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58-532: Avallon, Latin Aballō , ablative Aballone , is ultimately derived from Gaulish *Aballū , oblique *Aballon- meaning "Apple-tree (place)" or "(place of the) "Apple Tree Goddess" (from Proto-Celtic *abalnā , cf. Old Irish aball , Welsh afall , Old Breton aball(en) , "apple tree"). Avallon is located 50 km south-southeast of Auxerre , served by a branch of the Paris – Lyon railway and by exit 22 of

116-530: A lieutenant-general ; in 1710, he was appointed Governor of Béthune for life, while he inherited Vauban's titles and the bulk of his lands. Vauban's family was impacted by the domestic conflict and foreign wars, including the Huguenot rebellions of the 1620s, the 1635–1659 Franco-Spanish War , and 1648 to 1653 Fronde ; his Catholic grandfather married a Protestant from La Rochelle , and served Huguenot leader Admiral Coligny , while two of his uncles died in

174-603: A mutatio or post where fresh horses could be obtained. Two pink marble columns in the church of St-Martin du Bourg have been reused from an unknown temple ( Princeton Encyclopedia ). The Roman citadel, on a rocky spur overlooking the Cousin valley, has been Christianized as Montmarte ("Mount of the Martyrs"). In the Middle Ages Avallon (Aballo) was the seat of a viscounty dependent on the duchy of Burgundy ; on

232-827: A change in tactics, Marlborough arguing winning one battle was more beneficial than taking 12 fortresses. The armies of the War of the Spanish Succession averaged around 35,000, and siege warfare superseded by a greater emphasis on mobility. In 1703, Vauban was promoted Maréchal de France , marking the end of his military career, although the Ceinture de fer proved its worth after the French defeat at Ramillies in 1706. Under pressure from superior forces on multiple fronts, France's northern border remained largely intact despite repeated efforts to break it. Capturing Lille cost

290-513: A dative. The ablative case is found in Albanian ; it is the fifth case, rasa rrjedhore . In Sanskrit , the ablative case is the fifth case ( pañcamī ) and has a similar function to that in Latin. Sanskrit nouns in the ablative often refer to a subject "out of" which or "from" whom something (an action, an object) has arisen or occurred: pátram vṛkṣā́t pátati ' the leaf falls from

348-632: A disproportionately high number of successful engineers due to the social and educational characteristics of French Protestantism. After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, a significant number of these engineers joined the English and Dutch armies to fight in Ireland, Flanders and Spain. Many of his publications, including Traité de l'attaque des places and Traité des mines , were written at

406-728: A more coherent and defensible border was unusual for the period; the boundaries of the French state he proposed in the north and east have changed very little in the three centuries since. Sébastien le Prestre de Vauban was born in May 1633, in Saint-Léger-de-Foucheret, renamed Saint-Léger-Vauban by Napoleon III in 1867, in the Yonne , now part of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté . His parents, Urbain Le Prestre ( c. 1602–1652) and Edmée de Cormignolle (died c. 1651), were members of

464-501: A precursor of modern economics. Later destroyed by royal decree , it contained radical proposals for a more even distribution of the tax burden. His application of rational and scientific methods to problem-solving, whether engineering or social, anticipated an approach common in the Age of Enlightenment . Perhaps the most enduring aspect of Vauban's legacy was his view of France as a geographical entity. His advocacy of giving up territory for

522-543: A result, French military engineering became ultra-conservative, while many 'new' works used his designs, or professed to do so, such as those built by Louis de Cortmontaigne at Metz in 1728–1733. This persisted into the late 19th century; Fort de Queuleu , built in 1867 near Metz, is recognisably a Vauban-style design. Some French engineers continued to be innovators, notably the Marquis de Montalembert , who published La Fortification perpendiculaire in 1776. A rejection of

