Malleville, Georges de Scudéry, Pierre Corneille (if M. Uzanne is correct in the attribution of the poems signed M.C.), Philippe Hubert, Simon Arnauld de Pomponne,[1] Jean Desmarests de Saint Sorlin, Antoine Gombaud (le nain de la Princesse Julie) and others. It was copied by the famous calligraphist N. Jarry in a magnificent MS., on each page of which was painted a flower, and was presented to Julie on her fête day in 1641. The MS. is now in possession of the Uzès family, to whom it passed by the marriage of Julie’s daughter to Emmanuel de Crussol, duc d’Uzès.
Montausier had bought the governorship of Saintonge and Angoumois, and became a Roman Catholic before his marriage. During the Fronde he remained, in spite of personal grievances against Mazarin, faithful to the Crown. On the conclusion of peace in 1653 the marquis, who had been severely wounded in 1652, obtained high favour at court in spite of the roughness of his manners and the general austerity which made the Parisian public recognize him as the original of Alceste in the Misanthrope. Montausier received from Louis XIV. the order of the Saint Esprit, the government of Normandy, a dukedom, and in 1668 the office of governor of the dauphin, Louis. He initiated the series of classics Ad usum Delphini, directed by the learned Huet, and gave the closest attention to the education of his charge, who was only moved by his iron discipline to a hatred of learning. Court gossip assigned some part of Montausier’s favour to the complaisance of his wife, who, appointed lady-in-waiting to the queen in 1664, favoured Louis XIV.’s passion for Louise de la Vallière, and subsequently protected Mme de Montespan, who found a refuge from her husband with her. He died on the 17th of November 1690.
See Père Nicolas Petit, Vie du duc de Montausier (1729); Puget de Saint Pierre, Histoire du duc de Montausier (1784); Amédée Roux, Un Misanthrope à la cour de Louis XIV. Montausier (1860); O. Uzanne, La Guirlande de Julie (1875); E. Fléchier, Oraisons funèbres du duc et la duchesse de Montausier (Paris, 1691); and contemporary memoirs.
MONTBÉLIARD, a town of eastern France, capital of an arrondissement
in the department of Doubs, 49 m. N.E. of Besançon
on the Paris–Lyon line between that town and Belfort. Pop.
(1906), town, 8723; commune, 10,455. Montbéliard is situated
1050 ft. above sea-level on the right bank of the Allaine at its junction with the Luzine (Lizaine or Lisaine). It is an important
point in the frontier defences of France since 1871. Forts
on outlying hills connect it with Belfort on the one side and
(through Blamont and the Lomont fortifications) with Besançon
on the other. The old castle of the counts of Montbéliard is
now used as barracks; its most conspicuous features, the Tour
Bossue and the Tour Neuve, date respectively from 1425 and
1594. Most of the inhabitants are Protestant, and the church
of St Martin, built early in the 17th century, now serves as a
Protestant place of worship. The old market-hall and some
old houses of the 16th century also remain. A bronze statue
of George Cuvier, the most illustrious native of Montbéliard,
and several fountains adorn the town. Montbéliard is the
seat of a sub-prefect and has a tribunal of first instance, a
board of trade-arbitrators, a communal college, a practical
school of industry, a chamber of arts and manufactures and a
museum of natural history. Since 1870 a considerable impetus
has been given to its prosperity by the Alsatian immigrants.
Its industries include watch and clock making and dependent
trades, cotton spinning and weaving, the manufacture of hosiery,
textile machinery, tools, nails and wire, and brewing. There
is commerce in wine, cheese, wood and Montbéliard cattle.
After belonging to the Burgundians and Franks, Montbéliard (Mons Peligardi) was, by the treaty of Verdun (843), added to Lorraine. In the 11th century it became the capital of a countship, which formed part of the second kingdom of Burgundy and latterly of the German Empire. Its German name is Mömpelgard. In 1397 it passed by marriage to the house of Württemberg, to whom it belonged till 1793. It resisted the attacks of Charles the Bold (1473), and Henry I. of Lorraine, (1587 and 1588), duke of Guise, but was taken in 1676 by Marshal Luxemburg, who razed its fortifications. The tolerance of the princes of Württemberg attracted to the town at the end of the 16th century a colony of Anabaptists from Frisia, and their descendants still form a separate community in the neighbourhood. In 1793 the inhabitants voluntarily submitted to annexation by France. In 1871 the battle of the Lisaine between the French and Germans was fought in the neighbourhood and partly within its walls.
