Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban

Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633–1707) was the foremost military engineer of Louis XIV's France. After serving the prince of Condé during the Fronde he was captured in 1653, joined the royal army and became ingénieur du roi in 1655, later fortifying newly acquired towns including Dunkirk.

He directed the sieges of Maastricht (1673) and Luxembourg (1684), remodelled more than a hundred fortresses and girdled France's northern frontier with his ceinture de fer. Louis XIV made him a marshal of France in 1703, the first engineer so honoured. His last tract, La Dîme royale, proposed a single tax on all estates and was destroyed by royal decree.