Louis Alexandre Berthier,
1st Duc de Wagram,
1st Duc de Valengin,
1st Sovereign Prince de NeuchâtelNeuchâtel is the capital of the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel on Lake Neuchâtel.The city has approximately 32,600 inhabitants , by and large French-speaking, although the city is sometimes referred to historically by the German name , which has the same meaning, since Prussia ruled the area until...
(February 20, 1753
VersaillesVersailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial center...
– June 1, 1815
BambergBamberg is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz, close to its confluence with the river Main. Bamberg is one of the few cities in Germany that was not destroyed by World War II bombings because of a nearby Artillery Factory that prevented planes from...
),
marshal of FranceThe Marshal of France is a military distinction in contemporary France, not a military rank. It is granted to generals for exceptional achievements...
, Vice-
Constable of FranceThe Constable of France , as the First Officer of the Crown, was one of the original five Great Officers of the Crown of France and Commander in Chief of the army...
beginning in 1808, and Chief of Staff under
NapoleonNapoleon Bonaparte later known as Napoleon I, and previously Napoleone di Buonaparte, was a military and political leader of France whose actions shaped European politics in the early 19th century.Born in Corsica and trained as an artillery officer in mainland France, Bonaparte rose to prominence...
.
Alexandre was born at
VersaillesVersailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial center...
to Lieutenant-Colonel Jean Baptiste Berthier (1721 – 1804), an officer in the Corps of Topographical Engineers, and first wife (married in 1746) Marie Françoise L'Huillier de La Serre. He was the oldest of five children, with the three brothers also serving in the French Army, two becoming generals during the
Napoleonic WarsThe Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts declared against Napoleon's French Empire and changing sets of European allies by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionized European armies and played...
.
As a boy he was instructed in the military art by his father, an officer of the
Corps de genie (Engineer Corps), and at the age of seventeen he entered the army, serving successively in the staff, the engineers and the prince de Lambesq's dragoons. In 1780 he went to
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
with
RochambeauJean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau was a French aristocrat, soldier, and a Marshal of France who participated in the American Revolutionary War...
, and on his return, having attained the rank of colonel, he was employed in various staff posts and in a military mission to Prussia. During the
RevolutionThe French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based...
, as Chief of Staff of the Versailles National Guard, he protected the aunts of
Louis XVILouis XVI of France ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1774 until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792. Suspended and arrested during the Insurrection of 10 August 1792, he was tried by the National Convention, found guilty of treason, and executed by guillotine on 21...
from popular violence, and aided their escape (1791).
In the war of 1792 he was at once made Chief of Staff to Marshal Lückner, and he bore a distinguished part in the Argonne campaign of
DumouriezCharles François Dumouriez was a French general during the French Revolutionary Wars. He shared the victory at Valmy with General François Christophe Kellermann, but later deserted the Revolutionary Army and became a royalist intriguer during the reign of Napoleon.-Early life:Dumouriez was born in...
and
KellermannFrançois Christophe Kellermann or de Kellermann, 1st Duc de Valmy was Marshal of France during the Napoleonic Wars. He came from a Saxon family, which was long settled in Strasbourg and ennobled...
. He served with great credit in the Vendéan War of 1793-95, and was in the next year made a general of division and chief of staff (Major-Général) to the
army of ItalyThe Army of Italy was a Field army of the French Army stationed on the Italian border and used for operations in Italy itself. Though it existed in some form in the 16th century through to the present, it is best known for its role during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic...
, which Bonaparte had recently been appointed to command. His power of work, accuracy and quick comprehension, combined with his long and varied experience and his complete mastery of detail, made him the ideal chief of staff to a great soldier; and in this capacity he was Napoleon's most valued assistant for the rest of his career.
He accompanied Napoleon throughout the brilliant campaign of 1796, and was left in charge of the army after the
Treaty of Campo FormioThe Treaty of Campo Formio or Peace of Campo Formio was signed on 17 October 1797 by Napoleon Bonaparte and Count Ludwig von Cobenzl as representatives of France and Austria...
. He was in this post in 1798 when he entered Italy, invaded the Vatican, organized the Roman republic, and took the pope
Pius VIPope Pius VI , born Count Giovanni Angelo Braschi, Pope from 1775 to 1799, was born at Cesena.-Early years:...
as prisoner back to Valence (France) where, after a journey of torturous suffering, the pope, a helpless prisoner under Berthier's supervision, died, dealing a major blow to the Vatican's political power which, however did not prove as ephemeral as that of the First Empire. After this he joined his chief in
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
, serving there until Napoleon's return. He assisted in the
coup d'étatA coup d'état , or coup for short, is the sudden unconstitutional deposition of a legitimate government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another, either civil or military...
of 18th
BrumaireBrumaire was the second month in the French Republican Calendar. The month was named after the French word brume which occurs frequently in France at that time of the year....
, afterwards becoming minister of war for a time. In the campaign of Marengo he was the nominal head of the Army of Reserve, but the first consul accompanied the army and Berthier acted in reality, as always, as Chief of Staff to Napoleon. At the close of the campaign he was employed in civil and diplomatic business. This included a mission to Spain in August, 1800, which resulted in the retrocession of
LouisianaThe State of Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state divided into parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
to France by the
Treaty of San IldefonsoSan Ildefonso is a town in central Spain, the summer residence of the Kings of Spain, where several treaties were signed; each is referred to, in context, as the Treaty of San Ildefonso...
, October 1, 1800, and led to the
Louisiana PurchaseThe Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of America of of the French territory Louisiana in 1803. The U.S...
.
