, grand-master of the artillery of France, was born in 1486, of a d
, grand-master of the artillery of
France, was born in 1486, of a distinguished and ancient
family, and died in 1567, at the age of eighty-one. He
was at first page to queen Anne of Brittany, and afterwards
performed great services to the kings Francis I. and
Henry II. being the first who put the French artillery on a
respectable footing. He signalized himself at the taking
of Calais in 1558, and on several other occasions gave
eminent proofs of sagacity and courage. He is also said to
have been the first gentleman of Picardy who embraced
the protestant religion. Brantome, in his Capitaines
François, says, “that M. d'Estrées was one of the worthy
men of his rank, without offence to others, and the most
intrepid in trenches and batteries; for he went to them
holding up his head, as if it had been to a hunting party
in the fields; and the greatest part of the time he went on
horseback, mounted on a great German hack, above twenty
years old, and as intrepid as his master; for as to cannonades and arquebusades that were fired in the trench, neither
the one nor the other ever lowered their heads for them;
and he shewed himself half the body high above the trench,
for he was tall and conspicuous as well as his horse. Hq
was the ablest man in the world in knowing the fittest spots
for erecting a local battery, and in directing it best; accordingly, he was one of the confidents that mons. de
Guise wished to have about him for making conquests and
taking towns, as he did at Calais. It was he who the first
provided us with those fine founderies of artillery which
we make use of to this day; and even of our cannon, which
do not fear being fired a hundred times one after the other,
as I may say, without bursting, without splitting, without
breaking, as he proved in one before the king, when the
first essay was made; but we do not choose to cram them
in this manner, for we spare goodness as much as we can.
Before this mode of casting, our cannons were not near so
good, but a hundred times more fragile, and requiring to
be very often refreshed with vinegar, which occasioned
much more trouble. He was of a very large person, a
fine and venerable old man, with a beard that reached
down very low, and seemed to have been his old comrade
in war in the days of yore, which he had all along made
his profession, and where he learned to' be somewhat
cruel.
”