Alexandre Louis Robert de Girardin

Alexandre Louis Robert Girardin d'Ermenonville

Alexandre Louis Robert de Girardin (born February 13, 1776 in Paris , † August 5, 1855 ibid), Comte d'Ermenonville, was a French general . He was the youngest son of René Louis de Girardin and Cécile Brigitte Adélaïde Berthelot de Baye.

Military career and achievements

Alexandre de Girardin was brought up with his siblings on his father's estate, Ermenonville , following the teachings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau . At the age of eleven he attended naval school, the beginning of an extremely successful military career. Between 1790 and 1792 he took part in several military operations at sea, where he was wounded for the first time. At the time of the Jacobin reign of terror he was imprisoned like two of his brothers and his sister.

With the rank of Sous-lieutenant he switched to the cavalry in 1792. He proved himself in the Battle of Austerlitz , where he served on Napoleon's staff and was awarded the Legion of Honor by him. In 1807 he was at the head of a dragoon regiment and was wounded a second time. He was able to achieve further successes in Spain and Portugal. In 1811 he held the rank of Général de brigade . In Ostrowno in 1812 he fought off a Russian troop of six thousand men with a few hundred soldiers of his own. In the French campaign of 1814 he succeeded in forcing Russian units with eight thousand men to surrender in Champaubert , his greatest military success. He was now in the rank of Général de division . For his military service he was honored with an inscription in the triumphal arch in Paris.

Second half of life

From 1816 to 1823 Alexandre de Girardin was inspector general of the cavalry. At the height of his career, he held important managerial and advisory functions in the military leadership. He began to publish a number of political writings on military and state policy issues.

Alexandre de Girardin was married to Fidèle Henriette Joséphine Vintimille Du Luc (1789–1864). The marriage remained childless; At the time of marriage he was already the father of a son, in whom he showed no interest. It was about the future newspaper publisher Émile de Girardin , illegitimate child of a married woman. He did not recognize paternity until 1837. Alexandre de Girardin died on August 5, 1855.

Works

• Des inconvénients de fortifier les villes capitales et d'avoir un trop grand nombre de places fortes . Paris 1839.
• Mémoire sur la situation politique et militaire de l'Europe. à l'occasion des traités de 1831, 1833, 1841 et sur le droit de visite . Amyot, Paris 1844.