Jean Maximilien Lamarque

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General Jean Maximilien Lamarque
Lamarque statue in Saint-Sever

Jean Maximilien Lamarque (born July 22, 1770 in Saint-Sever , † June 1, 1832 in Paris ) was a French general during the Napoleonic Wars and later a member of the French parliament. He was an opponent of the Ancien Régime and was committed to the suppression of the Bourbons and Legitimists . The unrest that arose at his funeral served the writer Victor Hugo as a template for the uprisings in his work Les Misérables .

Early life and military career during the French First Republic

Jean Maximilien Lamarque came from an influential and wealthy family and was a son of Pierre-Joseph Lamarque (* 1733, † 1802), royal procurator of the Seneschal of Saint-Sever, and Marie-Ursule Dufan. He attended a theological college in his hometown, whose prior was his uncle Jean-Jacques Lamarque (* 1737, † 1809), who was later persecuted during the reign of terror .

Lamarque's father was elected as a deputy of the Third Estate to the Estates General in 1789 and then a member of the Constituent National Assembly in the course of the French Revolution . Lamarque himself went to Paris in March 1790 at the age of 19 to meet his father again and to complete his studies, where he attended lectures by Chaptal , La Harpe and Chamfort . Influenced by his father, he was enthusiastic about the revolutionary ideas, threw himself into the political life of the capital and in 1791 entered the military as a simple soldier. At the beginning of 1793 he became a member of the 4th Volunteer Battalion in his native Landes department . He took part in anti-clerical actions, such as with his battalion in the sacking and burning of the Saint-Sauveur cathedral in Vabres , the marble of its altar being dismantled to erect a memorial to Marat .

Lamarque was dispatched to the Spanish border on May 13, 1793, a grenadier captain in the "infernal column" of La Tour d'Auvergne , which belonged to the army of the Western Pyrenees. He crossed the Bidasoa in the bullet rain and conquered Fuenterrabía with only 200 men in July 1794 , taking 1,800 prisoners and capturing 80 cannons. When he brought the captured flags to the National Convention, the latter declared by decree that he had rendered services to the fatherland and appointed him adjutant general . After the peace treaty with Spain he served under Moreau and Dessoles in the Rhine Army , distinguished himself in the battles near Engen (May 3rd, 1800), Meßkirch (May 4th / 5th, 1800), Höchstädt (June 19, 1800) and Hohenlinden ( 3rd May 1800) December 1800). In the latter fight he did so well that he was promoted to Général de brigade on March 6, 1801 on the recommendation of Moreau by Napoleon Bonaparte .

Military career under Napoleon

After the Peace of Lunéville (February 9, 1801) Lamarque commanded in Spain under Leclerc , which he did not follow to Saint-Domingue . In 1805 he went to the Grande Armée , attended the campaign of that year in Austria and took part in the Battle of Austerlitz (December 2, 1805). After the peace he was commissioned to go to Italy to join the army destined for the conquest of the Kingdom of Naples . On the trip, he and his companions were buried by an avalanche in Tyrol , but saved. In the Italian mountains he defended himself valiantly with his few companions against the 50-strong gang of the feared Fra Diavolo. He made it to southern Italy happily and took part in the capture of Gaeta in 1806 . In 1807 he achieved important successes over the British and the gangs that roamed the Kingdom of Naples. When the new King Joseph Bonaparte elected him adjutant, Lamarque refused this position in order not to lose the rights of a French citizen, only accepted the post of Chief of Staff of Joseph's French troops and was made general by Napoleon Bonaparte on December 6, 1807 de division promoted.

