Vauban (1633 -1707)
53 years in the service of the Sun King
Coming from the minor nobility of Burgundy, Sebastien le Prestre de Vauban was born in May 1633 in St-Léger-de- Fourcherets, in the Yonne.
From 1653 to 1659, Vauban participated in 14 sieges during which he was wounded several times. At the age of 22, he received his engineer’s license. Nourished by the experience of fire, the young Vauban will think about the procedures of attacking places. As a true mathematician, he will design and codify a method of siege of strongholds in a logical sequence of 12 phases.
After the sieges of Tournai, Douai and Lille, which confirmed his reputation as a “taker of cities“, Louis XIV entrusted him with the task of building the famous citadel of Lille.