MONTBRISON, a town of east-central France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Loire, France, 21 m. N.W. of St Étienne, on the railway from Clermont to St Étienne. Pop. (1906), 6564. It is situated on a volcanic hill overlooking
the Vizezy, a right-hand affluent of the Lignon du Nord. The principal buildings are the once collegiate church of Notre-Dame d’Espérance, founded about 1220 but not finished till the 15th century, and the 14th-century edifice known as the
Salle de la Diana (Decana), which was restored by Viollet-le-Duc. There is a statue of the poet Victor de Laprade (d. 1883), a native of the town. Montbrison is the seat of a sub-prefect,
of a court of assize and of a tribunal of first instance. There are liqueur-distilleries and flour-mills, and silk ribbons are
manufactured; there is considerable commerce in grain.
Montbrison belonged to the counts of Forez during the middle ages. In 1801 it became the capital of its department in place of Feurs, but in 1856 the more important town of St. Étienne was substituted for it.
MONTBRUN, LOUIS PIERRE, Count (1770–1812), French cavalry general, served with great distinction in the cavalry arm throughout the wars of the Revolution and the Consulate, and in 1800 was appointed to command his regiment, having served therein from trooper upwards. At Austerlitz (Dec. 2, 1805) he was promoted general of brigade. He earned further distinction in Germany and Poland as a dashing leader of horse, and in 1808 he was sent into Spain. Here occurred an incident which unfavourably influenced his whole career. He found himself obliged to overstay his leave of absence in
order to protect the lady who afterwards became his wife.
Napoleon was furious, and deprived him of his command, and
Montbrun was awaiting his master’s decision when an opportunity
came to retrieve his reputation. Some doubt exists as
to the events of the famous cavalry charge at the Somosierra,
but Montbrun’s share in it was most conspicuous. Soon afterwards
he was promoted to be general of division, and in 1809
his cavalry took no inconsiderable part in the victories of
Eckmühl and Raab. He was employed in the Peninsula, 1810–1811.
He was killed, when commanding a cavalry corps, at the
beginning of the battle of Borodino (Sept. 7, 1812). Montbrun
was considered, as a leader of heavy cavalry, second only
to Kellermann of all the generals of the First Empire.
MONTCALM DE SAINT VÉRAN, LOUIS JOSEPH, Marquis
de (1712–1759), French soldier, was born at Condiac near
Nîmes on the 28th of February 1712,[2] and entered the army
in 1721, becoming captain in 1727. He saw active service
under Berwick on the Rhine in 1733, and in 1743, having become
a colonel of infantry, he served in Bohemia under Maillebois,
Broglie and Belleisle. He became intimate with François de
Chevert (1695–1769), the gallant defender of Prague, and in
Italy repeatedly distinguished himself, being promoted brigadier
in 1747, shortly before the disastrous action of Exilles, in which
he was severely wounded. In 1749 he received the colonelcy
of a cavalry regiment, and in 1756, with the rank of maréchal
de camp, he was sent to command the French troops in Canada.
In the third year of his command, having been meanwhile
promoted lieutenant-general, he defended Quebec (q.v.) against
General Wolfe. The celebrated siege ended with the battle
- ↑ (1618–1699), a son of Arnauld d’Andelly and minister of foreign affairs in succession to Lionne.
- ↑ A younger brother, Jean Louis Pierre (or Philippe) Elizabeth Montcalm de Condiac (1719–1726), was a child of astonishing precocity. At the age of four he read Latin; at six he understood Greek and Hebrew. It was for his benefit that the bureau typographique—a mechanism for teaching children reading, writing and arithmetic at the same time that it amused them—was contrived by their tutor Louis Dumas (1676–1744).
