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 Eugène at Chiari (see War of Spanish Succession). 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 faveur de Bellone,In the following years he was pitted against Marlborough in the Low Countries. Marlborough's own difficulties with the Dutch and other allied commissioners, rather than Villeroi's own skill, put off. the inevitable disaster for some years, but in 1706 the duke attacked him and thoroughly defeated him at Ramillies. Louis consoled his old friend with the remark, "At our age, one is no longer lucky," but superseded him in the command, and henceforward Villeroi lived the life of a courtier, much busied with intrigues but retaining to the end the friendship of his master.
et par un bonheur sans égal,
Nous avons conserveé Crémone
--et perdu notre général."