Charles-Grégoire de Beauchamps

Charles-Grégoire, the Marquis of Beauchamps (25 July 1731 – 5 May 1817) was a French military general and politician. During the run up to the

Charles-Grégoire was born and baptised at Cherbonnières, roughly 19 km (13 miles) to the east of Saint-Jean-d'Angély, between Poitiers and Bordeaux in rural western France. He was a younger son of Henri-Charles de Beauchamps (1701-1777), lord of the manor at Cherbonnières. His mother, Madeleine-Dorothée de Lescours, was probably also of aristocratic provenance.^[2] He embarked on his military career late in 1757 when he took part in the disastrous (for France) Battle of Rossbach, receiving but surviving fourteen injuries, and retaining his "colours", albeit in a badly shredded condition. He was awarded the Cross of St Louis for his valour and progressed with a military career that took him, eventually, to the rank of a Maréchal de camp.^[3]

In April 1789, with the government in financial crisis, the

At the start of 1802 he was still banned from France, and Beauchamps again requested a favour of his former neighbour and friend, Michel-Louis-Étienne Regnaud de Saint-Jean d'Angély, who by now held a senior government position and was on excellent terms with the First Consul. Initially, however, d'Angély reported that he had been unable to have Beauchamps' name removed from the banned list, because of information found in police files. Beauchamps quickly expressed his conviction that his name must be on the police list because of the passionate protest which d'Angély had himself composed on his behalf thirteen years earlier, against the actions of the States General. Regardless of whether or not this was indeed the cause of the problem, by the end of 1802 d'Angély had succeeded in getting the ban on Charles-Grégoire de Beauchamps lifted.

With the

Charles-Grégoire de Beauchamps married his first wife, Marie Anne Jeanne Françoise van Buel, (1710-1778) on 7 June 1761 in Liège, at that time in the Austrian Netherlands. She came from a leading family in the city. His second marriage, which took place around 1785, was to Louise-Hélène de Rosen, (ca. 1749-1789) who came from another leading Liege family.^[2]

Outside his marriage he had a daughter with Ferdinande de Horion, the young third wife of Maximiliaan of Arberg (and a niece of François-Charles de Velbrück). His paternity was freely acknowledged by all concerned and the girl, known as Catherine de Saintes, later went on to marry Antoine-Augustin Renouard and become the matriarch of a prominent Parisian dynasty.^[5]

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