Édouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier
Encyclopedia
Édouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier, 1st Duc de Trévise (13 February 1768 28 July 1835) was a French general and Marshal of France
under Napoleon I
.
on 13 February 1768, son of Charles Mortier (1730 1808) and wife Marie Anne Joseph Bonnaire (b. 1735), and entered the army as a sub-lieutenant in 1791.
He served in the French Revolutionary Wars
in the campaigns of 1792 and 1793 on the north-eastern frontier and in the Netherlands
, and subsequently on the Meuse
and the Rhine. In the war against the Second Coalition in 1799, he was promoted successively general of brigade and général de division
. During the Second Battle of Zurich
, he led a force of 8,000 in the attack from Dieticon on Zurich. His conduct of the French occupation of Hanover
, bringing about the Convention of Artlenburg
, led Napoleon to include Mortier in the first list of marshals created in 1804.
He commanded a corps of the Grande Armée in the Ulm campaign
in which he distinguished himself. In the campaign of the middle Danube, which culminated in the Battle of Austerlitz
, Napoleon placed him in command of a newly-formed VIII. Corps, composed of divisions from the other Corps. Mortier over-extended his line of march on the north shore of the Danube and failed to heed Napoleon's advice to protect his north flank. A combined force of Russians and Austrians, under over-all command of Mikhail Kutuzov enticed Mortier to send Théodore Maxime Gazan's 2nd Division into a trap and French troops were caught in a valley between two Russian columns. They were rescued by the timely arrival of a second division, under command of Pierre Dupont de l'Étang's 1st Division, which covered a day's march in a half day. The Battle of Dürrenstein (11 November 1805) extended well into the night. Both sides claimed victory, the French lost more than a third of the participants, and Gazan's division experienced over 40 percent losses. The Austrians and Russians also had heavy losses—close to 16 percent. After Austerlitz, Napoleon dispersed the Corps and Gazan received the Legion of Honor, but Mortier was simply reassigned.
In 1806 Mortier was again in Hanover and north-western Germany. In 1807 he served with the Grande Armée in the Friedland
campaign, in the siege of Stralsund, and in the siege of Kolberg
.
In 1808, Napoleon created him duke of Treviso
(Trévise in French) a duché grand-fief (a rare, but nominal, hereditary honor, extinguished in 1912) in his own Kingdom of Italy
, and shortly after he commanded an army corps in Napoleon's campaign for the recapture of Madrid
.
Mortier remained in Spain for two campaigns, winning the victory of Ocaña
in November 1809. In 1812 and 1813 he commanded the Imperial Guard, and in the defensive campaign of 1814 he rendered brilliant services in command of rearguards and covering detachments. In 1815, after the flight of Bourbon
king Louis XVIII of France
, he rejoined Napoleon during the Cent Jours and was given a high command, but at the opening of the Battle of Waterloo
he was unable to continue, complaining of severe sciatica
.
After the second Bourbon Restoration
he was for a time in disgrace, but in 1819 he was readmitted to the Chamber of Peers
and in 1825 received the Order of the Holy Spirit
, the kingdom's highest. In 1830–1831 he was Ambassador of France to Russia at St Petersburg, and in 1834–1835 minister of war and president of the council of ministers
.
In 1835, while accompanying Louis-Philippe
to a review, Marshal Mortier and eleven others were killed by the 'infernal machine' – an apparatus of 25 musket barrels firing simultaneously aimed at the king by Giuseppe Marco Fieschi
, a disgruntled vagabond and outcast. Louis Philippe bitterly mourned him, and wept openly at the marshal's funeral.
He married Eve Anne Hymmès (Coblence, 19 August 1779 Paris, 13 February 1855), by whom he had issue:
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...
under Napoleon I
Napoleon I
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...
.
Biography
Mortier was born at Le Cateau-CambrésisLe Cateau-Cambrésis
Le Cateau-Cambrésis is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.The term Cambrésis indicates that it lies in the county of that name which fell to the Prince-Bishop of Cambrai.-History:...
on 13 February 1768, son of Charles Mortier (1730 1808) and wife Marie Anne Joseph Bonnaire (b. 1735), and entered the army as a sub-lieutenant in 1791.
He served in the French Revolutionary Wars
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...
in the campaigns of 1792 and 1793 on the north-eastern frontier and in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, and subsequently on the Meuse
Meuse
Meuse is a department in northeast France, named after the River Meuse.-History:Meuse is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
and the Rhine. In the war against the Second Coalition in 1799, he was promoted successively general of brigade and général de division
Général
Général is the French word for General.In France, Army generals are named after the type of unit they command. In ascending order there are two ranks :* Général de brigade : Brigade General.* Général de division : Divisional General....
. During the Second Battle of Zurich
Second Battle of Zürich
The Second Battle of Zurich was a French victory over an Austrian and Russian force near Zurich. It broke the stalemate that had resulted from the First Battle of Zurich three months earlier and led to the withdrawal of Russia from the Second Coalition.After he had been forced out of the city in...
, he led a force of 8,000 in the attack from Dieticon on Zurich. His conduct of the French occupation of Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
, bringing about the Convention of Artlenburg
Convention of Artlenburg
The Convention of Artlenburg or Elbkonvention was the surrender of the Electorate of Hanover to Napoleon's army, signed at Artlenburg on 5 July 1803 by Oberbefehlshaber Johann Ludwig von Wallmoden-Gimborn...
