Marshal Vauban and the Defence of Louis XIV's France

by James Falkner

Sebastien Le Prestre, Marshal Vauban, was one of the greatest military engineers of all time. His complex, highly sophisticated fortress designs, his advanced theories for the defense and attack of fortified places, and his prolific work as a writer and radical thinker on military and social affairs, mark him out as one of the most influential military minds of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Yet no recent study of this extraordinary man has been published in English. James Falkner, in this perceptive and lively new account of Vauban's life and work, follows his career as a soldier from a dashing and brave young cavalry officer to his emergence as a masterful military engineer. And he shows that Vauban was much more than simply a superlative builder of fortresses, for as a leading military commander serving Louis XIV, he perfected a method for attacking fortifications in the most effective way, which became standard practice until the present day. James Falkner's new study will add significantly to the understanding of Vauban's achievements and the impact his work has had on the history of warfare.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Technology, France, 18th Century, Military History

226 pages, Hardcover

First published July 21, 2011

Reviews

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an outstanding study of Marshal Vauban and his contributions to fortress building and siege warfare. Falkner examines Vauban's military career and siege warfare operations during the reign of Louis XIV from the late years of the Franco-Spanish War of 1635-59 through the War of Devolution (1667-68), Dutch War (1672-78/79), War of Reunions (1683-84), Nine Years War (1688-1697 and the early years of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-13/14). Vauban's ideas on how to attack a well-defended fortress, and take it with limited casualties, established a model for years to come. Moreover, Vauban designed and oversaw the construction/modification of over 180 fortresses, including the famous pre carre, or what Falkner likes to call the Fence of Iron in northeastern France. These fortifications protected France from an invasion by the Duke of Marlborough in the War of the Spanish Succession. The fortifications also played an important part in French military history for the next 250 years, all the way up to and including World War II. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Early Modern European Military History.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good narrative of the life and career of Vauban, Louis XIV's master engineer. The book is well-written and manages to cover Vauban's sieges and constructions in an engaging manner (while placing them in the geographic and strategic contexts) and also captures the man himself, as much as humanly possible. My only complaint is that a book that is centered on the construction and capturing of early gunpowder-era fortifications needs more illustrations to help those of us who don't know a ravelin from a demi-lune. The small illustration and rear-of-book glossary are inadequate for that task. There should also be more maps to illustrate the campaigns which whirled around the fortresses, and the locations of the forts built by Vauban in the southern parts of the kingdom. But all-in-all, first class. An important contribution to the understanding of war and the state in early modern Europe and France.

[M Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was excellent in addressing Vauban's role in the expansion and defense of the Sun King's borders. It was also very good in its analysis of the balance between attack and defense in the age of fortresses.

I only gave it 3* because it represents such a huge missed opportunity. Vauban devised a plan for a tax overhaul that would have prevented the slide to the French Revolution and it gets only two pages. He crisscrossed France dozens of times by horseback and coach and we get no appreciation for how difficult that must have been or what he must have observed. This book was a chance for so much more than it delivered.

Also, the book is a hair light on architecture of fortresses in comparison to Duffy's book which lays it on with a trowel.