Background
Charles was born on 6 October 1610, being the second son of Léon de Sainte-Maure, baron de Montausier.
Charles was born on 6 October 1610, being the second son of Léon de Sainte-Maure, baron de Montausier.
He served brilliantly at the siege of Casale in 1629. Having served under Bernard of Saxe-Weimar in Germany in 1634, he returned to the French service in 1636, and fought in the Rhenish campaigns of the following years. He was taken prisoner at Rantzau in November 1643, and only ransomed after ten months of captivity.
On his return to France, he became a lieutenant-general.
lieutenant was copied by the famous calligraphist Nicolas Jarry in a magnificent manuscript, on each page of which was a flower painted by Nicolas Robert, and was presented to Julie on her fête day in 1641. During the Fronde, he remained faithful to the Crown in spite of personal grievances against Mazarin.
On the conclusion of peace in 1653, the marquis, who had been severely wounded in 1652, obtained high favour at court in spite of the roughness of his manners and the general austerity which made the Parisian public recognize him as the original of Alceste in Molière"s Le Misanthrope. Montausier received from Louis XIV the order of the Saint Esprit, the government of Normandy, a dukedom, and in 1668 the office of governor of the dauphin, Louis le Grand Dauphin (1661-1711).
He initiated the series of classics ad usum Delphini, directed by the learned Huet, and gave the closest attention to the education of his charge, who was only moved by his iron discipline to a hatred of learning.
Montausier died on 17 November 1690.