Murat succeeded Joseph Bonaparte as Neapolitan king in August 1808 and commissioned Lamarque to conquer Capri with 1,600 elite soldiers . The British had strongly fortified this island and defended it under Sir Hudson Lowe . In addition, Capri seemed inaccessible because of its rocks. On the night of October 4th to 5th, 1808, Lamarque left Naples and, after a dangerous crossing, landed on the island with his fellow weapons. With the help of ladders he climbed the rocks with them, held out despite enemy fire, forced a British army detachment to extend their arms and stormed Anacapri . To conquer the city of Capri , Lamarque and his soldiers had to descend the hills under artillery fire, then had two large artillery pieces brought from Naples and bombard the place with them, and finally he was able to break a breach in the fortification wall. The city capitulated on October 17, 1808 and Lowe had to vacate the island; Lamarque had given his opponents free retreat. Capri had been taken so quickly by the general, in spite of the stubborn British resistance, that news of the preparations for the attack and of the victory reached Paris almost simultaneously. Murat gave Lamarque a domain in Neapolitan, which he should lose in the general peace agreement.

At the head of a division, Lamarque joined the army of the Italian viceroy Eugène de Beauharnais in northern Italy in 1809 . At first he fought unhappily, but then achieved success at Villanova, on the Piave , near Oberlitz and above all near Laibach , where he took 5,000 prisoners and captured 65 cannons. After the Italian army united with the Napoleon, Lamarque came under MacDonald's supreme command and distinguished himself at Wagram (July 5-6, 1809), where four horses he rode were killed and where his army department was at the center of the Austrian army invaded. On July 21, 1809, he was appointed Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor and sent to Antwerp , where the British attempted a landing. But Murat soon asked for him and he served him in the rebellious Calabria without being able to achieve anything great. His next military assignment took him back to Spain and he fought gloriously at Atta-Julia, Riponil, Bañolas (June 23, 1813) and La Salud.

On June 4, 1810, Lamarque had been appointed Baron of the Empire , but this did not seem sufficient for his services. On January 12, 1812, he wrote to Berthier to remind the emperor of the promise he had made after the battle of Wagram: Napoleon had assured Lamarque at that time that he would be made Count of the Empire. Nevertheless, Lamarque still did not receive this award and complained about it in a letter dated November 11, 1813. When the French army had to evacuate Spain, he led the rearguard with great skill and effort.

Lamarque was one of the few generals who at times still dared to remember the republic under the empire . Napoleon saw this as displeasing, but never failed to recognize his military talent and named him next to Clausel and Gérard as the best surviving leader after his exile in St. Helena .

Role during the First Restoration and Napoleon's reign of the Hundred Days

After Napoleon's fall in April 1814 and the subsequent first restoration of the Bourbons, Lamarque was taken over by the returned Louis XVIII. Although he was appointed a Knight of the Order of St. Ludwig , he was not involved in any tasks. He lived very withdrawn and welcomed Napoleon's return from Elba in early March 1815 . Napoleon gave him command of Paris, then supreme command of a division of the Northern Army on the Belgian border. When the Vendée dared a revolt for the Bourbons , he sent him there in May as commander-in-chief. Lamarque went with extraordinary powers and should take strict measures, not be economical with shooting of captured rebels, taking hostages and ostracizing rebellious leaders and intimidated by this harsh procedure. But the general was not willing to do this. He recognized the precarious situation of the newly established empire and tried to win support for it and to revive the sinking courage of his confessors. By quickly pacifying the Vendée, he hoped to gain the marshal's baton. On June 6, 1815, he urged the Minister of War from Angers to send him reinforcements so that he could soon suppress the uprising in the Vendée.

The death of the Marquis Louis du Vergier de La Rochejaquelein († June 5, 1815) made Lamarque's task easier from the start, because the insurrection lost its soul in that one . Lamarque issued a proclamation calling on the Vendées to leave those whose presence had always been fatal to them, and forced the relatives of the insurgents to evacuate Angers. He received only a few battalions, but excellent crews, did not use national guards because they offered him too little guarantee of military order, and maintained strict discipline among his soldiers. He also treated the wounded and prisoners mildly, even gave life to an assassin who shot him but missed him, and operated with great energy, caution and deliberation. He united with the troops of Generals Travot , Delaage , Estève and Brayer . Fouché was commissioned by Napoleon to conclude an armistice with the leaders of the Vendéer, and his agreement of June 7th, 1815, reached Lamarque on June 9th, who sent it to the Vendéer generals on June 10th. In doing so, he remarked that he was able to penetrate with great power into the heart of their country, but he offered them one last chance of peace so as not to have to shed civil blood. But the Vendéers under Sapinaud's high command wanted nothing to do with a treaty, unanimously rejected it and opted for an armed confrontation.