580-729: A short-lived infant son. He also had a long-term relationship with Marie-Antoinette de Puy-Montbrun, daughter of an exiled Huguenot officer, usually referred to as 'Mademoiselle de Villefranche.' Vauban died in Paris on 30 March 1707; buried near his home in Bazoches , his grave was destroyed during the French Revolution . In 1808, Napoleon I ordered his heart reburied in Les Invalides , resting place for many of France's most famous soldiers. While his modern fame rests on

638-409: Is that "King Arthur" is based on the historical Romano-British supreme king Riothamus , who reigned between 454–470, and whose life and campaigns have parallels to the accounts of "King Arthur" in the first medieval accounts of King Arthur by Geoffrey of Monmouth ( Historia Regum Britanniae , c.  1136 ). According to Ashe, in the year 470, Riothamus disappeared (and presumably died) in

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696-632: Is the first to mention "the isle of Avalon" (Latin insula Auallonis ) and based his description of the isle on Classical descriptions of the Fortunate Isles , is explicit that it was an island in the western seas. In Geoffrey's day (and, indeed, dating back to geographers of antiquity), the Fortunate Isles were identified with the Canary Islands . Its chief building, the formerly collegiate church of Saint-Lazare , dates from

754-399: Is twinned with: Attribution: Ablative In grammar , the ablative case (pronounced / ˈ æ b l ə t ɪ v / AB -lə-tiv ; sometimes abbreviated abl ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages; it is sometimes used to express motion away from something, among other uses. The word "ablative" derives from

812-549: The marquis de Vauban (baptised 15 May 1633 – 30 March 1707), commonly referred to as Vauban ( French: [vobɑ̃] ), was a French military engineer and Marshal of France who worked under Louis XIV . He is generally considered the greatest engineer of his time, and one of the most important in European military history. His principles for fortifications were widely used for nearly 100 years, while aspects of his offensive tactics remained in use until

870-560: The A6 motorway. The old town, with many winding cobblestone streets flanked by traditional stone and woodwork buildings, is situated on a flat promontory, the base of which is washed on the south by the river Cousin , on the east and west by small streams. Chance finds of coins and pottery fragments and a fine head of Minerva are reminders of the Roman settlement carrying the Celtic name Aballo ,

928-565: The Dravidian languages. There is no ablative case in modern Germanic languages such as German and English . There was an ablative case in the early stages of Ancient Greek , but it quickly fell into disuse by the classical period . The ablative case in Latin ( cāsus ablātīvus ) appears in various grammatical constructions, including following various prepositions, in an ablative absolute clause, and adverbially. The Latin ablative case

986-416: The Latin ablatus , the ( suppletive ) perfect, passive participle of auferre "to carry away". The ablative case is found in several language families, such as Indo-European (e.g., Sanskrit , Latin , Albanian , Armenian , Punjabi ), Turkic (e.g., Turkish , Turkmen , Azerbaijani , Uzbek , Kazakh , Kyrgyz , Tatar ), Tungusic (e.g., Manchu , Evenki ), Uralic (e.g., Hungarian ), and

1044-550: The Romanesque style; the tower on the left of the facade was rebuilt in the seventeenth century. The Tour de l'Horloge, pierced by a gateway through which passes the Grande Rue, is an eleventh-century structure containing a museum on its second floor. Remains of the ancient fortifications, including seven of the flanking towers, are still to be seen. Avallon has a statue of Vauban , the military engineer of Louis XIV. As of

1102-656: The Spanish Netherlands and allied with the Spanish. In early 1653, when Vauban worked on the defences of Sainte-Menehould , one of Condé's principal possessions, he was captured by a Royalist patrol and switched sides, serving in the force led by Louis Nicolas de Clerville that took Sainte-Menehould in November 1653. Clerville, later appointed Commissaire général des fortifications , employed him on siege operations and building fortifications. In 1655, Vauban

