French garrison at Mantua; he was wounded several times, his brother Philibert-Emmanuel dying of dysentery at Cremona the same year. He was appointed Marshal of France in 1703 and in 1704 Commander-in-Chief of Bourbon troops in Spain, replacing the Duke of Berwick. In this role he became close to the young King Philip V. In 1706, de Tessé commanded Bourbon forces besieging Barcelona but they were over-stretched; British control of the seas made it impossible to prevent the city being resupplied and the Bourbon army was forced to retreat. Despite this, in 1707 he commanded the field army that prevented Prince Eugene taking the key French naval base of Toulon. This appears to have been his last active military command. In 1708, he acted as French Ambassador in Rome, then Spain in 1723, when he persuaded Philip V to resume the Spanish throne after the death of his eldest son Louis I. He was also Governor General of the Perche and his home province of Maine. He died in 1725 at the Camaldolese monastery in Grosbois. Footnotes References Sources Comte de Tessé; Mémoires Et Lettres Du Maréchal De Tessé: Kamen, Henry; Philip V of Spain: The King Who Reigned Twice; (Yale University Press, 2001); Lynn, John; The Wars of Louis XIV, 1667-1714; (Longman, 1999); Symcox, Geoffrey; Absolutism in the Savoyard State 1675-1730; (University of California Press, 1983); 1648 births 1725 deaths People from Le Mans Counts of Tessé Marshals of France French military personnel of the Nine Years' War French army commanders in the War of the Spanish Succession Knights of the Golden Fleece of Spain French military personnel of the Franco-Dutch War