Thread by @GrayConnolly

Noted this from @FrenchHist - have thoughts. First would be Marshal Foch, who really did an incredible job in WW1 (Governing Socialists would originally not appoint Foch to higher command - even with the Germans at the gates of Paris - as Foch was a Catholic & a Monarchist)

My other thoughts were Turenne (who was French) and Marshal de Saxe (who was German but in French service). Charles Martel saved Europe and Charlemagne founded the modern idea of Europe. What of St Joan of Arc? What of the great engineer, Vauban?

Then there are the lesser known French worthies: the Marquis de Montalembert (both General and Sapper ... must have been exhausting company given the latter) and the Duke of Vendome ... and in more modern times, Marshal d'Esperey and Marshal Leclerc

The one fascinating aspect of the 17thC remains that your military life was an apprenticeship begun very young .... many of these men fought their first battles at 12, 13, 14, and learned "on the job" (standfast St Joan of Arc who was a very old ~18!)

You will note, also, that all of the above (even St Joan herself) came from rather privileged backgrounds? What of meritocracy, I hear you scream? Well, in ye olde days, Generals and Colonels died regularly, so there were opportunities for advancement aplenty, if you lived.

At the same time, the prevailing view (really to WW2) was that the King and the men who owned the country should (via their 2nd and 3rd sons) lead it in wartime. They would find obscene & disqualifying, for example, so many privileged men getting out of serving in the Vietnam War