War
After the Treaty of the Pyrenees the French armed forces had been sharply reduced in order to save costs. In 1665 they numbered only 50,000 men. Louis XIV however authorised preparations through which the number of soldiers grew to 82,000 by the start of the war. In spring 1667 51,000 French soldiers, who had been raised in 4 days, deployed between Mézières and the sea. The main army consisted of 35,000 men personally commanded by Louis XIV. However, the actual commander was Maréchal Turenne. To the left of the main army, a further French corps drew up in Artois at the coast, under Maréchal Antoine d’Aumont de Rochebaron, whilst another corps under Lieutenant General François de Créquy, marquis de Marines, took over the protection of the main army on the right flank. All three armies were to enter the Spanish territories at the same time, in order to take advantage of the French numerical superiority and not allow the Spanish to concentrate their defence against a single French force.
Read more about this topic: War Of Devolution
Famous quotes containing the word war:
“Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth for evermore.”
—Apocrypha. Ecclesiasticus, 44:14.
The line “their name liveth for evermore” was chosen by Rudyard Kipling on behalf of the Imperial War Graves Commission as an epitaph to be used in Commonwealth War Cemeteries. Kipling had himself lost a son in the fighting.
“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.”
—John Adams (1735–1826)
“I do not mean to exclude altogether the idea of patriotism. I know it exists, and I know it has done much in the present contest. But I will venture to assert, that a great and lasting war can never be supported on this principle alone. It must be aided by a prospect of interest, or some reward.”
—George Washington (1732–1799)