The family home was the Château des Aubues, near Lormes in the French province of Nièvre; built in 1480, it was demolished in the late 19th century and little trace of it remains today.

[3] Of their other children, François-Ignace (ca 1650–1691) died of wounds received at Landau, while François (1653–1672) joined the Knights of Malta, fought in Crete when only 15 and was killed in Flanders in 1672.

This triggered a civil war known as the Fronde, although the defection of Turenne in 1651 and the Battle of the Faubourg St Antoine in July 1652 ended it as a serious threat to the French state.

[9] Given free passage to Spanish territory, he was made governor of Rocroi and later fought in the 1656 Battle of Valenciennes, a crushing defeat inflicted by Condé on a French army led by Turenne.

Now fully rehabilitated, Montal was appointed Governor, a position he retained until 1678; during the Franco-Dutch War in June 1673, he took part in the assault on the key Dutch town of Maastricht.

During the winter of 1676/1677, he supported a tight French blockade of the Spanish-held towns of Valenciennes and Cambrai by seizing any grain being transported from Namur and preventing reinforcements reaching either garrison.

[13] Active campaigning in Flanders largely ended after the two towns surrendered in spring 1677 but de Montal was involved in the last action of the war, the Battle of Saint-Denis in August 1678.

[16] Despite his age, de Montal held a number of commands in Flanders during the 1688–1697 Nine Years War and was instrumental in rallying the French infantry when they were taken by surprise at Steenkerque in 1692.

[3] The title was largely ceremonial but de Montal complained about his exclusion from the list of promotions in 1693 and Louis appointed him commander of French forces in Maritime Flanders, based at Dunkirk.