Portal:Military history of France/Selected biography/2

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Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne, often referred to as Turenne (September 11, 1611 – July 27, 1675) achieved military fame and became a Marshal of France. He was the most illustrious member of the La Tour d'Auvergne family.

The second son of Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, vicomte de Turenne, duc de Bouillon, sovereign prince of Sedan, by his second wife Elizabeth, daughter of William the Silent, prince of Orange, he was born at Sedan. He received a Huguenot education and the usual training of a young noble of the time, but physical infirmity, and particularly an impediment of speech (which he never lost), hampered his progress, though he showed a marked partiality for history and geography, and especial admiration of the exploits of Alexander the Great and Caesar. After his father's death in 1623, he devoted himself to bodily exercises and in a great measure overcame his natural weakness. At the age of fourteen he went to learn war in the camp of his uncle, Maurice of Nassau the Stadtholder, and began his military career (as a private soldier in that prince's bodyguard) in the Dutch War of Independence. (More...)