1160-479: The Spanish Netherlands , of which only Seneffe was unrelated to a siege. Their importance was heightened by Louis XIV, who viewed them as low-risk opportunities for demonstrating his military skill and increasing his prestige; he was present at 20 of those conducted by Vauban. The 'siege parallel' had been in development since the mid-16th century but Vauban brought the idea to practical fulfilment at Maastricht in 1673. Three parallel trenches were dug in front of

1218-574: The dative . The genitive case with the prepositions ἀπό apó ' away from ' and ἐκ/ἐξ ek/ex ' out of ' is an example. German does not have an ablative case but, exceptionally, Latin ablative case-forms were used from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century after some prepositions , for example after von in von dem Nomine : ablative of the Latin loanword nomen . Grammarians at that time, Justus Georg Schottel , Kaspar von Stieler , Johann Balthasar von Antesperg and Johann Christoph Gottsched , listed an ablative case (as

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1276-410: The 1690s, betting on the length of a siege became a popular craze. As few states could afford large standing armies, defenders needed time to mobilise; to provide this, fortresses were designed to absorb the attackers' energies, similar to the use of crumple zones in modern cars. The French defence of Namur in 1695 showed "how one could effectively win a campaign, by losing a fortress, but exhausting

1334-698: The 1697 siege of Ath is often considered his offensive masterpiece. He was rewarded with money, and made Comte de Vauban, a member of the Order of the Holy Spirit and Order of Saint Louis , and an Honorary Member of the French Academy of Sciences . The numbers needed to conduct a siege, and prevent interference from opponents meant armies of the Nine Years' War often exceeded 100,000 men, sizes unsustainable for pre-industrial societies. It prompted

1392-468: The 17th through the 20th centuries. While often overlooked, Vauban worked on many civilian infrastructure projects, including rebuilding the ports of Brest , Dunkerque and Toulon . Since his fortifications were designed for mutual support, roads and waterways were an essential part of their design, such as the Canal de la Bruche , a 20-kilometre (12 mi) canal built in 1682 to transport materials for

1450-520: The Allies 12,000 casualties and most of the 1708 campaigning season; the lack of progress between 1706 and 1712 enabled Louis to reach an acceptable deal at Utrecht in 1713, as opposed to the humiliating terms presented in 1707. With more leisure time, Vauban developed a broader view of his role. His fortifications were designed for mutual support, so they required connecting roads, bridges and canals; garrisons needed to be fed, so he prepared maps showing

1508-461: The French army was assigned to garrison duty. Vauban's reputation meant his designs remained in use long after developments in artillery made them obsolete, for example the Dutch fort of Bourtange , built in 1742. The Corps des ingénieurs militaires was based on his teachings; between 1699 and 1743, only 631 new candidates were accepted, the vast majority relatives of existing or former members. As

1566-470: The Grand Battery of 200 guns at Namur in 1695, Vauban preferred a more gradual approach. Both had their supporters; Vauban argued his was less costly in terms of casualties, but it took more time, an important consideration in an age when far more soldiers died from disease than in combat. It was accepted even the strongest fortifications would fall, given time; the process was so well understood by

1624-645: The addition of casemated shoulders and flanks. The principles of Vauban's 'second system' were set out in the 1683 work Le Directeur-Général des fortifications, and used at Landau and Mont-Royal, near Traben-Trarbach ; both were advanced positions, intended as stepping-off points for French offensives into the Rhineland . Located 200 metres (660 ft) above the Moselle , Mont-Royal had main walls 30 metres (98 ft) high, 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) long and space for 12,000 troops; this enormously expensive work

1682-432: The besiegers." As with the siege parallel, the strength of Vauban's defensive designs was his ability to synthesise and adapt the work of others to create a more powerful whole. His first works used the 'star-shape' or bastion fort design, also known as the trace Italienne , based on the designs of Antoine de Ville (1596–1656) and Blaise Pagan (1603–1665). His subsequent 'systems' strengthened their internal works with

