François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers
Encyclopedia
Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers, Comte de Brueys (February 12, 1753, Uzès
, Gard
– August 1, 1798) was the French commander in the Battle of the Nile
, in which the French Revolutionary Navy
was defeated by Royal Navy
forces under Admiral Horatio Nelson. The British victory helped to ensure their naval supremacy throughout the Napoleonic Wars
. He was also a Freemason
in the La Bonne Foi lodge at Montauban
.
, Gard
, southern France
in a house which now bears a plaque with his name. Joining the navy at 13, he was a volunteer on the ship-of-the-line Protecteur in 1766, he served in several campaigns in the Levant
. Becoming a Garde de la marine in 1768, he fought in the Tunis
expedition on the frigate Atalante and the Saint Domingue campaign on the ship-of-the-line Actionnaire, though he was forced to leave the latter due to sickness and return to France, where he served at shore establishments, mostly on France's Mediterranean coast.
He rose to enseigne de vaisseau in 1777 and lieutenant de vaisseau in April 1780, before serving on the ship-of-the-line Terrible then the Zélé in Guichen
's squadron. He fought in three battles against admiral Rodney in April and May 1780, then in the battle against Hood's fleet before Fort-de-France
in April 1781. He was present at all the battles involving Grasse's squadron, including the Chesapeake
(September 1781) and the capture of Saint Kitts in February 1782. He then moved to the frigate Vestale, by chance he was not present at the battle of Les Saintes
. He was made a chevalier de Saint-Louis
at the end of the war.
On the peace he was put in command of the aviso
Chien de Chasse, with which he spent four years in the Antilles
and off the American coast. In 1787 he moved to command another aviso, the Coureur, which cruised along the coasts of Latin America
. He then returned to France to command the fluyt
Barbeau before taking one year's leave (1788–89).
but managed to avoid such a fate himself. He did not emigrate and even found himself promoted to capitaine de vaisseau on 1 January 1792, before being put in command of the ship-of-the-line Le Lys at Toulon
(renamed le Tricolore on the fall of the monarchy). He fought in the campaigns undertaken by admiral Truguet's fleet - the bombardment of Oneglia
, the Naples
operation led by Latouche-Tréville
, and finally the attack on Cagliari
on Sardinia
. In the Toulon affair he was arrested by the town authorities then stripped of his rank as a noble in September 1793 by decree of the National Convention
. He was reinstated at that rank under Truguet's ministry in 1795 and promoted to contre-amiral the following year. He commanded French naval forces in the Adriatic from 1796 to 1798, flying his flag in the ship-of-the-line Guillaume Tell. He transported troops to the Ionian Islands
and supported Bonaparte's campaign in Italy by blockading the coasts but keeping supply lines open to Bonaparte
's troops.
and then (on 1 July 1798) Alexandria
without incident. As soon as the land troops were disembarked, he had to enter the port of Alexandria or return quickly to France, Malta or Corfu
. He did neither and anchored in the Aboukir Bay to await the British. Knowing the poor quality of his ships and crews, he preferred to guard a defensive position than take the offensive and refused to weigh anchor when Horatio Nelson attacked his fleet. In the ensuing Battle of the Nile
, the Orient fought , causing her major damage but receiving little support, especially from the rearguard under Denis Decrès
and Villeneuve
. Already wounded twice during the day, and almost cut in half by a cannon shot, Brueys died at his command post around 9PM. His ship exploded one hour later after being on fire for some time. Brueys was criticised in France for remaining at anchor right up until the moment of the attack, but Bonaparte replied to such criticism by saying "If, in this disastrous event, he made mistakes, he expiated them by his glorious end". His name appears on the arc de triomphe
in Paris
.
Uzès
Uzès is a commune in the Gard department in southern France.It lies about 25 km north-northeast of Nîmes.-History:Originally Ucetia, Uzès was a small Gallo-Roman oppidum, or administrative settlement. The town lies at the source of the Eure, from where a Roman aqueduct was built in the first...
