Auguste Marmont
Encyclopedia
Auguste Frédéric Louis Viesse de Marmont, 1st Duke of Ragusa
(20 July 1774 – 22 March 1852) was a French
General
, nobleman and Marshal of France
.
, the son of an ex-officer in the army who belonged to the petite noblesse and adopted the principles of the Revolution
. His love of soldiering soon showed itself, and his father took him to Dijon
to learn mathematics
prior to entering the artillery, and there he made the acquaintance of Napoleon Bonaparte
, which he renewed after obtaining his commission when he served in Toulon
.
The acquaintance ripened into intimacy; Marmont became General Bonaparte's aide-de-camp
, remained with him during his disgrace and accompanied him to Italy and Egypt, winning distinction and promotion to general of brigade. In 1799 he returned to Europe with his chief; he was present at the coup d'état
of the 18th Brumaire
, and organized the artillery for the expedition to Italy, which he commanded with great effect at Marengo. For this he was at once made general of division. In 1801 he became inspector-general of artillery
, and in 1804 grand officer of the Legion of Honour, but was greatly disappointed at being omitted from the list of officers who were made marshals.
In 1805 he received the command of a corps, with which he did good service at Ulm
. He was then directed to take possession of Dalmatia
with his army, and occupied the Republic of Ragusa
. For the next five years he was military and civil governor of Dalmatia
, and traces of his beneficent régime still survive both in great public works and in the memories of the people. In 1808 he was made duke of Ragusa.
In the War of the Fifth Coalition
, he defeated an Austrian holding force in the Dalmatian Campaign of May 1809
and captured the opposing commander. Breaking out of Dalmatia, he reached Ljubljana (Laibach)
in early June. After he drubbed Ignaz Gyulai
's corps in the Battle of Graz
, Napoleon summoned the XI Corps to Vienna. He arrived in time to fight in the Battle of Wagram
on 5 and 6 July. In the subsequent pursuit of Archduke Charles
, Marmont got his corps into a difficult spot and was bailed out only by the arrival of Napoleon with heavy reinforcements. Napoleon made him a Marshal of France
, though he said, "Between ourselves, you have not done enough to justify entirely my choice." Of the three marshals created after Wagram, the French soldiers said,
He was appointed governor-general of all the Illyrian provinces
of the empire. In July 1810 Marmont was hastily summoned to succeed Masséna
in the command of the French army in the north of Spain
. His relief of Ciudad Rodrigo in the autumn of 1811 in spite of the presence of the British army was a great feat, and in the manoeuvring which preceded the battle of Salamanca
he had the best of it. But Wellington
more than retrieved his position in the battle, and inflicted a severe defeat on the French. Marmont and his deputy commander Comte Jean-Pierre François Bonet were both struck by shrapnel very early in the battle. Marmont was gravely wounded in the right arm and side and command of the battle passed to Bertrand Clausel. He retired to France to recover.
In April 1813 Napoleon gave him the command of a corps, which he led at the battles of Lützen
, Bautzen
and Dresden
. He then fought throughout the great defensive campaign of 1814 until the last battle before Paris
, from which he fought a skilful fighting retreat drawing back his forces to the commanding position of Essonne and inflicting high casualties on the enemy.
Marmont then took upon himself a political role, seeking to halt what he now saw as a pointless prolonging of a war which France would now assuredly lose. Marmont contacted the Allies and reached a secret agreement with them. As the Allies closed on Montmartre, Marmont - together with marshals Mortier and Moncey- marched to a position where they were quickly surrounded by Allied troops and then surrendered their forces, as had been agreed.
king Louis XVIII during the Hundred Days
, and following Waterloo
voted in favour of the execution of Marshal Ney.
