François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois
Secretary of State for War under Louis XIV (1641-1691)
François Michel Le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃swa miʃɛl tɛlje maʁki də luvwa]; 18 January 1641 – 16 July 1691) was the French Secretary of State for War during a significant part of the reign of Louis XIV. He is commonly referred to as "Louvois". Together with his father, Michel le Tellier, he oversaw an increase in the numbers of the French Army, eventually reaching 340,000 soldiers – an army that would fight four wars between 1667 and 1713. Louvois was a key military and strategic advisor to Louis XIV, who transformed the French Army into an instrument of royal authority and foreign policy.
According to Cathal Nolan, he created the Régiment du Roi in 1663 and founded the Royal-Artillerie regiment in 1673. These innovations influenced military planners beyond France. Louvois sought out new wars as a means of concentrating more power and wealth in his own hands. He reorganized the French Army and exercised strict control over officers, but that resulted in slower tactical and operational response times.
He had more success upgrading logistics for armies on the move. He also improved the magazine system left by his father. He accumulated enough grain and wagons to provide his armies with 200,000 rations per day for up to six months during the Franco-Dutch War (1672-1678).
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q441378. VIAF identifies the subject as 29542678. The Library of Congress control number is n83220198. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1641, 1691, 1667 and 1713.
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This entry incorporates text from “François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.