Guy André Pierre de Montmorency-Laval

Guy-André-Pierre de Montmorency-Laval (21 September 1723 – 22 September 1798), 1st Duke of Laval, 1st Baron of Marche, Marquis of Lezay, was a French general and Marshal of France.

Early life Montmorency-Laval was born at the Château de Bayers in Bayers, Province of Angoumois, Kingdom of France, on 21 September 1723. He was the brother of Louis-Joseph de Montmorency-Laval, Cardinal-Bishop of Metz, who was appointed Grand Chaplain of France in 1786 following the scandal of the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, but had to emigrate in 1791 and died in exile.

Career War of the Austrian Succession Initially known under the title Marquis of Laval, he joined the musketeers during the War of the Austrian Succession on 1 January 1741, serving in the Flanders campaign in 1742. On 4 April 1743 he bought a commission to command the Régiment Royal Pologne Cavalerie. On 27 June 1743, he fought at the Battle of Dettingen. Two months later on 22 August 1743, he was commissioned as colonel of an infantry regiment that was renamed after him. In 1744, he was present at the capture of Wissembourg and of the Loutre lines, at the attack on the trenches at Soufflenheim and the Siege of Fribourg. He took part in the capture of Cronenbourg in March 1745. He joined the French army in Flanders, taking part in Grillon's regiment in what the French termed the Battle of Melle at Dendermonde near Ghent, in a victory against a British, Austrian and Dutch force. He became appointed brigadier on the 25th of the same month.

Peerage Concert hall of the Duke of Laval's hunting lodge in Paris, 1804. Due to his services to the Crown, he was elevated to the dignity of Hereditary Duke, by letters of October 1758, which was registered on the following 29 November, bringing together the barony of Arnac and other neighboring lands to the marquisate of Magnac, which were combined into the duchy of Laval, for him and his male descendants, with extension to the children and male descendants of his relative, the late Joseph-Pierre, Count of Montmorency-Laval (of the House of Laval-Tartigny), who died at the Battle of Hastenbeck.

Personal life On 28 December 1740, he married Jacqueline Hortense de Bullion de Fervaques (d. 1795), daughter of Anne Jacques de Bullion, Marquis of Fervaques, Lieutenant General of the King's Armies, and Marie Madeleine Hortense de Gigault de Bellefonds. As the granddaughter of Charles-Denis de Bullion, Marquis of Gallardon, she was heiress to his lands at Fervaques and Esclimont, which passed into the House of Montmorency. Together, they were the parents of:

Guy-André-Marie Joseph de Montmorency-Laval (1744–1761), styled Count of Laval, who died of smallpox; he married Anne-Céleste-Françoise Jacquier de Vieuxmaison, but died without issue. Mathieu-Paul-Louis de Montmorency-Laval (1748–1809), Count of Montmorency who married Catherine Tavernier de Boullongne, in 1766. After her death, he married Anne-Françoise Le Joyant, in 1808. Louis Hilaire de Montmorency-Laval (1750–1770), called the Abbot of Laval.

Through his younger son Mathieu, he was a grandfather of Mathieu de Montmorency, 1st Duke of Montmorency-Laval (1767–1826); Anne-Pierre de Montmorency-Laval (1769–1794), who was condemned by the Revolutionary Tribunal; and Anne-Louise-Philippine-Françoise de Montmorency-Laval (1791–1852), who married Count Claude-Albert-Casimir de Colombet de Landos in 1815 and, after his death in 1823, Baron Alphonse-Ezechiel Lallemand de Driésen in 1828.