He was made a peer of France and a major-general of the royal guard, and in 1820 a knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit
and a grand officer of the Order of St Louis. He was the major-general of the guard on duty in July 1830 during the July Revolution
, and was ordered to put down with a strong hand any opposition to the ordinances. Himself opposed to the court policy, he yet tried to do his duty, and only gave up the attempt to suppress the revolution when it became clear that his troops were outmatched. This brought more obloquy upon him, and the Duke d'Angoulême even ordered him under arrest, saying:
Marmont accompanied the king into exile and forfeited his marshalate. His desire to return to France was never gratified and he wandered in central and eastern Europe, settling finally in Vienna, where he was well received by the Austrian government, and, strange to say, made tutor to the duke of Reichstadt
, the young man who had once for a few weeks been styled Napoleon II
. He died at Venice
in March 1852, the last living Napoleonic Marshal. Despite his long friendship with Napoleon, by this time the verb "raguser" - derived from his title, the Duke of Ragusa- was a household word in France: it meant "to betray".
His works are:
. They had no children and were divorced in 1817. She outlived him by five years, dying in Paris in 1857.
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
(20 July 1774 – 22 March 1852) was a French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
, nobleman and Marshal of France
Marshal of France
The Marshal of France is a military distinction in contemporary France, not a military rank. It is granted to generals for exceptional achievements...
.
Biography
Marmont was born at Châtillon-sur-SeineChâtillon-sur-Seine
Châtillon-sur-Seine is a commune of the Côte-d'Or department in eastern France.-Population:-Personalities:Châtillon-sur-Seine was the birthplace of:* Auguste Marmont, duke of Ragusa , Marshal of France...
, the son of an ex-officer in the army who belonged to the petite noblesse and adopted the principles of the Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. His love of soldiering soon showed itself, and his father took him to Dijon
Dijon
Dijon is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or département and of the Burgundy region.Dijon is the historical capital of the region of Burgundy. Population : 151,576 within the city limits; 250,516 for the greater Dijon area....
to learn mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
prior to entering the artillery, and there he made the acquaintance of Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
, which he renewed after obtaining his commission when he served in Toulon
Toulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....
.
The acquaintance ripened into intimacy; Marmont became General Bonaparte's aide-de-camp
Aide-de-camp
An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
, remained with him during his disgrace and accompanied him to Italy and Egypt, winning distinction and promotion to general of brigade. In 1799 he returned to Europe with his chief; he was present at the coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
of the 18th Brumaire
18 Brumaire
The coup of 18 Brumaire was the coup d'état by which General Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the French Directory, replacing it with the French Consulate...
, and organized the artillery for the expedition to Italy, which he commanded with great effect at Marengo. For this he was at once made general of division. In 1801 he became inspector-general of artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
, and in 1804 grand officer of the Legion of Honour, but was greatly disappointed at being omitted from the list of officers who were made marshals.
In 1805 he received the command of a corps, with which he did good service at Ulm
Battle of Ulm
The Battle of Ulm was a series of minor skirmishes at the end of Napoleon Bonaparte's Ulm Campaign, culminating in the surrender of an entire Austrian army near Ulm in Württemberg....
. He was then directed to take possession of Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
with his army, and occupied the Republic of Ragusa
Republic of Ragusa
The Republic of Ragusa or Republic of Dubrovnik was a maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik in Dalmatia , that existed from 1358 to 1808...
. For the next five years he was military and civil governor of Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
, and traces of his beneficent régime still survive both in great public works and in the memories of the people. In 1808 he was made duke of Ragusa.
In the War of the Fifth Coalition
War of the Fifth Coalition
The War of the Fifth Coalition, fought in the year 1809, pitted a coalition of the Austrian Empire and the United Kingdom against Napoleon's French Empire and Bavaria. Major engagements between France and Austria, the main participants, unfolded over much of Central Europe from April to July, with...
, he defeated an Austrian holding force in the Dalmatian Campaign of May 1809
Dalmatian Campaign (1809)
The Dalmatian Campaign saw several battles fought between 30 April and 21 May 1809 by Auguste Marmont's First French Empire soldiers and Andreas von Stoichevich's Austrian Empire troops. The Austrians drove the French from their positions on the Zrmanja River at the end of April. But in mid-May,...
and captured the opposing commander. Breaking out of Dalmatia, he reached Ljubljana (Laibach)
Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
in early June. After he drubbed Ignaz Gyulai
Ignaz Gyulai
Ignaz Gyulai von Máros-Nemeth und Nádaska, Ignácz Gyulay, Ignác Gyulay, or Ignjat Đulaj born 11 September 1763 – died 11 November 1831, joined the army of Habsburg Austria, fought against Ottoman Turkey, and became a general officer during the French Revolutionary Wars. From 1806 he held the...