1740-882: The classical singular; the Eastern Armenian affix -ից -ic’ (both indefinite and definite) derives from the classical plural. For both dialects, those affixes are singular, with the corresponding plurals being -(ն)երէ(ն) -(n)erē(n) and -(ն)երից -(n)eric’ . մարդ է mart ē մարդ է mart ē մարդ ից mard ic’ մարդ ից mard ic’ մարդ էն mart ēn մարդ էն mart ēn մարդ ից mard ic’ մարդ ից mard ic’ (տուն) (dun) > > տան է dan ē (տուն) > տան է (dun) > dan ē (տուն) (tun) > > տն ից tn ic’ (տուն) > տն ից (tun) > tn ic’ (տուն) (dun) > Vauban Sébastien Le Prestre, seigneur de Vauban, later styling himself as

1798-650: The creation of the US Corps of Engineers in 1824. Until 1866, West Point's curriculum was modelled on that of the French Ecole Polytechnique and designed to produce officers with skills in engineering and mathematics. To ensure a steady supply of skilled engineers, in 1690 Vauban established the Corps royal des ingénieurs militaires ; until his death, candidates had to pass an examination administered by Vauban himself. Young French Huguenots made up

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1856-680: The death of Charles the Bold in 1477, it passed under the royal authority. The castle, mentioned as early as the seventh century, has utterly disappeared. A theory exists which proposes that the Isle of Avalon mentioned in Arthurian legend is, in fact, Avallon in Burgundy. Geoffrey Ashe first mentioned the French Avallon theory in his 1985 book, The Discovery of King Arthur . His theory

1914-484: The defenders, and allow better co-ordination among the assault force; he was supported by Louis, and the attack proved successful. Vauban made several innovations in the use of siege artillery, including ricochet firing , and concentrating on specific parts of the fortifications, rather than targeting multiple targets. His Dutch rival Menno van Coehoorn employed a similar approach. While the 'Van Coehoorn method' sought to overwhelm defences with massive firepower, such as

1972-472: The early 20th century, the manufacture of biscuits and gingerbread , and the leather and farm implements supported the economy in Avallon, and there was considerable traffic on wood, wine, and the live-stock and agricultural produce in the surrounding country. As of the early 20th century, the public institutions included the subprefecture, a tribunal of first instance, and a départemental college. Avallon

2030-468: The end of his career to provide a training curriculum for his successors. Vauban's offensive tactics remained relevant for centuries; his principles were clearly identifiable in those used by the Việt Minh at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. His defensive fortifications dated far more quickly, partly due to the enormous investment required; Vauban himself estimated that in 1678, 1694 and 1705, between 40 and 45% of

2088-583: The fortification of Strasbourg . As early as 1684, Vauban published design tables for retaining walls with heights between 3 and 25 metres. Three years later, Vauban, in his role as newly appointed Commissary General of all French fortifications, sent his engineers in the Corps du Génie Militaire his Profil général pour les murs de soutènement in which he presented his retaining wall profiles that were later adopted by engineering offers such as Bélidor (1729), Poncelet (1840) and Wheeler (1870). He also provided advice on

2146-457: The fortifications he built, Vauban's greatest innovations were in offensive operations, an approach he summarised as 'More powder, less blood.' Initially reliant on existing concepts, he later adapted these on lines set out in his memorandum of March 1672, Mémoire pour servir à l'instruction dans la conduite des sièges . In this period, sieges became the dominant form of warfare; during the 1672–1678 Franco-Dutch War , three battles were fought in

2204-631: The lake and gardens at Blenheim Palace . In 1650, Vauban joined the household of his local magnate, the Prince de Condé , where he met de Montal ; a close neighbour from Nièvre , the two were colleagues for many years, and often worked together. During the 1650–1653 Fronde des nobles , Condé was arrested by the Regency Council, led by Louis XIV 's mother Anne of Austria and Cardinal Mazarin . After being released in 1652, he and his supporters, among them Vauban and de Montal, went into exile in

