#104-guns

[ltwilliammowett]

Le Royal Louis by  Maître Rodolphe in : Histoire de la Marine française illustrée, Larousse, 1934

The Royal Louis was a ship of the line of the French Royal Navy. She was built in Toulon between 1666 and 1669 under the direction of Rodolphe Gédéon and served as the flagship of the French fleet in the Mediterranean.

Although she was intended at the time of her construction to be the flagship of François de Bourbon-Vendome, Duc de Beaufort, for the Crete campaign of 1669, she was not completed in time and was not used until 1677. From December 1676 to April 1677 she was refitted at Toulon; four of her 24-pounder guns were replaced by four 36-pounders on the lower deck, two more 18-pounders were added to the middle deck and two 6-pounders were removed from her quarterdeck, leaving her a ship of 104 guns.

On 11 May 1677, under the command of Abraham Duquesne, she sailed from Toulon to Messina in Sicily at the head of a small squadron to support the rebels against Spanish rule. After returning to Toulon, she was not used again until she was withdrawn from service in 1691. She was broken up in Toulon in 1697 after being replaced by a new first rate ship of the same name.