Pierre Antoine Noël Bruno, comte Daru
Encyclopedia
Pierre Antoine Noël Bruno, comte
Daru (12 January 1767 – 5 September 1829) was a French
soldier, statesman, historian, and poet. The French generally refer to him as Pierre Daru.
-maintained military school of Tournon
, and entered artillery
service at an early age. He also took an interest in literature, and he published several minor pieces, until the outbreak of the French Revolution
made him concentrate on his military assignments.
In 1793 he became commissary to the army, protecting the coasts of Brittany
from projected descents of the British
, or of French Royalists
. Thrown into prison during the Reign of Terror
, on an unsubstantiated charge of friendliness to the Royalists and the British, he was released after the fall of Maximilien Robespierre
in the summer of 1794 (during the Thermidorian Reaction
, and rose through the ranks until, in 1799, he became chief commissary to the French Revolutionary Army
serving under André Masséna
in the north of Switzerland
.
In that position he won repute for his organizing capacity, capacity of work and probity (the last of which qualities was contrasted with the wave of corruption). He did not however limit himself to his tasks, and found time, even during the campaign, to translate part of Horace
and to compose two poems, the Poème des Alpes and the Chant de guerre - the latter was a condemnation of the murder of the French envoys to the Second Congress of Rastatt
.
to power in November 1799 (the "18 Brumaire coup
") led to the employment of Daru as chief commissary to the Army of Reserve intended for Northern Italy
, and commanded nominally by Louis Alexandre Berthier
, but really by the First Consul. Conjointly with Berthier and Dejean, he signed the armistice
with the Holy Roman Empire
which closed the campaign in North Italy in June 1800.
Daru now returned, for a time, mainly to civil life, and entered the tribunate of the French Consulate
, where he supported the principles of democracy
. On the renewal of war with Great Britain, in May 1803, he again resumed his duties as chief commissary for the army on the northern coasts. It was afterwards asserted that, on Napoleon's resolve to turn the army of Great Britain against the Habsburgs
after the proclamation of the First French Empire
, Daru had set down at the dictation all the details of the campaign which culminated in the battle of Ulm
. The story is apocryphal, but Napoleon's confidence in him is shown by his being appointed to similar duties in La Grande Armée
, which in the autumn of 1805 defeated the armies of the Austrian Empire
and Russia. After the battle of Austerlitz
, he took part in the drafting of the Treaty of Pressburg.
of the military household of Napoleon. In the campaigns of 1806-1807, Daru served, in his usual capacity, in the army which overthrew the forces of Russia and Prussia
; and he had a share in drawing up the Treaty of Tilsit (7 July 1807). After this he supervised the administrative and financial duties in connection with the French army which occupied the principal fortresses of Prussia, and was one of the chief agents through whom Napoleon pressed hard on that land. At the Congress of Erfurt
, Daru had the privilege of being present at the interview between Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
and Napoleon, and interposed tactful references to the works of the great poet.
Daru fulfilled his usual duties in the campaign of 1809 against the Austrians. Afterwards, when the issue of Napoleon's divorce from Josephine Beauharnais and the choice of a Russian or of an Austrian princess came to be discussed, Daru, on being consulted by Napoleon, is said to have boldly counselled his marriage with a French lady, and that Napoleon, who admired his frankness and honesty, was not angered by the remark. Still in 1809, he was created a count
of the Empire.
In 1811 he became secretary of state in succession to Hugues-Bernard Maret, duc de Bassano
, and showed his ability in the administration of the vast and complex affairs of the French Empire, including the arrangements connected with the civil list
and the imperial domains. His competent administration was contrasted with the military disasters leading to the fall of the Empire. Late in 1813, he took up the portfolio of military affairs.
After the first abdication of Napoleon in 1814, Daru retired into private life, but aided Napoleon during his return (the Hundred Days
). After the Second Bourbon Restoration
, he became a member of the Chamber of Peers
, in which he again defended the cause of democracy against the attacks of the Ultra-royalist
s. He died in Meulan
.
His son who inherited the title is Napoléon Daru
, brother of Viscount Paul Daru. Pierre Daru often appears in the autobiographical works of Stendahl, of whom he was a cousin.
Comte
Comte is a title of Catalan, Occitan and French nobility. In the English language, the title is equivalent to count, a rank in several European nobilities. The corresponding rank in England is earl...
