Henri de La Rochejaquelein
Henri du Vergier, comte de La Rochejaquelein (born August 30, 1772 at Château de la Durbelière near what is now Mauléon ( Poitou ); † January 28, 1794 near Nuaillé ) was a French nobleman and one of the leaders of the Armée catholique et royale de Vendée during the Vendée uprising at the time of the French Revolution .
biography
youth
Henri du Vergier, comte de La Rochejaquelein was the offspring of a respected noble family from the north-east of the Vendée on the border with Poitou . He just got his training at the military school ( Ecole Militaire ) of Sorèze , as the events of the French Revolution surprised him and his family. While his father was emigrating, Henri joined the royal guard, which defended the Tuileries Castle against an angry mob in the summer of 1792 . On August 10, 1792 Louis XVI. but imprisoned in the Temple of Paris. Henri went back to his homeland, where the first spontaneous Catholic-Royalist popular uprisings were taking place. He joined Louis Marie de Lescure , his somewhat older cousin - both of whom worked in secret to restore monarchical order.
Vendée uprising
In March 1793, they were informed that the residents of the neighboring villages were ready to rise and were only looking for a leader. Both left immediately and met Charles de Bonchamps and Maurice d'Elbée , two leaders from the very beginning , in the army camp . When it became known that a revolutionary army was approaching, the rebellious peasants named Henri de La Rochejaquelein their leader. In an address to his troops he is said to have said:
“If my father were with us, he would instill more confidence in you because you hardly know me. My youth and inexperience speak against me, but I dread to prove myself worthy to lead you: Now let us track down the enemy - if I go ahead, follow me; if I back away, kill me; if I fall, take my revenge. "
In the first skirmish with the revolutionary army at Aubiers , the rebels remained victorious and were even able to seize the artillery of the enemy, whereupon the republican troops withdrew from the area. Spurred on by the success, Rochejaquelein and Lescure wrote a letter to 40 surrounding communities calling for a fight. In April the fighting continued and cities such as Angers , Saumur and Nantes also joined the uprising. When Thouars was conquered, Rochejaquelein was the first to climb the walls of the city; the Republicans soon laid down their arms.
But after the initial successes, a defeat at Fontenay-le-Comte followed . At the beginning of June 1793, Saumur was besieged and could be captured after five days, with Rochejaquelein once again proving his bravery by throwing himself into the turmoil accompanied by an officer and killing some opponents with his own hands. The military spoils of war on the part of the insurgents were great. The last of the three battles at Luçon (August 8, 1793) was lost and Rochejaquelein had to withdraw his troops. But a little later (September 4, 1793) he inflicted a heavy defeat on the republican army at Chantonnay .
After that, the National Convention in Paris decided to counter the Vendée uprising, which had hitherto only been treated as a regional matter, more energetically; always new troops were sent. The generals Rochejaquelein, Jean-Nicolas Stofflet and Lescure tried meanwhile to take Châtillon - but without success. The Second Battle of Cholet (October 17, 1793) marked a turning point: the insurgents were defeated and retreated north across the Loire near Saumur - perhaps to prevent further damage to their homeland. This Loire crossing of a defeated troop in early winter, accompanied by homeless people and a convoy of women, children and elderly people, has become known in much of France as the Virée de Galerne . As several insurgent generals had been killed or wounded at Cholet, Rochejaquelein - only 21 years old - was appointed commander in chief of the Vendée troops.
He marched with army and baggage train towards the west; H. in Brittany to Fougères , Pontorson and Avranches . Ultimately, this campaign was also intended to motivate England to send troops across the Channel to support the rebels and to decisively oppose the revolutionaries, but this did not happen. When trying to capture Granville - located about 25 kilometers north of Mont-Saint-Michel - they suffered a heavy defeat in mid-November 1793, after which it was decided to withdraw. However, they did not return to the Vendée, but took smaller towns such as Baugé and La Flèche . In order to plunder and replenish the food supplies, the entourage had to keep moving and so you found yourself in front of Le Mans in mid-December , but the unsuccessful siege of the city turned into a “grave” for the Vendée army: it broke up into small splinter groups who also operated as partisans .
death
Rochejaquelein turned west again with about a hundred men, occupied a place for a day or two, and then moved on to the next place. At Ancenis he crossed over to the south side of the Loire. He found his birthplace, the Château de la Durbelière, burned and destroyed; nevertheless he stayed in the ruins for several days. Then, accompanied by a few fighters, he set off north again; behind Cholet , which had been abandoned by its residents and set on fire by the republican garrison stationed there, he was ambushed on January 28, 1794 near Nuaillé - only 20 kilometers from his birthplace - and was shot in the head. Since the soldier or partisan who had killed him was shot himself immediately afterwards, there were no witnesses for Rochejaqueline's death, and so the few faithful who had stayed with him - including Stofflet - buried him on the spot. He was later given a grave in the church of Saint-Aubin-de-Baubigné , where two of his brothers are also buried. One of them - Louis, who succeeded him as commander-in-chief of the increasingly disintegrating insurgent associations - died at Pont-de-Mathis on June 4, 1805.
meaning
During the French Revolution Rochejaquelein was considered one of the worst enemies of the state; After the restoration of the monarchy and the old order (1814/5), however, many French regarded him as a freedom hero and resistance fighter. For them he embodied - like few others - youthful idealism, courage to fight, aristocratic pride and the willingness to ultimately pay for it with death. This attitude was temporarily interrupted by the July Revolution of 1830 .
While painters and draftsmen of the restoration period created fictional portraits of him, painters of the late 19th century presented episodes from the last two years of his short life in pictures.
literature
- Charles-Louis Chassin: La Vendée Patriote (1793-1800). Volume II, Édition Paul Dupont, 1893–1895, pp. 421–426
- Albert Soboul: The Great French Revolution. EVA Frankfurt / M. 1973, p. 264 ff and p. 282 ff ISBN 3-434-00271-5
- Jean Tabeur: Paris contre la Province, les guerres de l'Ouest. Éditions Economica, 2008, pp. 115–116
- Yves Gras: La Guerre de Vendée. Éditions Economica, 1994, pp. 56-57.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | La Rochejaquelein, Henri de |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Du Vergier, comte de La Rochejaquelein, Henri (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French nobleman and one of the leaders of the Vendée uprising during the French Revolution |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 30, 1772 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | near Mauléon-sur-Sèvre ( Poitou ) |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 28, 1794 |
| Place of death | at Nuaillé |