Anne-Hilarion de Costentin, Comte de Tourville (24 November 1642 – 23 May 1701) was a French Navy officer who served under King Louis XIV. Born in Paris, he was made a Marshal of France in 1693. Tourville is considered by some as one of the most talented naval officers in French military history.
Presented at the age of four to the Knights Hospitaller in Malta, he took part in several Mediterranean campaigns against the Barbary pirates and the Turks from a very young age. In 1666, he joined the French Royal Navy and was appointed ship’s captain the following year.
It was during the Franco-Dutch War that Tourville first made his mark, distinguishing himself in the Sicilian campaign at the battles of Stromboli, Augusta, and Palermo in 1676. After the peace, he commanded a squadron of four ships in 1679. Promoted to lieutenant-general of the naval forces in 1682, he was named vice-admiral of the Levant in 1689, a year after the death of the "Great Duquesne." During the Nine Years' War, he again stood out at the Battle of Beachy Head in 1690 and the Battle of Lagos in 1693. Made a Marshal of France, he retired at the end of the war and died in Paris in 1701 at the age of 58.
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Military career
At age 17, as a Knight of Malta, he fought his first naval battle on a frigate of the Order of Malta. At 25, he joined the French Royal Navy and began an active career, fighting the 1673 campaign of the Franco-Dutch War on the Sans-Pareil, at the Battle of Augusta where he was in command of the Syrene, and later in command of the Sceptre.