Claude François de Malet
Encyclopedia
Claude François de Malet was born in Dôle (Jura)
Dole, Jura
Dole is a commune in the Jura department in the Franche-Comté region in eastern France, of which it is a subprefecture ....

 to an aristocratic family on June 28, 1754. Malet was executed by a firing squad on October 29, 1812, six days after Malet staged a failed republican coup d'état
Malet coup of 1812
The Malet coup of 1812 was an attempted coup d'etat in Paris, France, aimed at removing Napoleon I, then campaigning in Russia, from power. The coup was engineered by Republican general Claude François de Malet, who had spent time in prison because of his opposition to Napoleon...

 as Napoléon Bonaparte returned from the disastrous Russian campaign
French invasion of Russia
The French invasion of Russia of 1812 was a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars. It reduced the French and allied invasion forces to a tiny fraction of their initial strength and triggered a major shift in European politics as it dramatically weakened French hegemony in Europe...

.

Before and during the French Revolution

Malet enlisted as a Musketeer
Musketeer
A musketeer was an early modern type of infantry soldier equipped with a musket. Musketeers were an important part of early modern armies, particularly in Europe. They sometimes could fight on horseback, like a dragoon or a cavalryman...

 at age seventeen as was common for young nobleman of the Ancien Régime
Ancien Régime in France
The Ancien Régime refers primarily to the aristocratic, social and political system established in France from the 15th century to the 18th century under the late Valois and Bourbon dynasties...

, but King Louis XVI disbanded the musketeer regiments in 1776 for budgetary reasons.

In 1790 Malet's family disinherited him for supporting the French 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...

, when he became commander of the Dôle national guard
National Guard (France)
The National Guard was the name given at the time of the French Revolution to the militias formed in each city, in imitation of the National Guard created in Paris. It was a military force separate from the regular army...

 and celebrated the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille
Storming of the Bastille
The storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris on the morning of 14 July 1789. The medieval fortress and prison in Paris known as the Bastille represented royal authority in the centre of Paris. While the prison only contained seven inmates at the time of its storming, its fall was the flashpoint...

. Malet volunteered the Revolutionary army when the revolution
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...

 broke out, and he was assigned to the 50th infantry regiment of the Army of the Rhine as a captain.

He was discharged in 1795, but reenlisted again in March 1797, first as Chief of Staff of the 6th division, then in 1799 as Chief of Staff of the Army of the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....

 under the command of general Championnet. After receiving honourable citations from both Championnet and Masséna for defending the Little St. Bernard Pass in August 1799, Malet was promoted to Brigadier General on October 19, 1799. He fought in the Helvetian Republic throughout 1801, until the fighting ended with the Second Coalition in 1802 by the Treaties of Lunéville
Treaty of Lunéville
The Treaty of Lunéville was signed on 9 February 1801 between the French Republic and the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, negotiating both on behalf of his own domains and of the Holy Roman Empire...

 and Amiens
Treaty of Amiens
The Treaty of Amiens temporarily ended hostilities between the French Republic and the United Kingdom during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was signed in the city of Amiens on 25 March 1802 , by Joseph Bonaparte and the Marquess Cornwallis as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace"...

.

After the Directory: a discontented republican

After the coups of the 30 Prairial and 18 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...

 of year VIII that replaced the French Directory
French Directory
The Directory was a body of five Directors that held executive power in France following the Convention and preceding the Consulate...

 with the French Consulate
French Consulate
The Consulate was the government of France between the fall of the Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire in 1799 until the start of the Napoleonic Empire in 1804...

, Malet voted against the referendum confirming Napoléon Bonaparte as First Consul. Malet was relegated to Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...

, then to Les Sables d'Olonne, as his opposition to Bonaparte became even more vehement, although he became Commander of the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...

 during these years.

In 1805 he was discharged from active duty; Malet then resigned after Napoleon's coronation as Emperor
First French Empire
The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...

. He was appointed Governor of Pavia in the Kingdom of Italy
Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state founded in Northern Italy by Napoleon, fully influenced by revolutionary France, that ended with his defeat and fall.-Constitutional statutes:...

, then of Rome in the Kingdom of Rome. The ruler of the latter, Eugène de Beauharnais
Eugène de Beauharnais
Eugène Rose de Beauharnais, Prince Français, Prince of Venice, Viceroy of the Kingdom of Italy, Hereditary Grand Duke of Frankfurt, 1st Duke of Leuchtenberg and 1st Prince of Eichstätt ad personam was the first child and only son of Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais and Joséphine Tascher de la...

, expelled him on allegations of black market activities and propaganda, and he was interned in the La Force prison from July 1, 1807 to May 30, 1808. Released without trial, he was jailed again the next year on suspicion of belonging to the Philadelphes
Philadelphes
The Philadelphes was an irregular masonic lodge founded in France in the 1750s and which became a centre for conspiratorial revolutionary activity...