, Gard
Gard
Gard is a département located in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon region.The department is named after the River Gard, although the formerly Occitan name of the River Gard, Gardon, has been replacing the traditional French name in recent decades, even among French speakers.- History...
– August 1, 1798) was the French commander in the Battle of the Nile
Battle of the Nile
The Battle of the Nile was a major naval battle fought between British and French fleets at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt from 1–3 August 1798...
, in which the French Revolutionary Navy
French Navy
The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...
was defeated by Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
forces under Admiral Horatio Nelson. The British victory helped to ensure their naval supremacy throughout the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
. He was also a Freemason
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...
in the La Bonne Foi lodge at Montauban
Montauban
Montauban is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in southern France. It is the capital of the department and lies north of Toulouse....
.
Pre-Revolution
Brueys was born to an aristocratic family in Rue Boucairie, UzèsUzès
Uzès is a commune in the Gard department in southern France.It lies about 25 km north-northeast of Nîmes.-History:Originally Ucetia, Uzès was a small Gallo-Roman oppidum, or administrative settlement. The town lies at the source of the Eure, from where a Roman aqueduct was built in the first...
, Gard
Gard
Gard is a département located in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon region.The department is named after the River Gard, although the formerly Occitan name of the River Gard, Gardon, has been replacing the traditional French name in recent decades, even among French speakers.- History...
, southern France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in a house which now bears a plaque with his name. Joining the navy at 13, he was a volunteer on the ship-of-the-line Protecteur in 1766, he served in several campaigns in the Levant
Levant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
. Becoming a Garde de la marine in 1768, he fought in the Tunis
Tunis
Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....
expedition on the frigate Atalante and the Saint Domingue campaign on the ship-of-the-line Actionnaire, though he was forced to leave the latter due to sickness and return to France, where he served at shore establishments, mostly on France's Mediterranean coast.
He rose to enseigne de vaisseau in 1777 and lieutenant de vaisseau in April 1780, before serving on the ship-of-the-line Terrible then the Zélé in Guichen
Luc Urbain de Bouexic, comte de Guichen
Luc Urbain de Bouëxic, comte de Guichen - French admiral; entered the navy in 1730 as "garde de la Marine," the first rank in the corps of royal officers.His promotion was not rapid...
's squadron. He fought in three battles against admiral Rodney in April and May 1780, then in the battle against Hood's fleet before Fort-de-France
Fort-de-France
Fort-de-France is the capital of France's Caribbean overseas department of Martinique. It is also one of the major cities in the Caribbean. Exports include sugar, rum, tinned fruit, and cacao.-Geography:...
in April 1781. He was present at all the battles involving Grasse's squadron, including the Chesapeake
Battle of the Chesapeake
The Battle of the Chesapeake, also known as the Battle of the Virginia Capes or simply the Battle of the Capes, was a crucial naval battle in the American War of Independence that took place near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay on 5 September 1781, between a British fleet led by Rear Admiral Sir Thomas...
(September 1781) and the capture of Saint Kitts in February 1782. He then moved to the frigate Vestale, by chance he was not present at the battle of Les Saintes
Battle of the Saintes
The Battle of the Saintes took place over 4 days, 9 April 1782 – 12 April 1782, during the American War of Independence, and was a victory of a British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney over a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse forcing the French and Spanish to abandon a planned...
. He was made a chevalier de Saint-Louis
Order of Saint Louis
The Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis was a military Order of Chivalry founded on 5 April 1693 by Louis XIV and named after Saint Louis . It was intended as a reward for exceptional officers, and is notable as the first decoration that could be granted to non-nobles...
at the end of the war.
On the peace he was put in command of the aviso
Aviso
An aviso , a kind of dispatch boat or advice boat, survives particularly in the French navy, they are considered equivalent to the modern sloop....
