Jean-Baptiste Berton

Jean-Baptiste Baron Berton (born June 15, 1769 in Francheval near Sedan , †  October 5, 1822 executed) was a French general .

Life

Berton joined the Legion des Ardennes as a sous-lieutenant in 1792 . He distinguished himself in the campaigns of the republic and the empire , so in particular 1808-13 in Spain , where he was chief of the general staff of the general Horace-François Sébastiani , conquered Malaga and advanced to the military governor of Andalusia . On May 30, 1813, he was promoted to Général de brigade by Napoleon and held this position in the battles of Toulouse (April 10, 1814) and Waterloo (June 18, 1815).

After the return of the Bourbons (1815) Berton was one of the opponents of the government and published several writings written in the democratic spirit, for example a commentary on General Tarayre's work De la force des gouvernements in 1819 and the one against the director-general of the police, Édouard Mounier , in 1820 . directed treatise Considerations sur la police . He was then removed from the army's list. He then embarked on rebellious undertakings, such as those often led by secret government agents at the time, in order to lay snares for the rebels. An arrest warrant was issued against Berton, but he fled to Brittany , took the lead among the discontented and on February 24, 1822, announced a provisional government in Thouars . With a small group of armed men he marched against Saumur . However, his troops already dispersed at the gates of the city, so that Berton wandered around in the local area for some time as a refugee.

There was already talk of Berton's (alleged) flight to Spain when he was taken into custody by treason in Laleu on June 17, 1822 and, along with his accomplices, bypassing the responsible judge at the Assisenhof in Deux-Sèvres, before the Assises in Poitiers was asked. He was not given his chosen defense attorney and was also not allowed to see the lawyer forced on him. Furthermore, several witnesses among the jury were not heard. The General Procurator Claude Mangin insulted, ridiculed and cursed the prisoner. Berton defended himself with calm and moderation and tried to prove that he had not overthrown the dynasty, but only wanted to put a stop to the arbitrariness of the reactionary circles. After long debates, he was sentenced to death with three others . In vain, with legal justification, he urged the judgment to be cassated. On October 5, 1822, he had to climb the scaffold and was executed . The sons of Berton, who had evidence that their father had a legal right to the cassation of the sentence, had been put in the way of all kinds of obstacles, and one of them had been arrested by the commandant of Poitiers despite the leave he had been granted. They were also not allowed to erect a monument to their father.

Of some of Berton's other political and military writings, Précis historique, militaire et critique de batailles de Fleurus et de Waterloo (Paris 1818) are particularly noteworthy.

literature

• Berton, Jean-Baptiste . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon , 0th edition, 4th volume, 4th department (1845), p. 680.