Daru (12 January 1767 – 5 September 1829) was a French
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...
soldier, statesman, historian, and poet. The French generally refer to him as Pierre Daru.
Early career
Born in Montpellier, he was educated at the OratorianOratory of Saint Philip Neri
The Oratory of Saint Philip Neri is a congregation of Catholic priests and lay-brothers who live together in a community bound together by no formal vows but only with the bond of charity. They are commonly referred to as Oratorians...
-maintained military school of Tournon
Tournon, Savoie
Tournon is a commune in the Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.-See also:*Communes of the Savoie departmentFamille Hurard origine de Tournon SavoieVie au Paraguay Site http://maisonsuisse.info...
, and entered 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...
service at an early age. He also took an interest in literature, and he published several minor pieces, until the outbreak of 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...
made him concentrate on his military assignments.
In 1793 he became commissary to the army, protecting the coasts of Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
from projected descents of the British
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
, or of French Royalists
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...
. Thrown into prison during the Reign of Terror
Reign 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...
, on an unsubstantiated charge of friendliness to the Royalists and the British, he was released after the fall of Maximilien Robespierre
Maximilien Robespierre
Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre is one of the best-known and most influential figures of the French Revolution. He largely dominated the Committee of Public Safety and was instrumental in the period of the Revolution commonly known as the Reign of Terror, which ended with his...
in the summer of 1794 (during the Thermidorian Reaction
Thermidorian Reaction
The Thermidorian Reaction was a revolt in the French Revolution against the excesses of the Reign of Terror. It was triggered by a vote of the Committee of Public Safety to execute Maximilien Robespierre, Antoine Louis Léon de Saint-Just de Richebourg and several other leading members of the Terror...
, and rose through the ranks until, in 1799, he became chief commissary to the French Revolutionary Army
French Revolutionary Army
The French Revolutionary Army is the term used to refer to the military of France during the period between the fall of the ancien regime under Louis XVI in 1792 and the formation of the First French Empire under Napoleon Bonaparte in 1804. These armies were characterised by their revolutionary...
serving under André 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 north of Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
In that position he won repute for his organizing capacity, capacity of work and probity (the last of which qualities was contrasted with the wave of corruption). He did not however limit himself to his tasks, and found time, even during the campaign, to translate part of Horace
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
and to compose two poems, the Poème des Alpes and the Chant de guerre - the latter was a condemnation of the murder of the French envoys to the Second Congress of Rastatt
Second Congress of Rastatt
The Second Congress of Rastatt, which was opened in December 1797, was intended to rearrange the map of Germany by providing compensation for those princes whose lands on the left bank of the Rhine had been seized by France....
.
Consulate and early Empire
The accession of Napoleon BonaparteNapoleon 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...
to power in November 1799 (the "18 Brumaire coup
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...
") led to the employment of Daru as chief commissary to the Army of Reserve intended for Northern Italy
Northern Italy
Northern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...
, and commanded nominally by Louis Alexandre Berthier
Louis Alexandre Berthier
Louis Alexandre Berthier, 1st Prince de Wagram, 1st Duc de Valangin, 1st Sovereign Prince de Neuchâtel , was a Marshal of France, Vice-Constable of France beginning in 1808, and Chief of Staff under Napoleon.-Early life:Alexandre was born at Versailles to Lieutenant-Colonel Jean Baptiste Berthier ,...
, but really by the First Consul. Conjointly with Berthier and Dejean, he signed the armistice
Armistice
An armistice is a situation in a war where the warring parties agree to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, but may be just a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace...
with the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
which closed the campaign in North Italy in June 1800.
Daru now returned, for a time, mainly to civil life, and entered the tribunate of 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...
, where he supported the principles of democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
. On the renewal of war with Great Britain, in May 1803, he again resumed his duties as chief commissary for the army on the northern coasts. It was afterwards asserted that, on Napoleon's resolve to turn the army of Great Britain against the Habsburgs
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
after the proclamation of the First French Empire
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...
, Daru had set down at the dictation all the details of the campaign which culminated in the battle of 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....
. The story is apocryphal, but Napoleon's confidence in him is shown by his being appointed to similar duties in La Grande Armée
La Grande Armée
The Grande Armée first entered the annals of history when, in 1805, Napoleon I renamed the army that he had assembled on the French coast of the English Channel for the proposed invasion of Britain...