When Napoleon became emperor, Berthier was at once made a marshal of the empire. He took part in the campaigns of Austerlitz, Jena and Friedland, and was created duke of Valengin in 1806, sovereign prince of Neuchâtel in the same year and vice-constable of the empire in 1807. In 1808 he married on March 9 Maria Elisabeth Franziska of Bavaria (
LandshutLandshut is a city in Bavaria in the south-east of Germany, belonging to both Eastern and Southern Bavaria. Situated on the banks of the River Isar, Landshut acts is the capital of Lower Bavaria, one of the seven administrative regions of the Free State of Bavaria. It is also the seat of the...
, 5 May 1784 –
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, 1 June 1849), a distant cousin by a collateral branch of the King of Bavaria, and served in the
PeninsulaThe Peninsular War was a contest between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars...
, and in 1809 in the Austrian War, after which he was given the title of
prince of WagramThe French noble title Prince de Wagram began with Louis Alexandre Berthier who in 1806 was created sovereign prince of Neuchâtel by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte...
. He was with Napoleon in Russia in 1812, Germany in 1813, and France in 1814, fulfilling, till the fall of the empire, the functions of "major-general" of the Grande Armée.
Following Napoleon's first abdication, Berthier retired to his 600 acre (2.4 km²) estate, and resumed his hobbies of
falconryFalconry or hawking is a sport which involves the use of good looking raptors to hunt or pursue game for humans. There are two traditional terms used to describe a person involved in falconry: a falconer flies a falcon; an austringer flies a hawk or an eagle...
and
sculptureSculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard and/or plastic material, sound, and/or text and or light, commonly stone , metal, glass, or wood. Some sculptures are created directly by finding or carving; others are assembled, built together and fired, welded, molded,...
. He made peace with
Louis XVIIILouis XVIII , Louis Stanislas Xavier de France, was King of France and Navarre from 1814 to 1824, omitting the Hundred Days in 1815. Louis XVIII spent twenty-three years in exile, from 1791 to 1814, due to the French Revolution, and was exiled again in 1815, upon the return of Napoleon Bonaparte...
in 1814, and accompanied the king in his solemn entry into Paris. During Napoleon's captivity in
ElbaElba is an island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino. It is the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago, located between the Tyrrhenian Sea and Ligurian Sea, and the third largest island in Italy after Sicily and Sardinia. Elba and the other islands of the Tuscan Archipelago...
, Berthier, whom he informed of his projects, was much perplexed as to his future course, and, being unwilling to commit him, fell under the suspicion both of his old leader and of Louis XVIII. On Napoleon's return he withdrew to
BambergBamberg is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz, close to its confluence with the river Main. Bamberg is one of the few cities in Germany that was not destroyed by World War II bombings because of a nearby Artillery Factory that prevented planes from...
, where he later died.
The manner of his death is uncertain; according to some accounts he was assassinated by members of a secret society, others say that, maddened by the sight of Prussian troops marching to invade France, he threw himself from his window and was killed. Berthier was not a great commander. When he was in temporary command in 1809, the French army in
BavariaBavaria , with an area of and almost 12.5 million inhabitants, is located in the southeast of Germany and is the largest state of Germany by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
underwent a series of reverses. Whatever merit as a general he may have possessed was completely overshadowed by the genius of his master. But his title to fame is that he understood and carried out that master's directions to the minutest detail.
Personal Life
he married on March 9 H. R. H. Maria Elisabeth Franziska, Herzogin in Bayern (
LandshutLandshut is a city in Bavaria in the south-east of Germany, belonging to both Eastern and Southern Bavaria. Situated on the banks of the River Isar, Landshut acts is the capital of Lower Bavaria, one of the seven administrative regions of the Free State of Bavaria. It is also the seat of the...
, 5 May 1784 –
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, 1 June 1849), a distant cousin by a collateral branch of the King of Bavaria, by whom he had one son and two daughters:
- Napoleon-Alexandre (11 September 1810 – 10 February 1887)
- Caroline-Josephine (22 August 1812 – 1905)
- Marie-Anne (19 February 1816 – 23 July 1878)
Sources
- Watson, S.J., By Command of the Emperor: A Life of Marshal Berthier, The Bodley Head, London, 1957
External links
Suggested Reading
- Bukhari, Emir Napoleon's Marshals Osprey Publishing, 1979, ISBN 0850453054.
- Chandler, David Napoleon's Marshals Macmillan Pub Co, 1987, ISBN 0029059305.
- Connelly, Owen, Blundering to Glory: Napoleon's Military Campaigns SR Books, 1999, ISBN 0842027807.
- Elting, John R. Swords around a Throne: Napoleon's Grande Armee Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1997, ISBN 0029095018.
- Haythornthwaite, Philip
Philip J. Haythornthwaite is a military historian and author, with a particular interest in the Napoleonic Wars. He has written over 40 books.-Select bibiliography:* Uniforms of Waterloo in color. Hippocrene....
Napoleon's Commanders (2): c.1809-15 Osprey Publishing, 2002, ISBN 1841763454.
- Hittle, James Donald ‘‘the Military Staff: Its History and Development Military Service Publishing, 1952.
- Macdonell, A. G. Napoleon and His Marshals Prion, 1997, ISBN 1853752223.
- Pawly, Ronald Napoleon's Imperial Headquarters (1): Organization and Personnel Osprey Publishing, 2004, ISBN 184176793X.
- Pawly, Ronald Napoleon's Imperial Headquarters (2): On campaign Osprey Publishing, 2004, ISBN 1841767948.
- Watson, S.J. By Command of the Emperor: A Life of Marshal Berthier Ken Trotman Ltd, ISBN 094687946X.