, a republican and anti-Bonapartist Masonic
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...

 society. He remained under house arrest in Paris from July, 1810, until his escape on October 23, 1812.

Coup d'état of 1812


During his detention Malet conceived of and planned Napoleon's overthrow in a daring coup d'état. The plan was simple: on October 23, 1812 during the Emperor's absence on the Russian front, Malet planned to announce the death of Napoleon and to establish a provisional government. Malet decided to proclaim his death via the use of forged documentation, hoping the plausible declaration would be believable.

Malet's proposed provisional government would be composed of Mathieu de Montmorency
Mathieu de Montmorency
Mathieu Jean Felicité de Montmorency, duc de Montmorency-Laval was a prominent French statesman during the French Revolution and Bourbon Restoration.-Early life:...

, Alexis de Noailles, General Moreau as vice president, Lazare Carnot
Lazare Carnot
Lazare Nicolas Marguerite, Comte Carnot , the Organizer of Victory in the French Revolutionary Wars, was a French politician, engineer, and mathematician.-Education and early life:...

 as president, Marshal Augereau, ex-legislator Bigonnet, Count Frochot, Prefect of the Seine, ex-legislator Florent Guiot, Destutt de Tracy, Malet himself, Vice-Admiral Truguet, Senator Volney, and Senator Garrat. The forces involved in the coup were the Gendarmerie forces of Paris (which were dissolved thereafter and formed the 134th Line Infantry Regiment) and the 10th Cohort of the French National Guard.

Malet prepared complex instructions and forged documents for his accomplices. This preliminary work was immense, since it was necessary to give each accomplice an important role, specific instructions, and forged copies of the senatus consultum
Sénatus-consulte
A sénatus-consulte was a feature of French law during the French Consulate, First French Empire and Second French Empire.-Consulate and First Empire:...

 and the proclamations. As soon as a set of instructions was completely prepared, the dispatch was closed, sealed, numbered and entrusted to the custody of a Spanish priest who lived in Saint-Gilles street, close to the barracks of the 10th National Guard Cohort.

On the night of the October 23, Malet escaped his captivity. Dressed in a general's uniform, he presented himself at the La Force
La Force
-Places:La Force is the name of several communes in France:* La Force, in the Aude département* La Force, in the Dordogne département* La Force prison was a prison in Paris-People:* Duc de La Force was a peerage of France...

 prison and, using forged orders, obtained the release of Generals Lahorie and Guidal, to whom he announced Napoleon's demise on October 7 at the Russian front near Moscow. He then convinced Lahorie and Guidal that immediate action was necessary and showed the forged documents leading them to believe the Senate had already reacted to the death of the Emperor.

In the pre-dawn hours of October 23 Malet and his accomplices went to the barracks of the Gendarmerie. Malet awoke commanders and soldiers announced the Emperor's death and presented his forged documents as evidence. According to the "orders" in the forged documents, Malet had the troops take up their weapons and dispatched detachments of the 10th Cohort in columns to various locations to make arrests.

A detachment of the 10th Cohort, led by Lahorie, went to the residence of the Duke of Rovigo, Minister of the Police. The Duke was taken by surprise and conveyed to La Force prison, while another detachment arrested the prefect of the police force. A third column went to the town hall of Paris and, while the troops took positions in place de Grève, the commanders took the key of the Midsummer's Day alarm bell, called the prefect Frochot and prepared the room for a provisional government.

The death of the Emperor was believed throughout Paris, and Malet settled into the offices of the district general of the Place Vendôme
Place Vendôme
Place Vendôme is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madeleine. It is the starting point of the Rue de la Paix. Its regular architecture by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and pedimented screens canted across the...

, which offered the facilities necessary to play his part of commander. When General Pierre-Augustin Hulin
Pierre-Augustin Hulin
Pierre-Augustin Hulin was a French general under Napoleon Bonaparte who took part in the storming of the Bastille, the trial of the Duke d'Enghien, and the foiling of the Malet coup.- Early life :...

, commander of the Paris Garrison, requested verification of the senatorial documents, Malet shot and injured him. Finally, Malet's actions were ended when a senior military police officer, Major Laborde, recognized that the new general of the Senate in fact was the prisoner Malet. Laborde disarmed Malet, returned him to prison, and ordered the 10th Cohort back to its barracks.

Consequences of the Malet Conspiracy

Malet's plan was skillfully conceived. It focused on the weakness of the Imperial government, and calculated the consequences of passive obedience. Although unsuccessful, Malet's attempted coup d'état revealed a fatal weakness of the new dynasty. This coup d'état caused the anger of Napoleon I because of its simplicity: nobody had had the idea to shout, "Napoleon died! Long Live Napoleon II!"

With the exception of two men, 23 civilians and officers, including Malet, Guidal and Lahorie, were tried on October 29, 1812 before a council of war and executed on the plain of Grenelle on October 31.

The final result of the unsuccessful Malet conspiracy was the strained relations between the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Police.

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