Jean Lannes
_-_Le_mar%C3%A9chal_Lannes_(1769-1809),_1834.jpg)
Jean Lannes , prince de Sievers , duc de Montebello , (born April 11, 1769 in Lectoure , Gascogne , today Département Gers ; † May 31, 1809 in Kaiserebersdorf near Vienna ) was Maréchal d'Empire and one of Napoléon Bonaparte's closest friends . He took part in all of Napoleon's campaigns since 1796 and was fatally wounded in the battle of Aspern . Lannes was next to Louis-Nicolas Davout and André Masséna as the most capable general of the Grande Armée .
Life
Jean Lannes was the son of a groom in Lectoure in the Gers department and initially worked as a dyer. From June 1792 on, tens of thousands of volunteers flocked to the revolutionary army following a government call. Lannes was elected NCO by the Volontaires (volunteers) of the Gers battalion . Lannes unit fought in the First Coalition War against the Kingdom of Spain in the Pyrenees campaigns of 1793/94 and in 1794 he was given command of a brigade due to personal bravery and military success . After the overthrow of the radicals in the summer of 1794, like many other rapidly rising officers, he was relieved of his command in 1795 and was promoted to chief de bataillon in 1796 and took part in the Italian campaign of the young general Bonaparte in 1796 . Here he was quickly promoted to the rank of colonel .
His bravery made him stand out in the crossing over the Po and the bridge of Lodi as well as in the battle near Bassano and the storm of Pavia, where he was promoted to general de brigade . He fought with distinction in the siege of Mantua and in the battle of Arcole .
In 1798 he followed Bonaparte to Egypt . During the events of 18th Brumaire he rendered essential services to Bonaparte, followed him to Italy in 1800 and defeated the enemy there on June 9th near Montebello . In 1801 Bonaparte appointed him plenipotentiary minister in Lisbon , 1804 Marshal (May 19), 1807 Duke of Siewierz in Silesia (June 30) and 1808 Duke of Montebello (June 15).
In the 1805 campaign against Austria , Lannes received command of the advance guard of the Grande Armée and delivered the meeting at Hollabrunn to the Russian army on November 16 . At Austerlitz he contributed a lot to the victory at the tip of the left wing. On October 14, 1806, he commanded the key position in the center of the battle of Jena with his 20,900-strong 5th Corps. On December 26th of the same year Lannes was seriously wounded while fighting Russian troops in Pultusk . In May 1807, the recovered marshal took command of the reserve corps and took part in the battle of Heilsberg and the decisive meeting near Friedland in East Prussia.
He was appointed Colonel général of the Swiss and accompanied the emperor to Spain in 1808 , where he defeated General Castaños at Tudela on November 22nd and then led the famous siege of Saragossa . In the 1809 campaign against Austria, he commanded two divisions at the meeting at Eggmühl and at the capture of Regensburg, and on May 13th, after two days of bombardment, he took the lead in Vienna.
.jpg)
At Aspern-Essling he commanded the center. When he was crossing the lines on the second day of the battle, May 22nd, to encourage the soldiers, a cannonball seriously injured both legs. One leg was still poorly amputated, but he succumbed to the subsequent gangrene on May 31 in Kaiserebersdorf near Vienna. His body was brought to Strasbourg , buried in Paris in the Panthéon in 1810 and later buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery.
meaning
Lannes came from a humble background and had little education. The English called him an upstart from the dregs of the revolution . Nevertheless, Lannes is one of the most capable generals of Napoleon alongside Davout and Masséna . He is characterized as brave and courageous, one could also say daring; His leadership qualities are also mentioned.
Consciously or unconsciously, his character and skills were a perfect match for Napoleon's way of fighting a battle. This explains why he was consistently employed in tasks that required the utmost determination and daring, especially when Napoleon's tactics depended on the strength and sacrifice of a particular unit. How Napoleon assessed the abilities of his subordinates can be read almost exactly from the frequency with which he used them in preparation for his own decision.
Less outstanding generals or cautious and carefully planned troop leaders like Soult or MacDonald he held back for the last decisive attack, which he himself led. But he only entrusted the long hours of preparatory skirmishes with an uncertain outcome that made the decisive blow possible to men, of whose extraordinary courage and high leadership qualities he was convinced. Such a man was Davout at the battle of Austerlitz and Auerstedt and Lannes near Friedland , Jena and Aspern .
