François-Louis de Saillans
François-Louis de Saillans , (born October 30, 1741 in the Château d'Écordal in Écordal ( Département Ardennes ); † July 12, 1792 in Vans ) was an officer in the royal army of the Ancien Régime , commander in the Armée catholique et royale de Vendée and ultimately a victim of the French Revolution .
origin
François-Louis de Saillans was the son of Pierre de Saillans and Marguerite de Beuvry.
Wording of the baptism certificate:
“L'an de grâce mil sept cent quarante et un, le trente d'octobre, je Jean Cousin, prêtre, curé de Justine et d'Herbigny soussigné, ai baptisé le fils de messire Pierre de Saillans, écuyer, seigneur d'Herbigny en partie, y demeurant, et de Marguerite de Beuvry son épouse, mariés ensemble, auquel on a imposé le nom de François-Louis. Le parrain a été messire François-Louis de Canelle, écuyer, seigneur d'Herbigny en partie, y demeurant, sous-brigadier des Gardes du Corps du Roy; et la marraine Madame Marie-Claire du Guet, épouse de messire de Bournonville avec nous sous-signés. »
“In the year of grace one thousand seven hundred and forty-one, the thirtieth of October, I, Jean Cousin, priest and pastor of Justine and Herbigny, I have the son of Mr Pierre de Saillans, Junker and Mr von Herbigny, and Marguerite de Beuvry, his married man, as the undersigned Woman, baptized in the name François-Louis. The godfather is Mr. François-Louis de Canelle, Junker, Mr. von Herbigny partially, resident there, Sous-brigadier of the Gardes du Corps du Roy; and the godmother Marie-Claire du Guet, wife of Mr. de Bournonville as co-signers. "
The Counts de Saillans were a long-established noble family from the Ardennes , whose letter of nobility was renewed in December 1668 by judgment of Louis-François Le Fèvre de Caumartin, director of Champagne and Brie .
Relationships existed with the families de Beuvry , de Parthenay , de Hénin-Liétard, the princes of Chimay , the de Beauvau-Craon, the dukes of Arenberg and the prince de Ligne . Louis-Pierre d'Hozier, 4th coat of arms judge of France, confirmed the authenticity of the evidence of nobility presented on July 9, 1749.
Career
He came as a page from King Louis XV. to Paris, became protégé of "Mesdames de France" (the daughters of the king) and entered the military at the age of 16. On February 15, 1757 he came as a volunteer in the Régiment de Bouillon , which had been set up on January 18, 1757 and which was a German regiment (régiment allemand - a foreign regiment ). In this regiment he served until March 8, 1759. On April 1, 1759 he was Ensigne in the Régiment d'Hainault , then on January 1, 1769 Sous-lieutenant in the same regiment. In 1765 he received a pension from the "Mesdames de France", which enabled him to attend the royal artillery school in La Fère .
The artillery school of La Fère owed its reputation in large part to the quality of the teachers who served there. The Foreign Minister, Duc de Choiseul, wrote to Mr de Saint-Auban, Maréchal de camp , head of a brigade of the Royal Corps:
«Le roi vient, Monsieur, d'accorder au chevalier de Saillans qui à l'honneur d'être protégé par Mesdames, une place d'aspirant à l'ancienne école du corps royal d'artillerie de La Fère. Vous le recevrez en cette qualité lorsqu'il vous présentera cette lettre. J'ai l'honneur d'être très parfaitement, Monsieur, votre humble et très obéissant serviteur. »
“Monsieur, the King has granted the Chevalier de Saillans, who has the honor of being assisted by Mesdames, a place as an aspirant at the former school of the Royal Artillery Corps of La Fère. You will receive him as such when he shows you this letter. I have the honor, monsieur, of being entirely your humble and very obedient servant. "
On December 11, 1768 he was Sous-aide major and transferred to Corsica . On the special order of the king of March 1, 1771, the Chevalier de Saillans was dismissed, but remained in service, and with a letter of April 17 of the same year that of King Louis XV. approved taking into account his previous services. In 1771 he received his promotion to captain and was transferred to a garrison in Lorraine . On July 25th of the same year he and his troops were sent to Poland under the command of Baron de Viomesnil and M. de Choisy to support the uprising against the Russian-sponsored King Stanislas Poniatowski , according to the Confederation of Bar . There were several successful military operations, the most notable of which was the capture of Krakow Castle and its defense. But given the power of the Russians, the Confederates had to submit. Austria and Prussia then carried out the first partition of Poland with Russia .
On February 2, 1772, he became the hero of the conquest of the Kraków Castle, a feat that was even the subject of a printed book at the time, and which led Choisy to write to him full of praise:
«Je vous dois, mon cher Saillans, toute ma gloire. »
"I owe you, my dear Saillans, all of my fame."
and to see that Saillans was awarded the Cross of the Ordre royal et militaire de Saint-Louis on June 1st . He was then taken prisoner by Russia, which lasted until August 1773.
On his return, Saillans was made a nobleman in the chamber of Monsieur , the king's brother, by brevet on July 21 . He was to keep this post until the revolution.
In 1786 he met Baron Jules-David de Cromot du Bourg, the newly appointed finance commissioner in charge of the houses, estates and finances of Louis-Stanislas, Count of Provence (later Louis XVIII. ). Cromot du Bourg introduced Saillans to his niece, Françoise de Cromot. The de Cromot family came from Burgundy, where they owned property in the Avallonnais ( Yonne department ). François-Louis de Saillans and Françoise de Cromot married, with Jules-David de Cromot du Bourg being the best man. The very wealthy de Cromot bought a large town house in Paris (rue Cadet No. 9) as a dowry. Furthermore, François-Louis became aware of the possessions his wife had brought with him, Seigneur de Vassy et de La Vaire (lands near Avallon in Burgundy).