, led Napoleon to include Mortier in the first list of marshals created in 1804.
He commanded a corps of the Grande Armée in the Ulm campaign
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....
in which he distinguished himself. In the campaign of the middle Danube, which culminated in the Battle of Austerlitz
Battle of Austerlitz
The Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of Napoleon's greatest victories, where the French Empire effectively crushed the Third Coalition...
, Napoleon placed him in command of a newly-formed VIII. Corps, composed of divisions from the other Corps. Mortier over-extended his line of march on the north shore of the Danube and failed to heed Napoleon's advice to protect his north flank. A combined force of Russians and Austrians, under over-all command of Mikhail Kutuzov enticed Mortier to send Théodore Maxime Gazan's 2nd Division into a trap and French troops were caught in a valley between two Russian columns. They were rescued by the timely arrival of a second division, under command of Pierre Dupont de l'Étang's 1st Division, which covered a day's march in a half day. The Battle of Dürrenstein (11 November 1805) extended well into the night. Both sides claimed victory, the French lost more than a third of the participants, and Gazan's division experienced over 40 percent losses. The Austrians and Russians also had heavy losses—close to 16 percent. After Austerlitz, Napoleon dispersed the Corps and Gazan received the Legion of Honor, but Mortier was simply reassigned.
In 1806 Mortier was again in Hanover and north-western Germany. In 1807 he served with the Grande Armée in the Friedland
Battle of Friedland
The Battle of Friedland saw Napoleon I's French army decisively defeat Count von Bennigsen's Russian army about twenty-seven miles southeast of Königsberg...
campaign, in the siege of Stralsund, and in the siege of Kolberg
Siege of Kolberg (1807)
The Siege of Kolberg, also known as siege of Colberg took place from March to 2 July 1807 during the War of the Fourth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars. An army of the First French Empire and its client states besieged the Prussian fortified town of Kolberg, the only remaining Prussian-held...
.
In 1808, Napoleon created him duke of Treviso
Treviso
Treviso is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants : some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city...
(Trévise in French) a duché grand-fief (a rare, but nominal, hereditary honor, extinguished in 1912) in his own 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:...
, and shortly after he commanded an army corps in Napoleon's campaign for the recapture of Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
.
Mortier remained in Spain for two campaigns, winning the victory of Ocaña
Battle of Ocana
The Battle of Ocana or Battle of Ocaña was fought on 19 November 1809 between French forces under Marshal Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult and King Joseph Bonaparte and the Spanish army under Juan Carlos de Aréizaga, which suffered its greatest single defeat in the Peninsular War...
in November 1809. In 1812 and 1813 he commanded the Imperial Guard, and in the defensive campaign of 1814 he rendered brilliant services in command of rearguards and covering detachments. In 1815, after the flight of Bourbon
House 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 of France
Louis XVIII of France
Louis XVIII , known as "the Unavoidable", was King of France and of Navarre from 1814 to 1824, omitting the Hundred Days in 1815...
, he rejoined Napoleon during the Cent Jours and was given a high command, but at the opening of the Battle of 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...
he was unable to continue, complaining of severe sciatica
Sciatica
Sciatica is a set of symptoms including pain that may be caused by general compression or irritation of one of five spinal nerve roots that give rise to each sciatic nerve, or by compression or irritation of the left or right or both sciatic nerves. The pain is felt in the lower back, buttock, or...
.
After the second Bourbon Restoration
Bourbon Restoration
The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...
he was for a time in disgrace, but in 1819 he was readmitted to the Chamber of Peers
Peerage of France
The Peerage of France was a distinction within the French nobility which appeared in the Middle Ages. It was abolished in 1789 during the French Revolution, but it reappeared in 1814 at the time of the Bourbon Restoration which followed the fall of the First French Empire...
and in 1825 received 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...
, the kingdom's highest. In 1830–1831 he was Ambassador of France to Russia at St Petersburg, and in 1834–1835 minister of war and president of the council of ministers
Prime Minister of France
The Prime Minister of France in the Fifth Republic is the head of government and of the Council of Ministers of France. The head of state is the President of the French Republic...
.
In 1835, while accompanying Louis-Philippe
Louis-Philippe of France
Louis Philippe I was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 in what was known as the July Monarchy. His father was a duke who supported the French Revolution but was nevertheless guillotined. Louis Philippe fled France as a young man and spent 21 years in exile, including considerable time in the...
to a review, Marshal Mortier and eleven others were killed by the 'infernal machine' – an apparatus of 25 musket barrels firing simultaneously aimed at the king by Giuseppe Marco Fieschi
Giuseppe Marco Fieschi
Giuseppe Marco Fieschi was the chief conspirator in the attempt on the life of King Louis-Philippe of France in July 1835....
, a disgruntled vagabond and outcast. Louis Philippe bitterly mourned him, and wept openly at the marshal's funeral.
He married Eve Anne Hymmès (Coblence, 19 August 1779 Paris, 13 February 1855), by whom he had issue:
- Caroline (1800–1842)
- Malvina (1803–1883)
- Napoleon (1804–1869)
- Edouard (1806–1815)
- Louise (1811–1831)
- Eve (1814–1831)
- Edouard
Sources
Sources and references
- Heraldica.org – Napoleonic heraldry
- Gray, Randal. Napoleon's Marshals. New York: Macmillan, 1987. 310