René de Froulay, Count of Tessé

French soldier

René de Froulay, Count of Tessé (14 May 1648 – 30 March 1725) was a French soldier and diplomat during the reign of Louis XIV and the 1715–1723 Regency.

René de Froulay, Count of Tessé was born at the family home of the Chateau de Vernie, near Le Mans on 14 May 1648, son of René, Comte de Tessé (1600–1659) and Madeleine de Beaumanoir (1618–1682); his younger brother Philibert Emmanuel de Froulay (1651–1701) was also a soldier. His maternal grandfather Jean de Beaumanoir, Marquis of Lavardin (1551–1610) was born a Protestant but like many in that period changed sides and religions when needed and ended his career as a trusted advisor of Henry IV. René married Marie Françoise Auber d'Aunay on 10 June 1674 and they had seven children, four of whom survived childhood. He was succeeded by his eldest son René Mans de Froulay (1681–1746) who married Marie Elisabeth Bouchu in April 1706. His grandson and namesake René de Froulay, Comte de Tessé and Marquis de Lavardin (1736–1814) married Adrienne Catherine de Noailles (1741–1813). She was later famous as a patron of the composer Mozart and friend and correspondent of Thomas Jefferson when he was US Ambassador to France between 1784 and 1789.

Like many of his contemporaries, de Tessé played an active role in the wars of Louis XIV; in 1669, he was appointed to the staff of Marshall François de Créquy and raised a regiment of dragoons which took part in the Franco Dutch war of 1672–78. After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, he carried out the so called dragonnade of Huguenots in the Principality of Orange and was military commander of the Dauphiné and Languedoc provinces in 1686. At the start of the Nine Years' War in 1688, he was part of the army under Montclar that invaded the Rhineland. When France withdrew in 1689, Louis XIV ordered a scorched earth policy; de Tessé commanded operations in the Palatinate, including the burning of Heidelberg and destruction of over 20 substantial towns and villages. He later fought in Northern Italy against Savoy, commanding the garrison of the strategic town of Pinerolo in Piedmont. Starting in 1693, he acted as Louis' representative in secret negotiations with Victor Amadeus that led to the 1696 Treaty of Turin between France and Savoy. When the War of the Spanish Succession began in 1701, de Tessé commanded the French garrison at Mantua; he was wounded several times, his brother Philibert Emmanuel dying of dysentery at Cremona the same year. He was appointed Marshal of France in 1703 and in 1704 Commander in Chief of Bourbon troops in Spain, replacing the Duke of Berwick. In this role he became close to the young King Philip V.

In 1706, de Tessé commanded Bourbon forces besieging Barcelona but they were over stretched; British control of the seas made it impossible to prevent the city being resupplied and the Bourbon army was forced to retreat. Despite this, in 1707 he commanded the field army that prevented Prince Eugene taking the key French naval base of Toulon. This appears to have been his last active military command. In 1708, he acted as French Ambassador in Rome, then Spain in 1723, when he persuaded Philip V to resume the Spanish throne after the death of his eldest son Louis I. He was also Governor General of the Perche and his home province of Maine. He died in 1725 at the Camaldolese monastery in Grosbois.