, which in the autumn of 1805 defeated the armies of the Austrian Empire
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
and Russia. After 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...
, he took part in the drafting of the Treaty of Pressburg.
Prominence
At this tune, too, he became intendant-generalIntendant
The title of intendant has been used in several countries through history. Traditionally, it refers to the holder of a public administrative office...
of the military household of Napoleon. In the campaigns of 1806-1807, Daru served, in his usual capacity, in the army which overthrew the forces of Russia and Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
; and he had a share in drawing up the Treaty of Tilsit (7 July 1807). After this he supervised the administrative and financial duties in connection with the French army which occupied the principal fortresses of Prussia, and was one of the chief agents through whom Napoleon pressed hard on that land. At the Congress of Erfurt
Congress of Erfurt
The Congress of Erfurt was the meeting between Emperor Napoleon I of France and Tsar Alexander I of Russia from 27 September to 14 October 1808 intended to reaffirm the alliance concluded the previous year with the Treaty of Tilsit which followed the end of the War of the Fourth...
, Daru had the privilege of being present at the interview between Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
and Napoleon, and interposed tactful references to the works of the great poet.
Daru fulfilled his usual duties in the campaign of 1809 against the Austrians. Afterwards, when the issue of Napoleon's divorce from Josephine Beauharnais and the choice of a Russian or of an Austrian princess came to be discussed, Daru, on being consulted by Napoleon, is said to have boldly counselled his marriage with a French lady, and that Napoleon, who admired his frankness and honesty, was not angered by the remark. Still in 1809, he was created a count
Count
A count or countess is an aristocratic nobleman in European countries. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The adjective form of the word is...
of the Empire.
In 1811 he became secretary of state in succession to Hugues-Bernard Maret, duc de Bassano
Hugues-Bernard Maret, duc de Bassano
Hugues-Bernard Maret, 1st Duc de Bassano was a French statesman and journalist.-Early career:Born at Dijon , he received a solid education, and then entered the legal profession – becoming a lawyer at the King's Council in Paris...
, and showed his ability in the administration of the vast and complex affairs of the French Empire, including the arrangements connected with the civil list
Civil list
-United Kingdom:In the United Kingdom, the Civil List is the name given to the annual grant that covers some expenses associated with the Sovereign performing their official duties, including those for staff salaries, State Visits, public engagements, ceremonial functions and the upkeep of the...
and the imperial domains. His competent administration was contrasted with the military disasters leading to the fall of the Empire. Late in 1813, he took up the portfolio of military affairs.
After the first abdication of Napoleon in 1814, Daru retired into private life, but aided Napoleon during his return (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...
). 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 became a member of 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...
, in which he again defended the cause of democracy against the attacks of the Ultra-royalist
Ultra-royalist
Ultra-Royalists or simply Ultras were a reactionary faction which sat in the French parliament from 1815 to 1830 under the Bourbon Restoration...
s. He died in Meulan
Meulan
Meulan-en-Yvelines is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It hosted part of the sailing events for the 1900 Summer Olympics held in neighboring Paris, and would do so again twenty-four years later.-People:*Mbaye Niang footballer*Ibrahim Sacko...
.
His son who inherited the title is Napoléon Daru
Napoléon, comte Daru
Napoléon, comte Daru, , was a French soldier and politician. Son of Pierre Daru and godson of Napoléon and Joséphine, he studied at the lycée Louis-le-Grand, then at the l'Ecole polytechnique and at the l'Ecole militaire d'application in Metz...
, brother of Viscount Paul Daru. Pierre Daru often appears in the autobiographical works of Stendahl, of whom he was a cousin.
Works
Besides his translation of Horace, Daru was the author of:- Histoire de la République de Venise (in 7 vols, Paris, 1819)
- Histoire de Bretagne, (3 vols, Paris, 1826)
- Discours en vers sur les facultés de l'homme (Paris, 1825)
- Astronomie (a didactic poemDidacticismDidacticism is an artistic philosophy that emphasizes instructional and informative qualities in literature and other types of art. The term has its origin in the Ancient Greek word διδακτικός , "related to education/teaching." Originally, signifying learning in a fascinating and intriguing...
in six cantos; Paris, 1820)