Édouard Mortier, Duke of Treviso
Marshal Édouard Mortier Duke of Treviso | |
---|---|
Hugues-Bernard Maret | |
Succeeded by | Victor de Broglie |
Minister of War | |
In office 18 November 1834 – 12 March 1835 | |
Preceded by | Simon Bernard |
Succeeded by | Henri de Rigny |
Personal details | |
Born | General of division | 13 February 1768
Commands held | VIII Corps V Corps |
Battles/wars | French Revolutionary Wars Napoleonic Wars |
Édouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier, Duke of Treviso (French pronunciation: [adɔlf edwaʁ kazimiʁ ʒozɛf mɔʁtje]; 13 February 1768 – 28 July 1835), was a French military commander and Marshal of the Empire under Napoleon I, who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He served as Minister of War and Prime Minister of France from 1834 to 1835. He was one of 18 people killed in 1835 during Giuseppe Marco Fieschi's assassination attempt on King Louis Philippe I.
Early life
Mortier was born at Le Cateau (now Le Cateau-Cambrésis), northern France, on 13 February 1768.[2] He was the son of Charles Mortier (1730–1808), a draper, and his wife Marie Anne Joseph Bonnaire (b. 1735). After studying at the Irish College, Douai, he joined the National Guard of Dunkirk in 1789, at the start of the French Revolution, and was elected captain of a unit of volunteers in September 1791.[2]
French Revolutionary Wars
Upon the outbreak of the War of the First Coalition in 1792, Mortier was assigned to the Army of the North.[2] He spent the next years serving in the Low Countries theatre, fighting at the Battle of Jemappes and the Siege of Namur, in 1792, at the Battle of Neerwinden in 1793, and at the Battle of Fleurus in 1794.[2] He was then transferred to the Army of Sambre and Meuse on the Rhine, and distinguished himself in the capture of Maastricht.[2] Mortier was tasked by General Jacques Maurice Hatry to negotiate the surrender of the Fortress of Mainz,[3] which he completed successfully and then returned to Paris.
During the
Napoleonic Wars
In 1803, Mortier was appointed commander-in-chief of an
During the
When the
Mortier left a division to hold Hesse-Kassel while the rest of his corps was directed to mopping-up operations in Prussia.
In October 1808, Mortier was sent to Spain in the campaign for the recapture of
During the invasion of Russia in 1812, Mortier commanded the Young Guard.[2] After the Battle of Borodino he became governor of French-occupied Moscow, and was ordered to destroy what remained of the city when the retreat began.[2] He then fought at Krasnoi, at the Berezina, and regrouped the surviving Imperial Guards in January 1813.[2] Mortier again commanded the Young Guard in several battles of the German campaign, including Lützen, Bautzen, Dresden and Leipzig.[2] During the defense of France in 1814, he rendered brilliant services in command of rearguards and covering detachments,[5] and led the Old Guard at Montmirail, Craonne, Laon, and at the final Battle of Paris.[2]
He rallied to the Bourbon Restoration after Napoleon's abdication in April 1814.[2] In 1815, during Napoleon's return to power in the Hundred Days, Mortier escorted the king out of the country before joining the emperor in Paris.[2] He was given command of the Imperial Guard once more, but at the opening of the Waterloo campaign, he was unable to continue due to severe sciatica.
Post-war career
Following the second Bourbon Restoration, Mortier relutanctly accepted to be part of the court martial trying Marshal
Death
On 28 July 1835, Mortier was one of those accompanying King
The weapon used was a home-made volley gun, constructed and fired by Giuseppe Marco Fieschi for the purpose of assassinating the king. Fieschi had fixed twenty-five musket barrels to a wooden frame, and arranged that they could be fired simultaneously. Four of the barrels burst when fired and Fieschi was badly wounded.[11] He was quickly captured and later tried with two co-conspirators. The three went to the guillotine in February 1836.
Family
Mortier married Eve Anne Hymmès (
- Caroline Mortier de Trevise (1800–1842): married to Marie-Hippolyte de Gueulluy, 2nd Marquess of Rumigny.
- Marie-Louise de Gueulluy de Rumigny x Ludovic-Marie, Count d'Ursel,
(1809–1886)[clarification needed]- Hippolyte, count d'Ursel (1850–1937)
- Marie-Louise de Gueulluy de Rumigny x Ludovic-Marie, Count d'Ursel,
- Sophie Malvina Joséphine Mortier de Trévise (b. 1803)
- Napoléon Mortier de Trévise (1804–1869), 2nd Duke of Trévise
- Edouard (1806–1815)
- Louise (1811–1831)
- Eve-Stéphanie Mortier de Trévise (1814–1831), countess Gudin
References
- ^ Paris, Louis (1869). Dictionnaire des anoblissements (in French). Vol. 1. Paris: Bachelin-Deflorenne.
- ^ Éditions Fayard.
- ^ The Big Mortar
- ^ Adolphe Thiers. The history of the French revolution, New York: Appleton, 1854, v. 4., p. 401.
- ^ a b c d e public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Mortier, Edouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 878. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Thiers, fn, p. 401.
- ISBN 1-85367-276-9, p. 213.
- ISBN 0-313-33536-2.
- ^ Harsin 2002, p. 147.
- ^ Harsin 2002, p. 148.
- ^ Bouveiron (1835), pp. 67–68, Report of M. Lepage, Gunsmith to the King
Bibliography
- A. Bouveiron; Giuseppe Marco Fieschi (1835). An historical and biographical sketch of Fieschi. Sold at the office of the editor. p. 32.
- Harsin, Jill (2002). Barricades:The War of the Streets in Revolutionary Paris,1830–1848. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-29479-4.
- Gray, Randal (1987). Napoleon's Marshals. New York: Macmillan.