Louis Charles César Le Tellier

Louis Charles César Le Tellier, Duke of Estrées (2 July 1695 – 2 January 1771) was a French military commander and Marshal of France.

Biography

His father was (1663–1721), marquis de Courtenvaux, himself son of Louis XIV's War Minister François Michel Le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois. His mother was Marie Anne d'Estrées (d. 1741), daughter of Marshal Jean II d'Estrées and younger sister of Marshal Victor Marie d'Estrées.

He married twice, to Anne Catherine de Champagne La Suze, and to Adélaïde Félicité de Brûlart, but had no children from these marriages.

He obtained command of a company in 1717, became a lieutenant colonel of the Royal-Roussillon regiment, and served in the War of the Quadruple Alliance against Spain at the sieges of Fuenterrabía, San Sebastián, Urgell, and Rosas. After the war, he held the position of captain-colonel of the Cent-Suisses of the King's Guard from 1722 to 1734. During the War of the Polish Succession, he fought in Germany and participated in the Siege of Kehl (1733) and Siege of Philippsburg (1734).

In 1759, following the French defeat at the Battle of Minden, he was ordered to conduct a tour of inspection of French forces in Germany.

He became a knight in the Order of the Holy Spirit in 1746 and received the title of Duc d'Estrées in 1763 from his mother's family.

He was a Freemason from 1736.