2262-513: The local gentry, including the owners of the Château de Ruère, where Vauban spent his early years. His only sister, Charlotte (1638–1645?), died young, but he had many relatives; his cousin, Paul le Prestre (c. 1630 – 1703), was an army officer who supervised construction of Les Invalides . Three of Paul's sons served in the army, two of whom were killed in action in 1676 and 1677. The third, Antoine (1654–1731), became Vauban's assistant and later

2320-424: The location of forges, forests and farms. Since these had to be paid for, he developed an interest in tax policy, and in 1707 published La Dîme royale , documenting the economic misery of the lower classes. His solution was a flat 10% tax on all agricultural and industrial output, and eliminating the exemptions which meant most of the nobility and clergy paid nothing. Although confiscated and destroyed by royal decree,

2378-581: The mid-twentieth century. He viewed civilian infrastructure as closely connected to military effectiveness and worked on many of France's major ports, as well as projects like the Canal de la Bruche , which remains in use today. He founded the Corps royal des ingénieurs militaires , whose curriculum was based on his publications on engineering design, strategy and training. His economic tract, La Dîme royale , used statistics in support of his arguments, making it

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2436-467: The minor nobility, from Vauban in Bazoches . In 1570, his grandfather Jacques Le Prestre acquired Château de Bazoches , when he married Françoise de la Perrière, an illegitimate daughter of the Comte de Bazoches, who died intestate . The 30-year legal battle by the Le Prestre family to retain the property proved financially ruinous, forcing Urbain to become a forestry worker. He also designed gardens for

2494-658: The neighborhood of Avallon after being defeated in the battle of Déols by Euric king of the Visigoths , whom the Western Roman Emperor Anthemius had hired Riothamus to fight against. This, and other aspects of his reign, made Ashe propose him as a candidate for the historical King Arthur , with Avallon becoming the Arthurian Avalon . No ancient source mentioning Riothamus places him anywhere near Avallon and Geoffrey of Monmouth, who

2552-641: The repair and enlargement of the Canal du Midi in 1686. His holistic approach to urban planning, which integrated city defences with layout and infrastructure, is most obvious at Neuf-Brisach. His legacy is recognised in the Vauban district in Freiburg , named after a French army base on the same location, which developed as a model for sustainable neighbourhoods post-1998. Vauban's 'scientific approach' and focus on large infrastructure projects strongly influenced American military and civil engineering and inspired

2610-406: The sixth case after nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and vocative) for German words. They arbitrarily considered the dative case after some prepositions to be an ablative, as in von dem Mann[e] ' from the man, of the man ' and mit dem Mann[e] ' with the man ' , while they considered the dative case after other prepositions or without a preposition, as in dem Mann[e] , to be

2668-544: The tree ' . It is also used for nouns in several other senses, as for actions occurring "because of" or "without" a certain noun, indicating distance or direction. When it appears with a comparative adjective, ( śreṣṭhatamam ' the best ' ), the ablative is used to refer to what the adjective is comparing: ' better than X ' . The modern Armenian ablative has different markers for each main dialect, both originating from Classical Armenian . The Western Armenian affix -է -ē (definite -էն -ēn ) derives from

2726-422: The twelfth century, on an earlier foundation dedicated to Notre Dame. Vestiges of the earlier church were revealed beneath the high altar in an excavation of 1861. The acquisition of a relic of Saint Lazare prompted its rededication: Saint Ladre is attested in the fourteenth century. It was the seat of an archdeaconate answering to the bishop of Autun . The two western portals are densely adorned with sculpture in

2784-589: The use of statistics to support his arguments "... establishes him as a founder of modern economics, and precursor of the Enlightenment 's socially concerned intellectuals." In the course of his career, Vauban supervised or designed the building of more than 300 separate fortifications, and by his own estimate, supervised more than 40 sieges from 1653 to 1697. In 1660, Vauban married Jeanne d'Aunay d'Epiry (ca 1640–1705); they had two daughters, Charlotte (1661–1709) and Jeanne Françoise (1678–1713), as well as

