Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet de Belle-Isle — Metz, France - Citizen Memorials on Waymarking.com

This commemorative plate on the Place de la Comédie, the forecourt of the opera house of Metz, honours the statesman and Marshal of France Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet de Belle-Isle. The (translated) inscription reads:

Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet
Maréchal duc de Belle-Isle
1684 — 1761

Governor of Metz and the Metzgau from 1733-1761
Lieutenant General of the Duchys of Lorraine and Bar
Commander of the three dioceses
Metz owes him its beautification
and its expansion in the eighteenth century.
As member of French Academy,
in 1760 he founded the Royal Society
of Science and Arts in Metz.
The City of Metz
2012

Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet, duc de Belle-Isle (* 22 September 1684 in Villefranche-de-Rouergue; † 26 January 1761 in Versailles) entered the army at an early age and was made proprietary colonel of a dragoon regiment in 1708. He rose during the War of the Spanish Succession to the rank of brigadier, and in March 1718 to that of Maréchal de Camp. In the War of the Polish Succession he commanded a corps under the orders of Marshal Berwick. When peace was made in 1736, Louis XV gave Belle-Isle the governments of three important fortresses: Metz, Toul, and Verdun offices that he would hold until his death. Belle-Isle’s military and political reputation was now at its height, and he was one of the government’s principal advisers on military and diplomatic affairs, in 1741 he was named Maréchal de France. During the French campaigns of 1746-47, Belle-Isle was in command of the Army at Piedmont on the Alpine frontier and King Louis XV would make him Secretary of State for War in 1758, a position Belle-Isle would hold until his death in 1761.
Belle-Isle held an interest in literature throughout his life, and was elected a member of the French National Academy in 1740; so he founded the National Academy of Metz in 1760. Also, Belle-Isle is regarded today as a builder-ruler. As benefactor of the city, he initiated during his dukedom the modernization of the centre of Metz in a context of Enlightenment. Belle-Isle awarded royal architect Jacques-François Blondel for the embellishment of the town square and the construction of the city hall, the parliament, and the guardhouse lodging. He also decided the edification of the royal Governor and Intendant palaces and the opera house of Metz, describing it as "one of the most beautiful France's opera-theater" at his time. Just before his death, he stated: "The city of Metz is my mistress."
source: wikipedia