Travot took the offensive in the Marais, Lamarque drew up his scattered columns and penetrated the Bocage , summoned to a war of extermination by the angry emperor. Napoleon was extremely reluctant and difficult to do without him on the Belgian campaign. Lamarque would have preferred to avoid battles and tried to divide the leadership of the Vendéer by threading correspondence. But it did not succeed, several meetings took place until after Lamarque's victory at Rocheservière (June 19-20, 1815), the news of Napoleon's decisive defeat in the Battle of Waterloo and his final fall came. Now Sapinaud, with other leaders, accepted the peace signed in La Tessoualle near Cholet on June 26th. Several leaders refused to sign, but the defeat of the Vendée could not be stopped. Lamarque declared himself resolutely against Fouche's and Davout's cruel measures against the reluctant remaining opponents. The Chamber of Representatives declared that Lamarque had rendered services to the fatherland, and that Napoleon, during his stay in St. Helena, had exceeded his hopes by far.

Exile, return to France and a political career

Lamarque submitted to the Bourbon King Louis XVIII, who had returned for the second time after the battle of Waterloo, had his troops infected with the white cockade, but was nevertheless excluded from the amnesty in the royal ordinance of July 24, 1815 and counted among the people of France had to leave. Lamarque protested this decision in a July 27 letter justifying his conduct. He went to southern France and on December 18, 1815 in Libourne wrote a new letter of protest to the Minister of War Henri Clarke d'Hunebourg , Duke of Feltre, but was finally banned by the law of January 12, 1816. He then fled to Belgium . Since his presence in Brussels raised concerns and caused unrest, he had to move to Amsterdam on the orders of the Dutch King Wilhelm I , where he devoted himself to the education of his son, painting, for which he had a talent, and literary work. In order to purify himself against defamation, he wrote several piquant and as powerful as satirical brochures, including Réponse au lieutenant général Canuel (Paris 1818).

At Lamarque's request, Louis XVIII granted him. Returning to France on October 20, 1818, put him back on the list of Lieutenant General, but did not use him in active service. Lamarque sought from his seclusion in Saint-Sever to have a literary influence in the military field and until 1826 submitted a series of writings in which he made proposals for the reorganization of the army, which however remained unsuccessful. He also wrote military articles for the Encyclopédie moderne and the Journal des sciences militaires .

The general, who wanted to stand next to Foy , wanted to play a role in parliamentary life too. Therefore, he ran on November 13, 1820 in the Landes department for entry into the Chamber of Deputies , but failed; and his applications for the elections of November 20, 1822 and February 25, 1824 were no better. He had always appeared as a candidate for the constitutional opposition. The accession to the throne of Charles X seemed a good opportunity to regain the ruler's favor. He also asked for the title of Count and the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor to be awarded to him, but these demands remained unfulfilled. His re-running in the elections of November 17, 1827 was again unsuccessful. Only after the death of Laurent Marc Antoine du Lyon de Campet († July 21, 1828), to whom he was repeatedly defeated, did he join the Chamber of Deputies for Mont-de-Marsan on December 22, 1828.

Lamarque now joined the ranks of the left-wing liberal opposition and was retired as Lieutenant General under Polignac's ministry. The rumbling declamator knew how to quickly become a popular speaker in the House of Representatives. Especially by remembering France's wartime glory, he repeatedly awakened the national feeling and thus made the often unclear and contradictory of his political opinions forgotten. On March 16, 1830, Lamarque signed the address of 221 to Charles X. He was re-elected as a deputy on June 23, 1830. But he took no part in the July Revolution and spoke against the policies of the new government. Accordingly, he did not support Laffitte's ministry, which he did not trust.