2842-399: The walls, the earth thus excavated being used to create embankments screening the attackers from defensive fire, while bringing them as close to the assault point as possible (see diagram). Artillery was moved into the trenches, allowing them to target the base of the walls at close range, with the defenders unable to depress their own guns enough to counter this; once a breach had been made, it

2900-579: The war with Spain. In 1643, at the age of ten, Vauban was sent to the Carmelite college in Semur-en-Auxois , where he was taught the basics of mathematics, science and geometry. His father's work was also relevant; the design of neo-classical gardens and fortifications were closely linked, since they both concerned managing space. It was common to combine these skills; John Armstrong (1674–1742), Marlborough 's chief military engineer, laid out

2958-531: Was appointed Ingénieur du Roi or Royal Engineer, and by the time the war with Spain ended in 1659, he was known as a talented engineer of energy and courage. Under the terms of the Treaty of the Pyrenees , Spain ceded much of French Flanders , and Vauban was put in charge of fortifying newly acquired towns such as Dunkirk . This pattern of French territorial gains, followed by fortification of new strongpoints,

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3016-409: Was based on a memorandum from Vauban to Louvois , Minister of War, setting out a proposed line of fortresses known as the Ceinture de fer , or iron belt (see Map). He was made Maréchal de camp in 1676, and succeeded Clerville as Commissaire general des fortifications in 1677. During the Nine Years' War, he supervised the capture of Namur in 1692, the major French achievement of the war, while

3074-521: Was demolished when the French withdrew after the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick , and only the foundations remain today. Fort-Louis was another new construction, built on an island in the middle of the Rhine ; this allowed Vauban to combine his defensive principles with town planning, although like Mont-Royal, little of it remains. The French retreat from the Rhine after 1697 required new fortresses; Neuf-Brisach

3132-461: Was derived from three Proto-Indo-European cases: ablative (from), instrumental (with), and locative (in/at). In Ancient Greek , there was an ablative case ( ἀφαιρετικὴ πτῶσις aphairetikē ptōsis ) which was used in the Homeric, pre-Mycenaean, and Mycenean periods. It fell into disuse during the classical period and thereafter with some of its functions taken by the genitive and others by

3190-591: Was followed in the 1667–1668 War of Devolution , 1672–1678 Franco-Dutch War and 1683–1684 War of the Reunions . The first fortification Vauban designed was the 1673 siege of Maastricht , although he was subordinate to Louis, who ranked as the senior officer present, and thus took credit for its capture. Vauban was rewarded with a large sum of money, which he used to purchase the Château de Bazouches from his cousin in 1675. Post-1673, French strategy in Flanders

3248-526: Was hard to defend. In December 1672, he wrote to Louvois : "I am not for the greater number of places, we already have too many, and please God we had half of that, but all in good condition!" Many of the fortifications designed by Vauban are still standing; in 2008, twelve groups of Vauban fortifications were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for their exceptional engineering and influence on military fortifications from

3306-499: Was the most significant, designed on Vauban's 'third system', and completed after his death by Louis de Cormontaigne . Using ideas from Fort-Louis, this incorporated a regular square grid street pattern inside an octagonal fortification; tenement blocks were built inside each curtain wall, strengthening the defensive walls and shielding more expensive houses from cannon fire. To create a more coherent border, Vauban advocated destroying poor fortifications, and relinquishing territory that

3364-430: Was then stormed. This approach was used in offensive operations well into the 20th century. However, Vauban adapted his approach to the situation, and did not use the siege parallel again until Valenciennes in 1677. Always willing to challenge accepted norms, at Valenciennes, he proposed assaulting the breach during the day, rather than at night as was normal practice. He argued this would reduce casualties by surprising

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