Jean-Florent de Vallière

Jean-Florent de Vallière (7 September 1667 – 6 January 1759) was a French artillery officer during the reigns of King Louis XIV and King Louis XV. In 1685, he joined the French Royal Army as a sous-lieutenant of sappers. During the Nine Years' War he served at the sieges of Philippsburg, Mons and Namur, and at the battles of Fleurus and Leuze. He also took part in lesser sieges and battles, including an action where he was wounded while leading an assault. After the war he was promoted to captain.

During the War of the Spanish Succession he fought at two sieges of Landau and was badly wounded in the Siege of Nice. He fought at every major battle in Flanders and Germany. He took part in sieges at Aire-sur-la-Lys where he was wounded, Douai, and Turin. In the Siege of Le Quesnoy in 1712, he was the besieging army's chief artillery officer. He was promoted to general officer at the end of the war. He was promoted again in 1719 and named Director General of Artillery in 1726.

During the War of the Polish Succession he commanded the artillery of the army operating on the Rhine River, during which he was promoted lieutenant general. In the War of the Austrian Succession, Vallière fought at the Battle of Dettingen and the Siege of Fribourg. In the latter action, his leg was injured while serving in the flooded trenches. Vallière became a member of the French Academy of Sciences and a member of the Académie de Marine.

Vallière was largely responsible for implementing the Vallière system, a major reform of the French artillery beginning in 1732. He standardized the French artillery by reducing the number of different cannons to only five calibers. This briefly put France's artillery ahead of all other European powers. Though the cannons were well-made and accurate, they were very heavy and did not perform well in the field during the European wars in the 1740s and 1750s. This led to the Vallière system's replacement by the Gribeauval system.