François Gaston de Lévis, Duc de Lévis
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François Gaston, duc de Lévis (August 20, 1719 – November 20, 1787), born near Limoux, was a French noble and a Marshal of France.
He entered the French army in 1735 and distinguished himself in the War of the Austrian Succession. During the Seven Years' War, he was appointed second in command to General Montcalm in Canada under whom he fought at Fort William Henry and Fort Carillon. In 1759 he was sent to Montreal by Montcalm and was thus not present at the Plains of Abraham. After Montcalm's death at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, he became commander of the French troops in Canada. Lévis managed to defeat the British in the Battle of Sainte-Foy, but he had to abandon the siege of Quebec due to a lack of supplies and the arrival of a British relief fleet.
Although he wanted to continue the fight, Lévis was forced to surrender Montreal in September 1760 on orders of the French governor Marquis de Vaudreuil. After his return to France, he was promoted to lieutenant general in 1761 and marshal of France in 1783 and created a duke in 1784. He died in 1787 in Arras.
[edit] References
- Carillon 1758, Osprey Publishing,
- Quebec 1759, Osprey Publishing
