Henri Clarke d'Hunebourg
Henri-Jacques-Guillaume Clarke, comte d'Hunebourg, duc de Feltre (born October 17, 1765 in Landrecies in Hainaut , † October 28, 1818 in Neuwiller-lès-Saverne ) was a French general and statesman of Irish descent, marshal and peer of France .
Life
Clarke was an orphan in the military school in Paris and became a soldier in 1782, rose to the Général de brigade after the battle of Landau in 1793 , then commanded the vanguard of the Rhine Army and was also chief of staff there, but in 1795 he was deposed and arrested as a suspect.
After his release, he lived in Alsace , but was soon sent to Vienna and Italy by Carnot to be the head of the topographical office , and later by the directorate as Général de division with secret missions to observe Napoleon Bonaparte . But they both came to an understanding, and Clarke only sent reports that Bonaparte had read. After a long period of inactivity, he was sent to Sardinia to conclude an alliance . After the 18th Brumaire VIII Bonaparte made him head of the topographical office again, sent him during the congress as a commander to Lunéville and then to Lille to replace the Russian prisoners of war .
Between 1801 and 1803, Henri Clarke d'Huneborg worked in Florence as envoy to the court of Louis I , King of Etruria , and then became State Councilor and Cabinet Secretary of the Emperor for War and Maritime Affairs.
In the campaign against Austria in 1805 he was governor of Vienna , in 1806 governor in Erfurt , then in Berlin . In 1807 he returned to Paris and became Minister of War. He administered this difficult office with great skill and seldom altruism, but also with ruthless severity.
The successful thwarting of the British undertaking against Vlissingen earned him the title of Duke of Feltre in 1809 , after he had previously been elevated to Count of Hüneburg . In 1809 he bought the castle and manor Herrenstein in Alsace.
When Napoleon's fall he showed himself to be unreliable and unscrupulous, voted for the deposition of the emperor and was instead approved by Louis XVIII. appointed as a pair. After Napoleon's landing at Cannes , he became Minister of War in Soult's place, fled with the King to Ghent , took on a mission to the Prince Regent of Great Britain and was reappointed to the administration of the War Ministry in place of Gouvion Saint-Cyr in 1815 , but had to do so in 1817 returned this and was appointed Marshal of France and Governor of the 15th Military Division.
He died on October 28, 1818 in Neuwiller-lès-Saverne .
Honors
His name is entered on the triumphal arch in Paris in the 11th column (CLARKE).
literature
- Karl Bleibtreu : Marshals, generals, soldiers of Napoleon I. VRZ, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-931482-63-4 (repr. Of the Berlin 1898 edition)
- Hippolyte Bellangé: The Generals of the French Republic and the Empire , Leipzig 1847, pp. 288–289 in the Google book search
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
|
Louis-Alexandre Berthier Pierre-Antoine, comte Dupont de l'Étang Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr |
Minister of War of France August 19, 1807 - April 1, 1814 March 11, 1815 - March 20, 1815 September 27, 1815 - September 11, 1817 |
Nicolas-Jean de Dieu Soult Louis-Nicolas Davout Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr |
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Clarke d'Hunebourg, Henri |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Feltre, Henri-Jacques-Guillaume Clarke duc de (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French general and statesman of Irish descent |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 17, 1765 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Landrecies , Hainaut |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 28, 1818 |
| Place of death | Neuwiller-lès-Saverne |