François de Charette
François Athanase de Charette | |
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Lieutenant General | |
Battles/wars | American Revolutionary War War in the Vendée |
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François Athanase de Charette de la Contrie (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃swa atanaz də ʃaʁɛt də la kɔ̃tʁi]; 2 May 1763 – 29 March 1796) was a Franco-Breton Royalist soldier and politician. He served in the French Navy during the American Revolutionary War and was one of the leaders of the War in the Vendée against the French Revolution. His great-nephew Athanase-Charles-Marie Charette de la Contrie was a noted military leader and great-grandson of Charles X, the penultimate king of France.[1]
Life
Early activities
A
Following the outbreak of the French Revolution, he quit the Navy in 1789 and emigrated to Koblenz (Trier) in 1792 (a common move for royalist aristocrats). He soon returned to France to live at his property in La Garnache, and became one of the royalist volunteers who assisted in defending King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette from physical harm during the mob attack on Tuileries Palace (the Insurrection of 10 August 1792); arrested in Angers, he was released through the intervention of Charles François Dumouriez.
Vendée War
In 1793, the
After this, Charette's army returned and collected reinforcements; Revolutionary brutality and the 'infernal columns' sent by the Convention to destroy the Vendée forced many peasants to join Charette's army merely for safety.[5] Charette won a victory at Saint-Fulgent, only to be chased into hiding in the forest of Grala.[6] He emerged from it to attack Les Brouzils; he was wounded in the arm but kept on until the end of the fight. After obtaining food for his starving army, Charette was brought to La Morière, a convent near Machecoul, to recover from his wound; he was only able to rest there for a few days when his location was betrayed and the Republicans surrounded the convent. Warned, he was able to escape, but the nuns and a large number of the refugees who had come with Charette's army and had hidden in the church were massacred.[7][8]
Defeat
On 17 February 1795, after being introduced to it by his sister, Charette signed the Treaty of La Jaunaye with the emissaries of the National Convention, which included freedom of religion guarantees and excluded the conscription of local peasants from the levée en masse. The republicans soon reneged on the terms of the treaty, repudiating the guarantees of religious freedom; and they began conscripting peasants once again. They also murdered thousands of royalist prisoners including the Bishop of Dol, Urbain-René de Hercé . Charette and his men returned to the fight again in July and moved to help the planned invasion at Quiberon by French royalist émigrés with assistance from the British Royal Navy.[citation needed]
The
According to a contemporary writing in Walker's Hibernian Magazine, it was Charette who said, by way of extenuating the number of deaths for which he was responsible, "Omelets are not made without breaking eggs."[10]
Charette was described by Napoleon as a great character and military leader who "shows genius".[11]
Depictions in films and popular culture
Charette is a character in the episode "The Frogs and the Lobsters" of the Hornblower film/television series, played by John Shrapnel. Charette is a royalist general in exile who, with the support of the British Royal Navy, attempts and fails to rally the surviving royalists and raise an army in France to restore the king to power. Unlike his real-life counterpart, he shown as slain in battle defending a captured fortification and is also fluent in English in the television adaptation. He also dies roughly two years later than in history.
Charette has been since 2018 the lead character and his life story is depicted in the production of Le Dernier Panache ("The Last Plume"), at the French theme park Puy du Fou.
He appeared as protagonist of the 2022 film Vaincre ou mourir.[12][13]
References
- ^ MacGregor, Mary. The Story of France. Thomas Nelson and Sons. p. 464.
- ^ Dumarcet (1998).
- ^ Fighting the French Revolution by Rob Harper, pp. 220–225
- ^ "Elbee Maurice Gigost d' - Tombes Sépultures dans les cimetières et autres lieux". www.tombes-sepultures.com.
- ^ Fighting the French Revolution, Rob Harper, pp. 291–296
- ^ La Vendée historique, pp. 413–414
- ^ "Les souvenirs de Marie Lourdais..." Chemins secrets.
- ^ "La Vendée historique". M. Bideaux. 16 March 1899 – via Google Books.
- ^ George J. Hill, The Story of the War in La Vendée and the Little Chouannerie (New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co. n.d.), pp. 222–227.[1]
- ^ "Some particulars respecting the Capture and Death of Charette, the famous Royalist General of La Vendée; with sketches of his character." Walker's Hibernian Magazine, 1796, p. 410. [2]
- ^ « Oui, Charette me laisse l'impression d'un grand caractère, je lui vois faire des choses d'une énergie, d'une audace peu communes, il laisse percer du génie. » Napoleon quoted by Emmanuel, comte de Las Cases, The Memorial of Saint Helena, Volume VII, p. 237
- ^ https://www.academia.edu/100136484/Film_de_propagande_On_a_vu_Vaincre_ou_mourir_avec_Jean_Clément_Martin_spécialiste_des_guerres_de_Vendée
- ^ https://www.senscritique.com/film/vaincre_ou_mourir/critique/280559839
Sources
- Anne Bernet, Charette, Perrin, 2005
- Dumarcet, Lionel (1998). François Athanase Charette de la Contrie : une histoire véritable. Paris : Le Grand livre du mois. OCLC 468220116.
- Michel de Saint-Pierre, Monsieur de Charette, La Table Ronde, 1977
- George J. Hill, The Story of the War in La Vendée and the Little Chouannerie (New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co. n.d.)