's corps in the Battle of Graz
Battle of Graz
The Battle of Graz took place on 24–26 June 1809 between an Austrian corps commanded by Ignaz Gyulai and a French division led by Jean-Baptiste Broussier. The French were soon reinforced by a corps under Auguste Marmont...
, Napoleon summoned the XI Corps to Vienna. He arrived in time to fight in the Battle of Wagram
Battle of Wagram
The Battle of Wagram was the decisive military engagement of the War of the Fifth Coalition. It took place on the Marchfeld plain, on the north bank of the Danube. An important site of the battle was the village of Deutsch-Wagram, 10 kilometres northeast of Vienna, which would give its name to the...
on 5 and 6 July. In the subsequent pursuit of Archduke Charles
Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen
Archduke Charles of Austria, Duke of Teschen was an Austrian field-marshal, the third son of emperor Leopold II and his wife Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain...
, Marmont got his corps into a difficult spot and was bailed out only by the arrival of Napoleon with heavy reinforcements. Napoleon made him a Marshal of France
Marshal of France
The Marshal of France is a military distinction in contemporary France, not a military rank. It is granted to generals for exceptional achievements...
, though he said, "Between ourselves, you have not done enough to justify entirely my choice." Of the three marshals created after Wagram, the French soldiers said,
MacDonald is France's choice
OudinotNicolas OudinotNicolas Charles Oudinot, 1st Comte Oudinot, 1st Duc de Reggio , was a Marshal of France.-Early life:...
is the army's choice
Marmont is friendship's choice.
He was appointed governor-general of all the Illyrian provinces
Illyrian provinces
The Illyrian Provinces was an autonomous province of the Napoleonic French Empire on the north and east coasts of the Adriatic Sea between 1809 and 1816. Its capital was established at Laybach...
of the empire. In July 1810 Marmont was hastily summoned to succeed Masséna
André Masséna
André Masséna 1st Duc de Rivoli, 1st Prince d'Essling was a French military commander during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars....
in the command of the French army in the north of Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. His relief of Ciudad Rodrigo in the autumn of 1811 in spite of the presence of the British army was a great feat, and in the manoeuvring which preceded the battle of Salamanca
Battle of Salamanca
The Battle of Salamanca saw Anglo-Portuguese and Spanish armies under the Duke of Wellington defeat Marshal Auguste Marmont's French forces among the hills around Arapiles south of Salamanca, Spain on July 22, 1812 during the Peninsular War....
he had the best of it. But Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...
more than retrieved his position in the battle, and inflicted a severe defeat on the French. Marmont and his deputy commander Comte Jean-Pierre François Bonet were both struck by shrapnel very early in the battle. Marmont was gravely wounded in the right arm and side and command of the battle passed to Bertrand Clausel. He retired to France to recover.
In April 1813 Napoleon gave him the command of a corps, which he led at the battles of Lützen
Battle of Lützen (1813)
In the Battle of Lützen , Napoleon I of France lured a combined Prussian and Russian force into a trap, halting the advances of the Sixth Coalition after his devastating losses in Russia. The Russian commander, Prince Peter Wittgenstein, attempting to undo Napoleon's capture of Leipzig, attacked...
, Bautzen
Battle of Bautzen
In the Battle of Bautzen a combined Russian/Prussian army was pushed back by Napoleon, but escaped destruction, some sources claim, because Michel Ney failed to block their retreat...
and Dresden
Battle of Dresden
The Battle of Dresden was fought on 26–27 August 1813 around Dresden, Germany, resulting in a French victory under Napoleon I against forces of the Sixth Coalition of Austrians, Russians and Prussians under Field Marshal Schwartzenberg. However, Napoleon's victory was not as complete as it could...
