Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban

Baptised in May 1633, Sébastien Le Prestre rose through Louis XIV's Royal Army to become the architect of French defense. He saw war and peace as two sides of one problem: if ports and canals strengthened the nation, fortresses should too. His designs held for nearly a hundred years; his offensive methods lasted into the 20th century. He founded the Corps royal des ingénieurs militaires and wrote its curriculum. In La Dîme royale, he used statistics to argue for fairer taxes — radical enough that the crown ordered every copy destroyed. What lasted longest was his map: he argued France should t…