Lamarque joined the patriotic association against the invasion of foreign powers and against the return of the older line of the Bourbons. When the Belgian Republicans offered him supreme command of Belgium's armed forces in August 1830, he refused. On the other hand, he demanded from Laffitte and his colleagues the unification of Belgium with France and was outraged by the adherence to the treaties of 1815. Just as bluntly he spoke out in favor of the Poles, ignoring the murmuring of the majority, of whom he sometimes cowardly desires for peace and accused insensitivity to national honor. General Sébastiani felt hurt by a passionate remark by Lamarque; There was a violent dispute, which ended bloodlessly. Lamarque fought against the hereditary nature of the pairie and called for a strong organization of the mobile national guard.

After the July Revolution of 1830 unrest broke out in the Vendée and the government gave Lamarque, the former “hero of the Vendée”, the supervision of this region. He went there as commander in chief of the western departments. He re-studied the spirit of the legitimist population, made contact with their leaders, and advised the Ministers of Louis-Philippe to adopt a fair and measured policy against the royalists; a dignified moderation would affect their level-headed disposition more than any threat. He advised the nobles, priests and peasants to be spared and reminded them that the Vendées would have offered him and Davout to fight with him after the battle of Waterloo, if foreign powers tried to invade France against them. As soon as Casimir Pierre Périer gained a foothold in the ministry, he eliminated Lamarque as one of his most ardent opponents; on April 2, 1831, his command was withdrawn.

In the elections of July 5, 1831, when he returned to the Chamber of Deputies, Lamarque was engaged in matters of foreign policy. He eagerly took on the Poles in order to force the government to go to war with Russia, recalling the promises made to them, but in vain. He was also one of the most eloquent MPs who campaigned for the freedom of Italy.

death

In early April 1832, Lamarque fell ill with cholera during an epidemic that was raging in France . After he had co-signed the “statement of accounts” of the opposition on May 28, the storm was blowing against the July monarchy , he succumbed to the infectious disease on June 1, 1832 at the age of just 62 years in Paris.

Lamarque had requested that his body be brought back to his home and buried there. At the solemn funeral on June 5, around 200,000 people followed the funeral car, which was pulled by 150 students, Julius fighters and invalids, the dead general's companions in arms. Refugees from Poland, Portugal, Spain and Italy joined the procession with mourning banners on the side of their national flags. I.a. Clausel and La Fayette honored Lamarque's memory in funeral speeches when the funeral wagon arrived at the Pont d'Austerlitz , where a mail wagon picked up the body and was supposed to bring it to its destination.

Although La Fayette called for calm, the Republican-minded opposition now took the opportunity to demonstrate against the July monarchy. The general's body was to be brought into the Panthéon by force, but this was prevented by a troop intervention. However, on this and the following day, the bloody but short-lived June uprising broke out in Paris , which Louis Philippe had put down.

Honors

Lamarque's name is entered on the triumphal arch in Paris in the 36th column.

Fonts

  • Nécessité d'une armée permanente, et projet d'une organization de l'infanterie plus économique que celle qui est adoptée en ce moment. Paris 1820.
  • Mémoire sur les avantages d'un canal de navigation parallèle à l'Adour, considéré sous le rapport agricole, commercial et militaire. Paris 1825.
  • De l'esprit militaire en France; des qui contribuent à l'éteindre; de la nécessité et des moyens de le ranimer. Paris 1826.
  • Notice sur la vie de Basterrèche, des Basses-Pyrénées. Reprinted at the head of a selection of speeches by this Member, Paris 1828.
  • La Vérité tout entière sur le procès d'un maréchal de France, pétition patriotique adressée à la chambre des députés pour la translation des cendres du maréchal Ney au Panthéon. Paris 1831.
  • Souvenirs, mémoires et lettres du général Maximilien Lamarque, publiés par sa famille. 3 volumes. Brussels 1835.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Lamarque, Jean Maximilien
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French general and politician
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1770
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint-Sever
DATE OF DEATH June 1, 1832
Place of death Paris