
Louis Victor de Rochechouart de Mortemart (25 August 1636-15 September 1688) was a French admiral in the service of King Louis XIV.
Biography[]
Louis Victor de Rochechouart de Mortemart was born in Paris, France in 1636, the son of Gabriel de Rochechouart de Mortemart and the brother of the Madame de Montespan. He entered the military in 1653 as Captain of the Royal Guard, and he distinguished himself in Flanders and Artois under Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne; he also served in Italy twice before joining the marines. He became a naval captain and peer of France in 1663, and he served in Chevalier Paul's expedition to Jijel in Algeria before distinguishing himself in Flanders in 1667 during the War of Devolution. He also aided the Venetian defenders of Candia against the Ottoman Turks in 1669, becoming Admiral that same year. In 1671, he was assigned to protect southern France from the Barbary pirates, and, during the Franco-Dutch War, he was wounded in the arm during the 1672 crossing of the Rhine. In 1675, King Louis XIV, his sister's lover, dispatched Louis Victor to serve as Viceroy of Sicily at Messina, and he defeated the Spanish and Dutch at the Battle of Palermo. In January 1678, however, King Louis recalled the French troops from Sicily, and Louis Victor - who cared deeply for the Sicilians - stopped working at sea. He became First Gentleman of the King's Bedchamber, and he was renowned for his storytelling skills. He died in 1688.