RICHELIEU, LOUIS-FRANOIS-ARMAND DU PLESSIS, DUKE (DUC) D

born March 13, 1696, Paris, France died Aug. 8, 1788, Paris marshal of France, and grand-nephew of Cardinal de Richelieu. Louis was ambassador to Vienna in 1725 to 1729, and in 173334 he served in the Rhine campaign during the War of the Polish Succession. He fought with distinction at Dettingen and Fontenoy; three years afterward he made a brilliant defense of Genoa. In 1756 he expelled the English from Minorca by capturing the San Felipe fortress, and in 175758 he closed his military career with the pillaging campaigns in Hanover that procured him the sobriquet of Petit Pre de la Maraude (Little Father of Marauding). In his early days he was thrice imprisoned in the Bastille: in 1711 at the instigation of his stepfather, in 1716 in consequence of a duel, and in 1719 for his share in Alberoni's conspiracy against the regent Orlans.