. He then fought throughout the great defensive campaign of 1814 until the last battle before Paris
Battle of Paris (1814)
The Battle of Paris was fought during the Napoleonic Wars in 1814. The French defeat led directly to the abdication of Napoleon I.-Background:...
, from which he fought a skilful fighting retreat drawing back his forces to the commanding position of Essonne and inflicting high casualties on the enemy.
Marmont then took upon himself a political role, seeking to halt what he now saw as a pointless prolonging of a war which France would now assuredly lose. Marmont contacted the Allies and reached a secret agreement with them. As the Allies closed on Montmartre, Marmont - together with marshals Mortier and Moncey- marched to a position where they were quickly surrounded by Allied troops and then surrendered their forces, as had been agreed.
Bourbon Service
Marmont stayed loyal to the restored BourbonHouse of Bourbon
The House of Bourbon is a European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty . Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma...
king Louis XVIII during the Hundred Days
Hundred Days
The Hundred Days, sometimes known as the Hundred Days of Napoleon or Napoleon's Hundred Days for specificity, marked the period between Emperor Napoleon I of France's return from exile on Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815...
, and following Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
voted in favour of the execution of Marshal Ney.
He was made a peer of France and a major-general of the royal guard, and in 1820 a knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit
Order of the Holy Spirit
The Order of the Holy Spirit, also known as the Order of the Knights of the Holy Spirit, was an Order of Chivalry under the French Monarchy. It should not be confused with the Congregation of the Holy Ghost or with the Order of the Holy Ghost...
and a grand officer of the Order of St Louis. He was the major-general of the guard on duty in July 1830 during the July Revolution
July Revolution
The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution or in French, saw the overthrow of King Charles X of France, the French Bourbon monarch, and the ascent of his cousin Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans, who himself, after 18 precarious years on the throne, would in turn be overthrown...
, and was ordered to put down with a strong hand any opposition to the ordinances. Himself opposed to the court policy, he yet tried to do his duty, and only gave up the attempt to suppress the revolution when it became clear that his troops were outmatched. This brought more obloquy upon him, and the Duke d'Angoulême even ordered him under arrest, saying:
Marmont accompanied the king into exile and forfeited his marshalate. His desire to return to France was never gratified and he wandered in central and eastern Europe, settling finally in Vienna, where he was well received by the Austrian government, and, strange to say, made tutor to the duke of Reichstadt
Napoleon II of France
Napoléon II , after 1818 known as Franz, Duke of Reichstadt, was the son of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, and his second wife, Marie Louise of Austria...
, the young man who had once for a few weeks been styled Napoleon II
Napoleon II of France
Napoléon II , after 1818 known as Franz, Duke of Reichstadt, was the son of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, and his second wife, Marie Louise of Austria...
. He died at Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
in March 1852, the last living Napoleonic Marshal. Despite his long friendship with Napoleon, by this time the verb "raguser" - derived from his title, the Duke of Ragusa- was a household word in France: it meant "to betray".
Works
In his last years, Marmont spent much of his time working on his Mémoires, which are of great value for the military history of the time.His works are:
- Voyage en Hongrie, etc. (4 vols., 1837)
- Voyage en Sicile (1838)
- Esprit des institutions militaires (1845)
- Cesar; Xenophon; and Mémoires (8 vols., published after his death in 1856)
Family
Marmont had married, in 1798, Hortense de Perregaux, the daughter of Jean-Frédéric Perregaux, a Swiss (and Protestant) banker, later a founder and regent of the Banque de France, and Adélaïde de Praël de Surville, herself the natural daughter of the banker to the court of Louis XV, Nicolas BeaujonNicolas Beaujon
Nicolas Beaujon was a wealthy French banker at the Court of King Louis XV. The portrait of Nicolas Beaujon seen here was painted by Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun in 1784.-Youth and Early Career:...
. They had no children and were divorced in 1817. She outlived him by five years, dying in Paris in 1857.
Sources
- Arnold, James R. Napoleon Conquers Austria. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 1995. ISBN 0-275-94694-0