Due to the constant change of garrisons, the Comte de Saillans was stationed in Épinal , Huningue , Sedan , Vienne , Pont-Saint-Esprit , Largentière and Alès .
Revolution time
On May 1, 1788 he was appointed major in the "Bataillon de chasseurs de Roussillon" (Roussillon Jägerbataillon). In November 1791 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the same battalion in Perpignan . Most of the officers of the Perpignan garrison were loyal to the king and anti-revolutionary, the Comte de Saillans leading the way. Wasn't he one of the youngest knights of the Order of Saint-Louis and hadn't he sworn the oath of allegiance to his sovereign and jury "... to defend his King and the Catholic religion"?
On the night of December 6th to 7th, 1791, about a hundred officers, headed by the Comte de Saillans, visited General Chollet, garrison commander in Perpignan, and persuaded him to take over the leadership of a royalist conspiracy . The matter became public, Chollet was denounced, arrested and taken to Versailles , where he was massacred on the way to the orangery . The Comte de Saillans was also charged, but was able to escape to Koblenz , where a royalist opposition had been established under the leadership of the Princes Condé and where he joined the army of the emigrants .
The so-called third camp of Jalès was commanded by the Comte de Saillans. The princes then appointed the Maréchal de camp Thomas Conway, an Irish soldier in the service of France, to command and placed the Comte de Saillans as his deputy. However, Thomas Conway was undecided to get involved in this matter and delayed the trip to France for as long as possible.
De jure only deputy commander under Conway, the Comte de Saillans soon began to get rid of this subordination and to act as commander in chief. He described himself as "General of the Christian and Royal Army of the East" (Général de l'Armée chrétienne et royale de l'Orient). The princes were therefore forced to write to him about his actual role:
"Nous avons été surpris Monsieur de voir arriver ici un officier de votre part, sans les ordres et même sans permission de Monsieur le comte de Conway. Vous avez oublié que l'officier général que nous avons revêtu de l'autorité du Roi en est le seul dépositaire; que nous ne voulons recevoir des project que par lui et que vous devez obéir à ses ordres dans tous les cas. »
“We were surprised, monsieur, when an officer came here on your behalf, without orders and even without permission from the Comte de Conway. You have forgotten that he is the only legitimate general officer whom we have endowed with the authority of the king, that we only want projects from him and that you must obey his orders in any case. "
Desperate to take the initiative, Saillans relied on the 20,000-strong support he had been promised. He did not wait for orders from the princes or from Conway, but decided, together with the Chevalier Isidore de Melon and Joseph Marie Chabalier, to start the uprising by attacking the castle in Banne on July 4, 1792. As a result of the fighting, a fire broke out in the castle, the garrison surrendered quickly, and Saillans and the 1200 men under his command could briefly take control of the plain and the surrounding parishes. This happened without regard to the presence of the Republicans, who stood with troops nearby and immediately began to pursue the soldiers of Saillans.
Republican troops from the Gard and Ardèche departments attacked from July 11th. The men of de Saillans were massacred, the village of Saint-André-de-Cruzières burned down, as was Jalès. Saillans only had wards now. On July 12, the cornered Saillans in peasant clothing tried to escape to the Lozère department . He moved in the direction of Elze , to the house of one of his trailers, to spend the night there. He was accompanied by his servant and two priests, Father Pradon from Bannes and Father Boissin from Puech, and an old man named Nadal. The next day, July 12th at seven in the morning, they set out for Villefort again , but near the hamlet of Les Aidon near Villefort they met a patrol of the National Guard , led by a man named Laurent, a former Officer of the Régiment d'Hainault . De Saillans and his followers were arrested and taken to Laurent's house. When asked about his identity, de Saillans stated that he was a priest from Barjacs. With a request to satisfy a need, François-Louis de Saillans went into a stall and hastily tried to get rid of his wallet. Laurent, having seen this, grabbed the papers and told him that he recognized him as one of the leaders of the counter-revolutionaries.
The end
The prisoners were taken to Vans . Without a trial, they were slaughtered with sabers by the population on the “Place de la Grave” . The citizen La Paille from Largentière severed his head, which was carried to Largentière at the tip of a pike . So died the Comte de Saillans, victim of his monarchical loyalty and his revolt against the revolution. To commemorate this massacre, a cross that is still visible today was erected. De Saillans' head was buried in a field of mulberry trees by La Paille on the riverbank , where it was found while building a house in 1894. It was then taken to the Notre-Dame-des-Pommiers church in Largentière and deposited on the ledge of a capital . It is still there today.
His body was not returned to his family; he was buried in a mass grave in Vans.
literature
- Chanoine Patriat: Notice sur le comte de Saillans, 1741–1792.
- Abbé Jean Guiraud: Notes sur le village d'Herbigny (Ardennes). Le Cte François-Louis de Saillans (1741–1792). 1911.
- Revue de la Révolution. Volume 7, 1866, pp. 294-299.
- Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Jullien de Courcelles : Dictionnaire universel de la noblesse de France. Bureau général de la noblesse, Paris 1821, p. 142 ( limited preview in Google book search).
- Édouard and Bernard Ferrand: Le comte de Saillans, 1790–1792. Le premier combattant de la contre-revolution. Éditions SPM, Paris 2017, ISBN 978-2-917232-69-9 .
Footnotes
- ↑ for example: Assistant in the regimental staff
- ↑ the house is still standing
- ↑ no rank, but the service title for the troop administrator
- ^ The Princes Condé, leaders of the royalist counter-revolution
- ↑ L'Ardéchin. May 12, 1894.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Saillans, François-Louis de |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French military |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 30, 1741 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Château d'Écordal in Écordal, Ardennes department |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 12, 1792 |
| Place of death | Vans |