Anonymous engraving of Jean Paul Timoléon de Cossé, Duke of Brissac

Jean Paul Timoléon de Cossé-Brissac, 7th Duke of Brissac (12 October 1698, in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

– 1784, in Sarrelouis), was a French general during the reign of King

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached ...

. He is most notable for leading the French vanguard at the

Battle of Minden The Battle of Minden was a major engagement during the Seven Years' War, fought on 1 August 1759. An Anglo-German army under the overall command of Prussian Field Marshal Ferdinand of Brunswick defeated a French army commanded by Marshal of Fr ...

, and he became a

Marshal of France Marshal of France (french: Maréchal de France, plural ') is a French military distinction, rather than a military rank, that is awarded to generals for exceptional achievements. The title has been awarded since 1185, though briefly abolished ( ...

. He was also a

Grand Panetier of France The Grand Panetier of France (roughly "Great Breadmaster", sometimes rendered as Panter) was one of the Great Officers of the Crown of France, a member of the Maison du Roi ("King's Household"), one of the Great Offices of the Maison du Roi, and ...

Life and career

He was the second son and third of five children of Artus-Timoléon (1668-1709), Count then 5th Duke of Brissac, and of Marie Louise Béchameil de Nointel (daughter of the financier Louis de Béchameil). He began his military career as a knight of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, becoming a '' garde de la marine'' in 1713. He served from 1714 on the galleys operating out of Malta, fighting in various actions against the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

. In 1716, he fought at the victory at the siege of Corfu under

Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg Marshal Johann Matthias Reichsgraf von der Schulenburg (8 August 1661 – 14 March 1747) was a German aristocrat and general of Brandenburg-Prussian background who served in the Saxon and Venetian armies in the early 18th century and found a seco ...

. He left the navy in 1717 and returned to France. There, he became the ''mestre de camp'' of a cavalry regiment named after him, and he served until the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (175 ...

. He was rewarded for his good conduct at the French defeat at the

in 1759 by being made a

. His courage and politeness were seen as the model of an old-style loyal and frank French knight. He continued wearing

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ver ...

-era costume, and for a long time wore a long scarf and a two-''queue'' hairstyle. Charles, Count of Charolais, one day found him at his mistress's house and brusquely told him "Get out, sir", but Brissac replied "Sir, your ancestors would have said 'We get out'". He inherited the ducal title in 1732 when his elder brother, Charles Timoléon Louis (1693-1732), the 6th Duke of Brissac, died without a male heir.

Marriage and issue

In 1732, he married Marie Josèphe Durey de Sauroy (d. 1756), with whom he had three children: *Louis-Joseph (1733-1759), died without issue * Louis-Hercule (1734-1792), succeeded as Duke of Brissac but died without surviving male issue *Pierre Emmanuel Joseph Timoléon (1741-1756), marquis de Thouarcé, died unmarried After Louis-Hercule's death in 1792 without a surviving son, the ducal title passed to Timoléon de Cossé-Brissac (1775-1848). He was the eldest son of Hyacinthe-Hugues de Cossé-Brissac, Duke of Cossé (1746-1813), whose father was René-Hugues de Cossé-Brissac, Count of Cossé (1702-1754). René-Hugues was the third son of Artus-Timoléon de Cossé-Brissac, 5th Duke of Brissac (1668-1709), the father of the 6th and 7th Dukes of Brissac.

Sources

* "Jean Paul Timoléon de Cossé-Brissac", in Louis-Gabriel Michaud, ''Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne : histoire par ordre alphabétique de la vie publique et privée de tous les hommes avec la collaboration de plus de 300 savants et littérateurs français ou étrangers'', 2nd edition, 1843-1865

External links

Jean Paul Timoléon de Cossé-Brissac on Saarländische Biografien
{{DEFAULTSORT:de Cosse 1698 births 1784 deaths Marshals of France Knights of Malta

Jean Paul Jean Paul (; born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, 21 March 1763 – 14 November 1825) was a German Romantic writer, best known for his humorous novels and stories. Life and work Jean Paul was born at Wunsiedel, in the Fichtelgebirge mountain ...