Louis de Crévant, Marquis then later duc d'Humières (1628–1694) was a French nobleman of the 17th century, who became a Marshal of France in 1668 and Grand Master of Artillery in 1685. His career allegedly benefited from connections to his maternal relatives, the Phélypeaux family, many of whom held senior positions in the government of Louis XIV and Louvois, Minister of War from 1662 to 1691. Appointed commander of French forces in Flanders at the start of the 1688-1697 Nine Years War, he was relieved of command following defeat at Walcourt in 1689. He was made a duke in April 1690 and died in 1694. Life The de Crévants came from Azay-le-Ferron, in the French department of Indre; his grandfather acquired the title and lands of Humières, Artois in 1595, when he married Jacqueline d'Humières, last of her family. Louis de Crévant (1628-1694) was one of nine children of Louis III de Crevant (ca 1606-1648) and Isabelle Phélypeaux (1611-1642). To prevent the division of family estates amongst multiple heirs, it was then common practice for younger sons to remain unmarried. Of his siblings who reached adulthood, two brothers became senior officers in the French Navy; Jacob, who died at Messina in 1675, and Raymond (ca 1629-1688). Of the others, Roger (died 1687) and Balathasar (died 1684) were members of the Knights of Malta religious order, while his sisters Marie and Isabeau became nuns. In March 1653, he married Louise Antoinette de la Châtre (1639-1723), later Lady-in-waiting to Queen Maria Theresa. They had four daughters and two sons, Henri-Louis, killed at the Siege of Luxembourg 1684 and Louis-François-Roger (?-1679). Marie-Thérèse (ca 1652-1687), Marie-Louise (1658-1710), Anne-Louise (ca 1666-1717) and Anne-Louise-Julie (1665-1748). Career In the first half of the 17th century, France was divided internally and threatened externally; while it largely stayed out of the 1618-1648 Thirty Years' War, support for the Dutch Republic in its war of independence from Spain eventually led to the 1635-1659 Franco-Spanish War. At home, the French Wars of Religion that had ended with the 1590 Edict of Nantes flared up again in a series of domestic Huguenot rebellions in the 1620s. The accession of the five year old Louis XIV in 1643 caused a power struggle between his regents, headed by his mother, Anne of Austria and Cardinal Mazarin, opposed by regional magnates like Condé. This resulted in the 1648-1653 civil war known as the Fronde, during