command in November. On the 17th of January 1805 he left Toulon for the first time, but was driven back by a squall which dismasted some of his awkwardly handled ships. On the 3rd of March he was out again, and this time he headed Nelson by some weeks on a cruise to the West Indies. But Villeneuve’s success so far had not removed his fears. Though on taking up his command he had issued an order of the day in which he spoke boldly enough of the purpose of his cruise, and his determination to adhere to it, he was racked by fears of what might happen to the force entrusted to his care. For the details of the campaign see Trafalgar. In so far as the biography of Villeneuve is concerned, his behaviour during these trying months cannot escape condemnation. He had undertaken to carry out a plan of which he did not approve. Since he had not declined the task altogether, it was clearly his duty to execute his orders at all hazards. If he was defeated, as he almost certainly would have been, he could have left the responsibility for the disaster to rest on the shoulders of Napoleon who assigned him the task. But Villeneuve could not free himself from the conviction that it was his business to save his fleet even if he ruined the emperor’s plan of invasion. Thus after he returned to Europe and fought his confused action with Sir R. Calder off Ferrol on the 22nd of July 1805, he first hesitated, and then, in spite of vehement orders to come on, turned south to Cadiz. Napoleon’s habit of suggesting alternative courses to his lieutenants gave him a vague appearance of excuse for making for that port. But it was one which only a very weak man would have availed himself of, for all his instructions ought to have been read subject to the standing injunction to come on to the Channel—and in turning south to Cadiz, he was going in the opposite direction. His decision to leave Cadiz and give battle in October 1805, which led directly to the battle of Trafalgar, cannot be justified even on his own principles. He foresaw defeat to be inevitable, and yet he went out solely because he learnt from the Minister of Marine that another officer had been sent to supersede him. In fact he ran to meet the very destruction he had tried to avoid. No worse fate would have befallen him in the Channel than came upon him at Trafalgar, but it might have been incurred in a manly attempt to obey his orders. It was provoked in a spasm of wounded vanity. At Trafalgar he showed personal courage, but the helpless incapacity of the allies to manœuvre gave him no opportunity to influence the course of the battle. He was taken as a prisoner to England, but was soon released. Shortly after landing in France he committed suicide in an inn at Rennes, on the 22nd of April 1806. Among the other improbable crimes attributed to Napoleon by the fear and hatred of Europe, was the murder of Villeneuve, but there is not the faintest reason to doubt that the admiral died by his own hand.
The correspondence of Napoleon contains many references to Villeneuve. Accounts of the naval operations in which he was concerned will be found in James’s Naval History, Troude, in his Batailles navales de la France, vol. iii., publishes several of his letters and orders of the day. (D. H.)
VILLENEUVE-LÈS-AVIGNON, a town of south-eastern
France, in the department of Card on the right bank of the
Rhone opposite Avignon, with which it is connected by a
suspension bridge. Pop. (1906) 2582. Villeneuve preserves
many remains of its medieval importance. The church of
Notre Dame, dating from the 14th century, contains a rich marble
altar and remarkable pictures. The hospice, once a Franciscan
convent, part of which is occupied by a museum of pictures and
antiquities, has a chapel in which is the fine tomb of Innocent VI.
(d. 1362). The church and other remains of the Carthusian
monastery of Val-de-Bénédiction, founded in 1356 by Innocent VI.,
are now used for habitation and other secular purposes. A
gateway and a rotunda, built as shelter for a fountain, both
dating from about 1670, are of architectural note. On the Mont
Andaon, a hill to the north-east of the town, stands the Fort of
St André (14th century), which is entered by an imposing
fortified gateway and contains a Romanesque chapel and
remains of the abbey of St André. The other buildings of
interest include several old mansions once belonging to cardinals
and nobles, and a tower, the Tour de Philippe le Bel, built in the
14th century, which guarded the western extremity of the Pont
St Bénézet (see Avignon).
In the 6th century the Benedictine abbey of St André was founded on Mount Andaon, and the village which grew up round it took its name. In the 13th century the monks, acting in concert with the crown, established a bastide, or “new town,” which came to be called Villeneuve. The town was the resort of the French cardinals during the sojourn of the popes at Avignon, and its importance, due largely to its numerous religious establishments, did not decline till the Revolution.
VILLENEUVE-SUR-LOT, a town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Lot-et-Garonne, 22 m. N. by E. of Agen on a branch line of the Orleans railway. Pop. (1906) town, 6978; commune, 13,540. Villeneuve is divided into two unequal portions by the river Lot, which here runs between high banks. The chief quarter stands on the right bank and is united to the quarter on the left bank by a bridge of the 13th century, the principal arch of which, constructed in the reign of Louis XIII. in place of two older arches, has a span of 118 ft. and a height of 59 ft. On the left bank portions of the 13th century ramparts, altered and surmounted by machicolations in the 15th century, remain, and high square towers rise above the gates to the north-east and south-west, known respectively as the Porte de Paris and Porte de Pujols. On the right bank boulevards have for the most part taken the place of the ramparts. Arcades of the 13th century surround the Place La Fayette, and old houses of the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries are to be seen in various parts of the town. The church of St Etienne is in late Gothic style. On the left bank of the Lot, 2 m. S.S.W of Villeneuve, are the 13th-century walls of Pujols. The buildings of the ancient abbey of Eysses, about a mile to the N.E., which are mainly of the 17th century, serve as a departmental prison and penitentiary settlement. The principal hospital, the hospice St Cyr, is a handsome building standing in beautiful gardens. Villeneuve has a sub-prefecture, tribunals of first instance and of commerce and communal colleges for both sexes. It is an important agricultural centre and has a very large trade in plums (prunes d’ente) and in the produce of the market gardens which surround it, as well as in cattle, horses and wine. The preparation of preserved plums and the tinning of peas and beans occupy many hands; there are also manufactures of boots and shoes and tin boxes. The important mill of Gajac stands on the bank of the Lot a little above the town.
Villeneuve was founded in 1254 by Alphonse, count of Poitiers, brother of Louis IX., on the site of the town of Gajac, which had been deserted during the Albigensian crusade.
VILLEROI, FRANÇOIS DE NEUFVILLE, Duc de (1644–1730), French soldier, came of a noble family which had risen into prominence in the reign of Charles IX. His father Nicolas de Neufville, Marquis de Villeroi, marshal of France (1598–1685), created a duke by Louis XIV., was the young king’s governor, and the boy was thus brought up in close relations with Louis. An intimate of the king, a finished courtier and leader of society and a man of great personal gallantry, Villeroi was marked out for advancement in the army, which he loved, but which had always a juster appreciation of his incapacity than Louis. In 1693, without having exercised any really important and responsible command, he was made a marshal. In 1695, when Luxembourg died, he obtained the command of the army in Flanders, and William III. found him a far more complaisant opponent than the “little hunchback.” In 1701 he was sent to Italy to supersede Catinat and was soon beaten by the inferior army of Eugene at Chiari (see Spanish Succession War). In the winter of 1701 he was made prisoner at the surprise of Cremona, and the wits of the army made at his expense the famous rhyme:
“Par la favour de Bellone, et par un bonheur sans égal,
Nous avons conservé Crémone—et perdu notre général.”
In the following years he was pitted against Marlborough in
