attack the front and both flanks of the Allies’ position at once—a decision which few, if any, generals then living would have dared to make, and which of itself places Luxemburg in the same rank as a tactician as his old friend and commander Condé. The left wing of cavalry was to move under cover of woods, houses and hollows to gain Wangenies, where it was to connect with the frontal attack of the French centre from Fleurus and to envelop Waldeck’s right. Luxemburg himself with the right wing of cavalry and some infantry and artillery made a wide sweep round the enemy’s left by way of Ligny and Les Trois Burettes, concealed by the high-standing corn. At 8 o’clock the frontal attack began by a vigorous artillery engagement, in which the French, though greatly outnumbered in guns, held their own, and three hours later Waldeck, whose attention had been absorbed by events on the front, found a long line of the enemy already formed up in his rear. He at once brought his second line back to oppose them, but while he was doing so the French leader filled up the gap between himself and the frontal assailants by posting infantry around Wagnelée, and also guns on the neighbouring hill whence their fire enfiladed both halves of the enemy’s army up to the limit of their ranging power. At 1 p.m. Luxemburg ordered a general attack of his whole line. He himself scattered the cavalry opposed to him and hustled the Dutch infantry into St Amand, where they were promptly surrounded. The left and centre of the French army were less fortunate, and in their first charge lost their leader, Lieutenant-General Jean Christophe, comte de Gournay, one of the best cavalry officers in the service. But Waldeck, hoping to profit by this momentary success, sent a portion of his right wing towards St Amand, where it merely shared the fate of his left, and the day was decided. Only a quarter of the cavalry and 14 battalions of infantry (English and Dutch) remained intact, and Waldeck could do no more, but with these he emulated the last stand of the Spaniards at Rocroi fifty years before. A great square was formed of the infantry, and a handful of cavalry joined them—the French cavalry, eager to avenge Gournay, had swept away the rest. Then slowly and in perfect order, they retired into the broken ground above Mellet, where they were in safety. The French slept on the battlefield, and then returned to camp with their trophies and 8000 prisoners. They had lost some 2500 killed, amongst them Gournay and Berbier du Metz, the chief of artillery, the Allies twice as many, as well as 48 guns, and Luxemburg was able to send 150 colours and standards to decorate Notre-Dame. But the victory was not followed up, for Louis XIV. ordered Luxemburg to keep in line with other French armies which were carrying on more or less desultory wars of manœuvre on the Meuse and Moselle.
FLEURY [Abraham Joseph Bénard] (1750–1822), French
actor, was born at Chartres on the 26th of October 1750, and
began his stage apprenticeship at Nancy, where his father was
at the head of a company of actors attached to the court of King
Stanislaus. After four years in the provinces, he came to Paris
in 1778, and almost immediately was made sociétaire at the
Comédie Française, although the public was slow to recognize
him as the greatest comedian of his time. In 1793 Fleury, like
the rest of his fellow-players, was arrested in consequence of
the presentation of Laya’s L’Ami des lois, and, when liberated,
appeared at various theatres until, in 1799, he rejoined the
rehabilitated Comédie Française. After forty years of service
he retired in 1818, and died on the 3rd of March 1822. He was
notoriously illiterate, and it is probable that the interesting
Mémoire de Fleury owes more to its author, Lafitte, than to the
subject whose “notes and papers” it is said to contain.
FLEURY, ANDRÉ HERCULE DE (1653–1743), French
cardinal and statesman, was born at Lodève (Hérault) on the
22nd of June 1653, the son of a collector of taxes. Educated
by the Jesuits in Paris, he entered the priesthood, and became
in 1679, through the influence of Cardinal Bonzi, almoner to
Maria Theresa, queen of Louis XIV., and in 1698 bishop of
Fréjus. Seventeen years of a country bishopric determined
him to seek a position at court. He became tutor to the king’s
great-grandson and heir, and in spite of an apparent lack of
ambition, he acquired over the child’s mind an influence which
proved to be indestructible. On the death of the regent Orleans
in 1723 Fleury, although already seventy years of age, deferred
his own supremacy by suggesting the appointment of Louis
Henri, duke of Bourbon, as first minister. Fleury was present
at all interviews between Louis XV. and his first minister, and
on Bourbon’s attempt to break through this rule Fleury retired
from court. Louis made Bourbon recall the tutor, who on the
11th of July 1726 took affairs into his own hands, and secured
the exile from court of Bourbon and of his mistress Madame
de Prie. He refused the title of first minister, but his elevation
to the cardinalate in that year secured his precedence over the
other ministers. He was naturally frugal and prudent, and
carried these qualities into the administration, with the result
that in 1738–1739 there was a surplus of 15,000,000 livres instead
of the usual deficit. In 1726 he fixed the standard of the currency
and secured the credit of the government by the regular payment
thenceforward of the interest on the debt. By exacting forced
labour from the peasants he gave France admirable roads, though
at the cost of rousing angry discontent. During the seventeen
years of his orderly government the country found time to
recuperate its forces after the exhaustion caused by the extravagances
of Louis XIV. and of the regent, and the general
prosperity rapidly increased. Internal peace was only seriously
disturbed by the severities which Fleury saw fit to exercise
against the Jansenists. He imprisoned priests who refused to
accept the bull Unigenitus, and he met the opposition of the parlement of Paris by exiling forty of its members.
In foreign affairs his chief preoccupation was the maintenance of peace, which was shared by Sir Robert Walpole, and therefore led to a continuance of the good understanding between France and England. It was only with reluctance that he supported the ambitious projects of Elizabeth Farnese, queen of Spain, in Italy by guaranteeing in 1729 the succession of Don Carlos to the duchies of Parma and Tuscany. Fleury had economized in the army and navy, as elsewhere, and when in 1733 war was forced upon him he was hardly prepared. He was compelled by public opinion to support the claims of Louis XV.’s father-in-law Stanislaus Leszczynski, ex-king of Poland, to the Polish crown on the death of Frederick Augustus I., against the Russo-Austrian candidate; but the despatch of a French expedition of 1500 men to Danzig only served to humiliate France. Fleury was driven by Chauvelin to more energetic measures; he concluded a close alliance with the Spanish Bourbons and sent two armies against the Austrians. Military successes on the
