Paul Hay du Chastelet Jr. (born 1619, died ca. 1682) was a

military strategist A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

and author known for writing the ''Traite de guerre, ou Politique militaire'' and the son of Paul Hay du Chastelet (1592–1636), who he is often confused with, and the nephew of Daniel Hay du Chastelet (1596–1671), a priest and mathematician.

Biography

Little is known about Du Chastelet's life, but a basic outline can be given. He was baptised in

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...

on 30 May 1619, and received schooling at his uncle Daniel's home. By 1646, he had married Geneviève-Élizabeth Bonneau; the ceremony was held at La Perrière; his uncle presided. Despite burning his uncle's theological writings, Du Chastelet became a fervent Catholic; he believed that the

Huguenots The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss politica ...

needed to be expelled from France, and his work frequently invoked God, and implored rulers to fight for a good cause and spare

non-combatants Non-combatant is a term of art in the law of war and international humanitarian law to refer to civilians who are not taking a direct part in hostilities; persons, such as combat medics and military chaplains, who are members of the belligerent a ...

; in his most famous work, he claimed to have learnt from battles he was involved in, which has been speculated to refer to the Fronde. His date of death is unknown, with some claiming that he died as early as 1670, only a short while after the 1668 publication of his ''Traite de guerre, ou Politique militaire'', but a more plausible estimate of his death is 1682. The ''Traite de guerre'' is notable for distinguishing between

offensive Offensive may refer to: * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Offensive (military), an attack * Offensive language ** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict inj ...

and defensive warfare and for being compiled for

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 Vers ...

of France. He is considered to be one of only two major strategists in Europe in the middle of the 17th century; the other being

Raimondo Montecuccoli Raimondo Montecuccoli (; 21 February 1609 – 16 October 1680) was an Italian-born professional soldier, military theorist, and diplomat, who served the Habsburg monarchy. Experiencing the Thirty Years' War from scratch as a simple footsoldier ...

References

External links

*for a translation of excerpts of his ''Traite de guerre, ou Politique militaire'' (Paris: Iean Gvignard, 1668) into English, see Beatrice Heuser: ''The Strategy Makers: Thoughts on War and Society from Machiavelli to Clausewitz'' (Santa Monica, CA: Greenwood/Praeger, 2010), , pp. 101–123 1619 births 1680s deaths Military strategists Writers from Rennes 17th-century French writers French male non-fiction writers French Roman Catholics French military writers {{France-nonfiction-writer-stub