Chien de Chasse, with which he spent four years in the Antilles
Antilles
The Antilles islands form the greater part of the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea. The Antilles are divided into two major groups: the "Greater Antilles" to the north and west, including the larger islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola , and Puerto Rico; and the smaller "Lesser Antilles" on the...
and off the American coast. In 1787 he moved to command another aviso, the Coureur, which cruised along the coasts of Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
. He then returned to France to command the fluyt
Fluyt
A fluyt, fluit, or flute is a Dutch type of sailing vessel originally designed as a dedicated cargo vessel. Originating from the Netherlands in the 16th century, the vessel was designed to facilitate transoceanic delivery with the maximum of space and crew efficiency...
Barbeau before taking one year's leave (1788–89).
1792-1798
He saw aristocratic family and friends killed during the Reign of TerrorReign of Terror
The Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
but managed to avoid such a fate himself. He did not emigrate and even found himself promoted to capitaine de vaisseau on 1 January 1792, before being put in command of the ship-of-the-line Le Lys at 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....
(renamed le Tricolore on the fall of the monarchy). He fought in the campaigns undertaken by admiral Truguet's fleet - the bombardment of Oneglia
Oneglia
Oneglia was a town in northern Italy on the Ligurian coast that was joined to Porto Maurizio to form the Comune of Imperia in 1923....
, the Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
operation led by Latouche-Tréville
Louis-René Levassor de Latouche Tréville
Louis-René Levassor de Latouche Tréville was a French admiral and a hero of the American Revolutionary War and of the Napoleonic wars.-Early life:...
, and finally the attack on Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
on Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
. In the Toulon affair he was arrested by the town authorities then stripped of his rank as a noble in September 1793 by decree of the National Convention
National Convention
During the French Revolution, the National Convention or Convention, in France, comprised the constitutional and legislative assembly which sat from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 . It held executive power in France during the first years of the French First Republic...
. He was reinstated at that rank under Truguet's ministry in 1795 and promoted to contre-amiral the following year. He commanded French naval forces in the Adriatic from 1796 to 1798, flying his flag in the ship-of-the-line Guillaume Tell. He transported troops to the Ionian Islands
Ionian Islands
The Ionian Islands are a group of islands in Greece. They are traditionally called the Heptanese, i.e...
and supported Bonaparte's campaign in Italy by blockading the coasts but keeping supply lines open to 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...
's troops.
Egypt
Bonaparte noted Brueys's conduct in Italy and made him commander-in-chief of the fleet that would transport his army for the Egyptian campaign, with the rank of vice-admiral and flying his flag on the Orient. He succeeded in evading British attempts to prevent the French fleet reaching Egypt, reaching MaltaMalta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
and then (on 1 July 1798) Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
without incident. As soon as the land troops were disembarked, he had to enter the port of Alexandria or return quickly to France, Malta or Corfu
Corfu
Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the edge of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality. The...
. He did neither and anchored in the Aboukir Bay to await the British. Knowing the poor quality of his ships and crews, he preferred to guard a defensive position than take the offensive and refused to weigh anchor when Horatio Nelson attacked his fleet. In the ensuing Battle of the Nile
Battle of the Nile
The Battle of the Nile was a major naval battle fought between British and French fleets at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt from 1–3 August 1798...
, the Orient fought , causing her major damage but receiving little support, especially from the rearguard under Denis Decrès
Denis Decrès
Denis Decrès, , was an officer of the French Navy and count, later duke of the First Empire.-Early career:...
and Villeneuve
Pierre-Charles Villeneuve
Pierre-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Silvestre de Villeneuve was a French naval officer during the Napoleonic Wars. He was in command of the French and Spanish fleets defeated by Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar....
. Already wounded twice during the day, and almost cut in half by a cannon shot, Brueys died at his command post around 9PM. His ship exploded one hour later after being on fire for some time. Brueys was criticised in France for remaining at anchor right up until the moment of the attack, but Bonaparte replied to such criticism by saying "If, in this disastrous event, he made mistakes, he expiated them by his glorious end". His name appears on the arc de triomphe
Arc de Triomphe
-The design:The astylar design is by Jean Chalgrin , in the Neoclassical version of ancient Roman architecture . Major academic sculptors of France are represented in the sculpture of the Arc de Triomphe: Jean-Pierre Cortot; François Rude; Antoine Étex; James Pradier and Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.