Charles Eugène Gabriel de La Croix de Castries, marquis de Castries, baron des États de Languedoc, comte de Charlus, baron de Castelnau et de Montjouvent, seigneur de Puylaurens et de Lézignan (25 February 1727, Paris – 11 January 1801, Wolfenbüttel) was a French marshal. He was the son of Joseph François de La Croix de Castries, marquis de Castries, and his second wife, Marie-Françoise de Lévis de Charlus. Military career Entering the régiment du Roi-Infanterie in May 1739, he became a lieutenant on 23 August 1742. In parallel, he was lieutenant du Roi (king's lieutenant) in Languedoc and governor of Montpellier and Sète (from 1 December 1743). He fought with distinction in the Seven Years' War and all Louis XV's campaigns. "Mestre de camp" of the régiment du Roi-Cavalerie from 26 March 1744, he was maréchal de camp and commandant général of the cavalry from 1748. In 1756, he commanded the expeditionary force sent to St Lucia, and the Carenage quarter of the island was renamed Castries after him. He next distinguished himself in the Battle of Rossbach (5 November 1757), in which he was wounded twice. Becoming lieutenant général (on 28 December 1758), he became maître de camp général of the cavalry on 16 April 1759. At the Battle of Clostercamp (16 October 1760), through his sang-froid he saved a situation when all seemed lost. He was made knight of the Ordre du Saint-Esprit on 30 May 1762. Shortly after the peace of 1763, he was named governor of Flanders and Hainaut. Next, he was made capitaine lieutenant of the company of Gendarmes écossais and commandant of the Gendarmerie from 1770 until his retirement in 1788. Secretary of the Navy He was named Secretary of State of the Navy on 13 October 1780 on the recommendation of his friend Jacques Necker. He remained in this post until 24 August 1787. In 1783, he was made a marshal of France. He reorganised the fleet and had a new naval strategy adopted by the Grand Conseil, that the navy's ships of the line should be kept at sea whilst a flotilla blockaded the Royal Navy and kept it in port. This strategy that led to French naval successes in the American War of Independence. He also made a very important legislative effort, simplifying the navy's hierarchy and reorganising its recruitment. de Castries deeply studied the dossiers sent him, and was highly