With these skills Lannes achieved the rise from the farmer's son and simple soldier to marshal. Napoleon said of him: Chez Lannes, le courage l'emportait d'abord sur l'esprit; corn l'esprit montait chaque jour pour se mettre en equilibre; je l'avais pris pygmée, je l'ai perdu géant . ("With Lannes, courage was greater than intellect; but the intellect grew every day to match courage; I met a dwarf, but I lost a giant.")
Lanne's death hit Napoleon deeply. He not only lost one of his best generals, but also a long-time close friend and is said to have sat for a long time at his friend's deathbed, tearful. On the day he died, he wrote to the widow from Kaiserebersdorf: Ma cousine, le maréchal est mort ce matin des blessures qu'il a recues sur le champ d'honneur. Ma peine égale la vôtre. Je perds le général le plus distingué de mes armées, mon compagnon d'armes depuis seize ans, celui que je considérais comme mon meilleur ami. Sa famille et ses enfants auront toujours des droits particuliers à ma protection. C'est pour vous en thunder l'assurance que j'ai voulu vous écrire cette lettre, car je sens que rien ne peut altérer la juste peine que vous ressentirez. ("My cousin, the Marshal succumbed this morning to the injuries sustained in the Field of Honor. My pain is equal to yours. I am losing the most brilliant general of my armies, my comrade in arms for sixteen years, whom I am my best friend His family and children will always enjoy special rights to my protection. To assure you of this, I wanted to write you this letter, because I am aware that nothing can alleviate your legitimate pain. ")
Lannes was the only officer who was allowed to address Napoleon with "You" and he was the only one granted by the Emperor the right to sit down in the presence of Napoleon without being asked, which did not correspond to etiquette at court.
Honors
- Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor (June 14, 1804)
- Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor (February 2, 1805)
- Commandeur des Ordre de la couronne de fer
- Grand Cross of the Order of Christ
- Grand Cross of the Military Order of St. Henry
- Chevalier of the Order of Andrew
- His name can be found on the eastern pillar (13th column) of the triumphal arch on Place Charles-de-Gaulle (Paris).
- His bust was placed in the Battle Gallery of the Palace of Versailles , which opened in 1837 .
- A statue was erected for him in his native Lectoure .
- In Vienna was at the old village border between Aspern and Essling the Lanne street named after him.
- In Jena, where he commanded the 5th Corps in the battle of 1806, a hiking trail bears his name.
family
Jean Lannes had been married to Louise-Antoinette Guéheneuc (1782-1856) since 1800, after his marriage to Jeanne-Josephe-Barbe "Paulette" Meric had been divorced three months earlier three months earlier because of alleged infidelity Paulette. Paulette's son, Jean Claude Lannes de Montebello, was not recognized by Lannes. He stayed in Egypt before Jean Claude was born.
The second marriage had five children:
- Louis Napoléon Auguste Lannes, 2nd duc de Montebello (1801–1874), became statesman and minister.
- Alfred Lannes, comte de Montebello (1802–1861)
- Jean-Ernest Lannes, comte de Montebello (1803-1882)
- Gustave-Olivier Lannes, comte de Montebello (1804–1875), became a general like his father.
- Joséphine (1806-1889)
literature
- Karl Bleibtreu : Marshals, Generale, soldiers of Napoleon I. VRZ-Verlag, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-931482-63-4 (unchanged reprint of the Berlin 1899 edition).
- Jean-Claude Damamme: Lannes. Maréchal d'Empire. (Bibliothèque historique). Payot, Paris 1987, ISBN 2-228-14300-6 .
- Désiré Lacroix: Les marechaux de Napoléon. Garnier, Paris 1896.
- German translation: Die Marshals Napoleon I. Verlag Schmidt & Günther, Leipzig 1898 (translated by Oskar Marschall von Bieberstein)
- Charles Mullié: Biography of the célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 à 1850. Poignavant, Paris 1851 (2 vol.).
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lannes, Jean |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French general, Marshal of France |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 11, 1769 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lectoure , Gers department |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 31, 1809 |
| Place of death | Kaiserebersdorf near Vienna |