Gaspard de Clermont-Tonnerre, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetGaspard de Clermont-Tonnerre
French general
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Dijon, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France
About Gaspard de Clermont-Tonnerre
- Gaspard de Clermont-Tonnerre (16 August 1688 at Dijon – 16 March 1781 at the Hôtel Matignon, Paris), was a French noble, descendant of a family which traced its origins to the 12th century.
- His chief title was that of Marquis of Cruzy and Vauvillers, later 1st Duc de Clermont-Tonnerre, a new creation which elevated him to the Peerage of France.
- He was Constable, hereditary Grand-Master of Dauphiné and Marshal of France.He had a successful military career in the armies of Louis XV, notably at defeat of Cumberland's Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian forces at Battle of Fontenoy in 1745 alongside Marshal de Saxe.
- Clermont-Tonnerre led the decisive cavalry charge which defeated the tenacious but ill-led allied forces.
- After the Battle of Lauffeld in 1747 he was named Marshal of France. In 1718 he had married Antoinette de Saint-Germain Novion (1685-1754).
- They had three children: Jules Charles Henri, (1720–1794), 2nd Duc de Clermont-Tonnerre. Madeleine-Louise Jeanne (1722–1769). François Joseph (1727–1809), Marquis de Clermont-Tonnerre.He remarried in 1756 with Marguerite Pauline de Prondre. Between 1715 and 1723 the château of Vauvillers was built for him.
- It was his principal residence between campaigns.
- In later years he worked to improve the economy of his domain, opening a forge.
- A new church was built in Vauvillers in 1773 and remains largely unchanged today. He was made a Chevalier of the Order of Saint Louis in 1717 and admitted to the Order of the Holy Spirit in 1724.
- At the coronation of Louis XVI in 1775, by then aged 87 and the senior living Marshal of France, Clermont-Tonnerre, served as the sword-bearer.
- It was on this occasion that he was named Duc de Clermont-Tonnerre and elevated to the peerage.
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