In 1672, on the eve of the Dutch War, the governor of Lille, Marshal d’Humières, refused to obey Marshal de Turenne, whom Louis XIV had just appointed captain general of the French armies, and was forced into exile. Lille was a key fortress in Vauban’s defensive “pré carré” system, acting as the northern border’s strategic lock. Given its importance, Louis XIV replaced d’Humières with a trusted man: d’Artagnan, his loyal lieutenant captain of the Mousquetaires, who was appointed interim governor of Lille from April to October 1672.
This episode is the best-known of d’Artagnan’s life and reveals his uncompromising and sometimes irritable character. He maintained extensive correspondence with Louvois, the War Minister, and managed to offend nearly everyone locally, especially Vauban’s men.
Captured in 1667, Lille was quickly transformed into a formidable fortress with strong bastioned walls and what Vauban called the “queen of citadels.” Vauban, as governor of the citadel (theoretically under the city governor’s authority), supervised the work remotely, delegating construction of the fortress wall to engineer Montgivrault and the citadel’s command to La Vercantière.
As governor d’Artagnan oversaw the wall’s construction. However, believing that Montgivrault disregarded his orders and showed insufficient deference, the Mousquetaire reacted strongly, calling Montgivrault a “two-day engineer,” threatening to “throw him off the rampart” and declaring “I would surely break his head”, maintaining in his hot-headed and argumentative manner that disrespect towards him was tantamount to disrespect towards the King. Vauban had to leave the front to reason with d’Artagnan, but in this he failed. As he was later to write, “You know how stubborn and unbending Mr. d’Artagnan can be!”
The fact is that d’Artagnan disliked the post and accepted it solely because the order came from the King. Instead, he longed to return to his Mousquetaires and to fight in the Dutch War that was just beginning. Louvois urged patience, however, and by the year’s end he was recalled. After waiting out the winter, d’Artagnan finally took part in the 1673 campaign.
