Anne Hilarion de Tourville

At age 17, as a Knight of Malta, he fought his first naval battle on a frigate of the Order of Malta.[1] At 25, he joined the French Royal Navy and began an active career, fighting the 1673 campaign of the Franco-Dutch War on the Sans-Pareil, at the Battle of Augusta where he was in command of the Syrene, and later in command of the Sceptre.

He served under Abraham Duquesne during the campaigns of 1676, and became a commander in 1690 during the Nine Years' War. He flew his personal flag on the Soleil Royal, where it would stay until the battles of Barfleur and La Hougue in 1692. At the Battle of Beachy Head in 1690, he defeated an Anglo-Dutch fleet, sinking, destroying or capturing seven enemy ships.[1]

On 29 May 1692, at the action at Barfleur, with only 45 ships he held at bay an English and Dutch fleet of 97 ships, but was forced to retreat. His fleet suffered heavy losses after the battle when English and Dutch fire ships attacked the French ships of the line which were immobilized for repairs in port at Cherbourg-en-Cotentin.[1] On 27 June 1693, he defeated a Anglo-Dutch convoy led by George Rooke during the Battle of Cape St. Vincent.[1]

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  Wooden statue of Tourville, on display at Toulon naval museum
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  Marble statue of Tourville, by Joseph Charles Marin in Tourville-sur-Sienne
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  Marble statue of Tourville, by Joseph Charles Marin in Tourville-sur-Sienne

Tourville retired after the 1697 Peace of Ryswick and died in Paris on 23 May 1701, regarded as a national hero.

A number of French naval vessels from the 18th through 20th centuries were named in Tourville's honour. An 1816 marble statue of Admiral Tourville, by French sculptor Joseph Charles Marin, formerly in the Jardin de Versailles, features prominently in the Village of Tourville-sur-Seine (Normandy, Manche Département) hometown of Tourville ancestors, though Anne-Hilarion de Tourville himself was born in Paris and not in the ancestral castle of Tourville-sur-Sienne.

Attribution:

• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Tourville, Anne-Hilarion de Cotentin, Comte de" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

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