Camille d'Hostun, duc de Tallard
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Camille d'Hostun de la Baume, Duc de Tallard (February 14, 1652 - March 20, 1728) was a French noble and military commander.
In his youth, Tallard served under the Prince de Condé in the Netherlands and from 1674 under Turenne in Alsace. He was promoted maréchal de camp (the equivalent of a brigadier general) in 1678. He served in the Nine Years War where he crossed the Rhine to plunder the Palatinate. After the war he served for two years as ambassador to the Court of St. James's.
Tallard got to the height of his military career during the War of the Spanish Succession. In 1702, Tallard commanded a corps on the Rhine border. The following year he was created Marshal of France. During the campaign of 1703, Tallard captured the towns of Breisach and Landau and won the Battle of Speyer. In 1704 Tallard besieged the town of Villingen with an army of 29,000 men. Reinforced with 34,000 men under the Elector of Bavaria, Maximilian II Emanuel he faced an Anglo-Austrian army under the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene at the Battle of Blenheim. Decisively beaten, Tallard was captured and imprisoned in Nottingham until his release in 1711.
After being liberated, Tallard was made a duke in 1712 and was made a Peer of France in 1715. In Louis XIV's testament, Tallard was appointed to the Council of Regency but the Duke of Orléans had the testament nullified.
He was elected President of the Académie des Sciences in 1724, in 1726 he became a French minister of state. He died in 1728.
