1-344-731 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Claude Louis Hector de Villars, French general, (c19th century). One of the greatest generals of Louis XIV, Marshal Villars (1653-1734) was one of the principal French commanders of the War of the Spanish Succession, he was defeated by Marlborough at the Battle of Malplaquet (1709), although the Allied victory was pyrrhic one. His finest hour came at Denain in 1712 when he decisively defeated a Dutch and Austrian army commanded by Eugene of Savoy. Villars was one of only six French Marshals to awarded the rank of Marshal General of France.