Background
François Louis de Rousselet was the fourth son of the third marquis of Chateau-Renault. The family was of Breton origin, but had been long settled near Blois. He was born on September 22, 1637.
François Louis de Rousselet was the fourth son of the third marquis of Chateau-Renault. The family was of Breton origin, but had been long settled near Blois. He was born on September 22, 1637.
François Louis de Rousselet entered the army in 1658, but in 1661 was transferred to the navy, which Louis XIV was eager to raise to a high level of strength. After a short apprenticeship he was made captain in 1666.
His early services were mostly performed in cruises against the Barbary pirates (1672).
During the wars up to this date he had few chances of distinction, but he had been wounded in action with the pirates, and had been on a cruise to the West Indies.
When war broke out between England and France after the revolution of 1688, he was in command at Brest, and was chosen to carry the troops and stores sent by the French king to the aid of James II in Ireland.
Although he was watched by Admiral Herbert (Lord Torrington, q. v. ), with whom he fought an indecisive action in Bantry Bay, he executed his mission with success.
ChAteau-Renault commanded a squadron under Tourville at the battle of Beachy Head in 1690.
He was with Tourville in the attack of the Smyrna convoy in 1693, and was named grand cross of the order of Saint Louis in the same year.
On the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession he was named for the difficult task of protecting the Spanish ships which were to bring the treasure from America.
With the utmost difficulty Chateau-Renault was able to bring the galleons as far as Vigo, to which port he steered when he learnt that a powerful English and Dutch armament was on the Spanish coast, and had to recognize that the Spanish officers would not consent to make for a French harbour or for Passages, which they thought too near France.
His fleet of fifteen French and three Spanish war-ships, having under their care twelve galleons, had anchored on the 22nd of September in Vigo Bay.
There was no adequate garrison in the town, and the local militia was untrustworthy.
Knowing that he would probably be attacked, Chateau-Renault strove to protect his fleet hy means of a boom.
At last the order came, and the bullion was landed under the care of the Gallician militia which was ordered to escort it to Lugo.
A very large part, if not the whole, was plundered by the militiamen and the farmers whose carts had been commandeered for the service.
Sir George Rooke and his colleagues resolved to attack.
The fleet was carrying a body of troops which had been sent out to make a landing at Cadiz, and had been beaten off.
The fortifications of Vigo were weak on the sea side, and on the land side there were none.
There was therefore nothing to offer a serious resistance to the allies when they landed soldiers.
The fleet of twenty-four sail was steered at the boom and broke through it, while the troops turned the forts and had no difficulty in scattering the Gallician militia.
In the bay the action was utterly disastrous to the French and Spaniards.
Their ships were all taken or destroyed.
The booty gained was far less than the allies hoped, but the damage done to the French and Spanish governments was great. Chateau-Renault suffered no loss of his master's favour by his failure to save the treasure.
The Spanish government declined to give him the rank of grandee which was to have been the reward for bringing home the bullion safe.
But in 1703 he was made a marshal of France, and shortly afterwards lieutenant-general of Brittany.
The fight in Vigo Bay was the last piece of active service performed by Chateau-Renault.
A third son, who too was a naval officer, succeeded him in the title. A life of Chateau-Renault was published in 1903 by M. Calmon- Maison.
There is a French as well as an English account of the part played by him at Bantry Bay and Beachy Head, and the controversy still continues.
Order of the Holy Spirit
On September 7, 1684, François Louis de Rousselet married Marie Anne de La Porte. His only son, Louis Emmanuel, also pursued a career in the French Navy.
