Pierre Riel de Beurnonville

Pierre Riel, marquis de Beurnonville

Pierre Riel, Marquis de Beurnonville (born May 10, 1752 in Champignol-lez-Mondeville , Département Aube , † April 23, 1821 in Paris ) was a French general and statesman, peer and marshal of France .

Life

Although destined to be a clergyman, Beurnonville became a soldier out of inclination and as a commandant participated in the campaigns in the East Indies from 1779 to 1781.

Deposed from his post, he came in 1789 to France and was to compensate the post of lieutenant in the Compagnie des Suisses de Monsieur the Count of Artois , but the revolutionary movement joined and became 1792 as Maréchal de camp and adjutant Luckner with the Organization of the “Armée du Nord” commissioned. He fought in the cannonade at Valmy and defended Lille .

On February 8, 1793, through the intermediary of the Girondins, he became Minister of War and even gained recognition from the Jacobins , who initially hated him. When Charles-François Dumouriez wanted to win him over for his plan for a coup d'état, he reported this to the National Convention and was dispatched on April 1, 1793 with the four convention commissioners Armand-Gaston Camus , François Lamarque , Jean Henri Bancal des Issarts and Nicolas-Marie Quinette to arrest Dumouriez, who, however, had him arrested with his companions and handed over to the Austrians. After 33 months in prison in Olomouc they were all exchanged (November 1795) against the Duchess of Angoulême .

On his return to Paris, he initially served as an adjutant to the Minister of War, Aubert du Bayet . Beurnonville was later given command of the Northern Army, which he resigned in 1798 due to poor health, whereupon the Directory appointed him Inspector General of the Infantry. In 1800 he was ambassador extraordinary in Berlin and in 1802 in Madrid . Elevated to Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1804 , Senator in 1805 and Count of the Reich ( comte d'Empire ) in 1809 , he voted in 1814 for Napoleon I to be deposed and as a member of the provisional government against the accession to the throne of Napoleon II.

Louis XVIII therefore appointed him peer and Minister of State. Outlawed by Napoleon I, he stayed with Louis XVIII during the reign of the Hundred Days . in Ghent , was appointed Marshal of France in 1816 and reassumed the title of Marquis in 1817.

Pierre de Riel died shortly before his 69th birthday on April 23, 1821 of an attack of gout in Paris and found his final resting place in the Père Lachaise cemetery (Division 39).

Honors

His name is entered on the triumphal arch in Paris in the 3rd column.

literature

• Arthur Chuquet: Les guerres de la Révolution . Plon, Paris 1886 (9 vols.).
• Charles Mullié: Pierre Riel de Beurnonville . In: Ders .: Biography of the célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 à 1852 . Poignavant, Paris 1852.
• Adolphe Robert and Gaston Cougny: Pierre Riel de Beurnonville . In: Dies .: Dictionnaire des parlementaires français . Sltkine, Geneva 2000, ISBN 2-05-101711-5 (reprint of the Paris edition 1889/91).

predecessor	Office	successor
Jean-Nicolas Pache	Minister of War of France February 4, 1793 to April 1, 1793	Pierre Henri Hélène Marie Lebrun-Tondu