft year of his age. 



The charafter of Villars is thus delineated by one of his 

 biographers. " Marflial Villars was a true military genius, 

 full of courage and confidence, who raifed himfelf by pcr- 

 fifling in always doing more than his duty. He was re- 

 proached with having lefs modefty than valour, and with 

 fpeaking of himfelf as he had deferved that others fhould 

 fpeak of him. Nor was he fparing of cenfurcs on others, 

 and he employed rather defiance than conciliation towards 

 his enemies. Though pofTefTing integrity and lively parts, 

 he was therefore never able to render himfelf popular, or to 

 acquire friends. In aftion he was always prefent where the 

 danger was greateft ; and he held it as a maxim, ' that a 

 general ought to expofe himfelf as much as he expofes 

 others.' " Villars was admitted into the French Academy in 

 1714. " Memoirs of the Marfhal de Villars" were printed 

 in Holland, in three vols. 1734-36, the firft of which alone 

 was written by himfelf. A more interefting publication 

 appeared in 1784, entitled " La Vie du Marechal dc Villars, 

 ecrite par lui-meme, et donnee an Public par M. Anque- 

 til," four vols. i2mo. This work contains the letters, re- 

 colleftions, and journal of the] marflial, properly arranged 

 by the editor. Moreri, Gen. Biog. 



Villars de Montfaucon de, a relation of the cele- 

 brated father Montfaucon, was educated for the church, 

 and came from Touloufe to Paris in order to obtain diftinc- 

 tion as a preacher. He was received into the beft company, 

 and made himfelf known by feveral works, efpecially by his 

 " Comte de Gabahs, ou Entretiens fur les Sciences fecretes," 

 firll printed at Paris in 1670. This work is a kind of 

 joco-ferious view of the Rofycrucian philofophy, rendered 

 amufing as a romance. From this fource Pope derived his 

 machinery of the " Rape of the Lock." Villars, in con- 

 fequence of this work, which was thought to contain here- 

 tical notions, was forbidden the pulpit. He added to it a 

 fccond part, and it has been feveral times reprinted ; the 

 laft time in 1742, two vols. i2mo. He was alfo the author 

 of feveral other works. He was killed by a piflol-fhot, by 

 one of his relations, on the road from Paris to Lyons, in 

 1675, when he was about thirty-five years of age. Bayle. 

 Moreri. 



ment 



Villars, in Geography, a town of France, in the depart- 

 Mit of the Ain ; 8 miles S.E. of St. Trivier. 



VILLA RSIA, in Botany, a genus more correflly 

 named, as to its orthography, than Villaria, (fee that 

 article,) but with refpeft to its diftinftive character, we 

 fear, lefs certain. It confiils of fuch fpecies of the Lin- 

 nian Menyanthes, as have the corolla only partially covered 

 with hairs, and the margin of whofe fegments is thin, in- 

 flexed in the bud. The leaves moreover are fimple, not 

 tcrnate. Gmclin had long ago cftabliflicd this fSine genus, 

 in the Peterfburgh Tranfaitions for 1769, by the name of 

 Limnaothimum ; and Wiggers in his Primitia: Flcrx Hol- 

 fatix, p. 20, jpubliflied in 1780, by that of Wallfchmid'ta. 

 Yet in fpite of thefe prior claims, Venteiiat, in his Choix 

 dc Plantes, t. 9, has followed a more recent authority, if it 

 may fo be called, in naming thefe plants Villiffin, and he is 

 followed by Mr. Brown, in his Prodr. Nov. Holl. v. i. 456. 

 The authority to which wc allude is tli.it of another Gmelin, 

 late profcfTor at Gottingcn, w^ho in his compiled edition of 

 Linnxus's Syllcnia, took upon him to bellow gratuitous 



appellations 



