Hubert Lyautey

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Académie française
In office
31 October 1912 – 27 July 1934
Preceded byHenry Houssaye
Succeeded byLouis Franchet d'Espèrey
Personal details
Born(1854-11-17)17 November 1854
Nancy, French Empire
Died27 July 1934(1934-07-27) (aged 79)
Thorey, French Republic
Resting placeLes Invalides
NationalityFrench
SpouseInès de Bourgoing
Parents
  • Léon Lyautey (father)
  • Laurence de Villemotte (mother)
Alma materÉcole Spéciale Militaire
Signature
Military service
AllegianceFrench Third Republic Third Republic
Branch/serviceFrench Army
Years of service1873–1925
RankMarshal[a]
Battles/warsBlack Flags Rebellion

French Conquest of Morocco First World War

Zaian War

Louis Hubert Gonzalve Lyautey

Resident-General in Morocco from 1912 to 1925. Early in 1917 he served briefly as Minister of War. From 1921 he was a Marshal of France.[2] He was dubbed the French empire builder, and in 1931 made the cover of Time.[3][4] Lyautey was also the first one to use the term "hearts and minds" as part of his strategy to counter the Black Flags rebellion during the Tonkin campaign in 1885.[5]

Early life

Lyautey was born in

Lorraine. His father was a prosperous engineer, and his grandfather a highly decorated Napoleonic general. His mother was a Norman aristocrat, and Lyautey inherited many of her assumptions: monarchism, patriotism, Catholicism and belief in the moral and political importance of the elite.[6]

In 1873 he entered the French military academy of

Saint-Cyr. He attended the army training school in early 1876, and in December 1877 was made a lieutenant. After graduating from St Cyr, two months holiday in Algeria in 1878 left him impressed by the Maghreb and by Islam.[6] He served in the cavalry,[7] and was to make his career serving in the colonies and not in a more prestigious assignment in metropolitan France. In 1880 he was posted to Algiers, then campaigning in southern Algeria. In 1884, to his disappointment, he was recalled to France.[8]

Military career

Indochina

In 1894 he was posted to

Indochina, serving under Joseph Gallieni. He helped crush the so-called piracy of the Black Flags rebellion along the Chinese border. He then set up the colonial administration in Tonkin, and was then head of the military office of the Government-General in Indochina. By time he left Indochina in 1897 he was a lieutenant colonel and had received the Legion of Honour.[9]

In Indochina he wrote:

Here I am like a fish in water, because the manipulation of things and men is power, everything I love.[10]

Madagascar

From 1897 to 1902 Lyautey served in

brigade general a year later, largely a result of the military skill and success which he had shown in Madagascar.[7]

Morocco

Main article: French conquest of Morocco
General Lyautey reaches Marrakesh, Le Petit Journal, October 1912

In 1903 he was posted to command first a subdivision south of Oran and then the whole Oran district, his official task being to protect a new railway line against attacks from Morocco.[11][12][page needed] French commanders in Algeria moved into Morocco largely on their own initiative, early in 1903. Later in the year Lyautey marched west and occupied Béchar, a clear breach of 1840s treaties. The following year he advanced further into Morocco, in clear disobedience to the Minister of War, threatening to resign if he were not supported by Paris. The French Foreign Minister issued a vague disavowal of Lyautey, because he was concerned at clashing with British influence in Morocco[13] – in the event Britain, Spain and Italy were placated by France agreeing to allow them a free hand in Egypt, northern Morocco and Libya respectively, and the only objections to French expansion in the region came from Germany (see First Moroccan Crisis).[14]

Lyautey met Isabelle Eberhardt in 1903, and employed her for intelligence missions. After her death in 1904, he chose her tombstone.[15]

Early in 1907

French Morocco from 4 August 1907. After taking Oudja, he went to Rabat to put pressure on the Sultan, getting embroiled in a power struggle between the Sultan and his brother, with Germany and France taking sides in the dispute.[11]

On 14 October 1909, in Paris, Lyautey married

Empress Eugénie and president of the French Red Cross, who had just organized the Red Cross in Morocco. The marriage was childless. [17] He returned to France in 1910, and in January 1911 he took up command of a corps at Rennes.[7][11]

In 1912 Lyautey was posted back to Morocco, and relieved Fez, which was being besieged by 20,000 Moroccans. After the

French Morocco from 28 April 1912 to 25 August 1925. Sultan Moulay Hafid abdicated at the end of 1912, replaced by his more pliable brother, although the country was not fully pacified until 1934.[18]

On 31 October 1912, he was elected at the seat 14 of the

Académie française.[19]

World War I

On 27 July 1914, Resident-General Lyautey received a cable from Paris from the undersecretary of foreign affairs Abel Ferry.[20] He was quoted as telling his officers:

They are completely mad. A war between Europeans is a civil war. This is the most monumental foolishness that they have ever done.[21]

However, like many professional soldiers, he disliked the Third Republic, and in some ways welcomed the outbreak of war "because the politicians have shut up".[22] The same day War Minister Messimy told Lyautey to prepare to abandon Morocco except for the major cities and ports, and to send all seasoned troops to France. Messimy later said this had been a "formal" order.[23]

At the outbreak of war Lyautey was commanding 70,000 troops, all members of the

Macedonia or – mounted – in the Levant.[24]

In 1914 33 officers, 580 soldiers and the weapons of two battalions were

goumiers. With 200,000 men Lyautey had to hold down the Middle Atlas and the Rif, suppressing rebellions by Zaians at Khenifra, Abd al Malik at the Taza, and al Hiba in the south, the latter aided by German U-boats. Lyautey argued that Verdun and Morocco were part of the same war.[26]

Lyautey disregarded advice to concentrate major forces in a few cities and took a personal risk by spreading them all over the country. At the end, his gamble turned right as he got a psychological edge over potentially mutinous tribal chiefs.[20] Lyautey had 71,000 men by July 1915. He insisted France would win the war and continued with the usual trade fairs and road and rail construction.[25]

Political career

Colonial policies

His personal beliefs evolved from monarchism and conservatism to a belief in social duty. He wrote a journal article "On the Social Function of the Officer under Universal Military Service". However, his colonial policies were similar in practice to those of Gallieni, a secular republican.[7] He was suspicious of republicanism and socialism, and believed in the social role of the Army in regenerating France.[10]

Lyautey adopted and emulated Gallieni's policy of methodical expansion of pacified areas followed by social and economical development (markets, schools and medical centres) to bring about the end of resistance and the cooperation of former insurgents. This method became known as tache d'huile (literally, "oil stain"), as it resembles oil spots spreading to cover the whole surface. Lyautey's writings have had a significant influence on contemporary counterinsurgency theory through its adoption by David Galula.[27] He also practiced a policy known as politique des races, i.e. dealing separately with each tribe; this was done to avoid any one tribe from gaining too much influence within the colonial system.[28]

Lyautey is considered to have been an apt colonial administrator. His governing style evolved into the Lyautey system of colonial rule. The Lyautey system invested in pre-established local governing bodies and advocated for local control. He advocated for finding a sub-group that didn't have nationalistic tendencies but had a strong desire for local autonomy then investing in this sub-group as political leaders.[29] He tried to balance blunt military force with other means of power and promoted a vision of a better future for the Moroccans under the French colonial administration. For example, he invited a talented young French urban planner Henri Prost to design comprehensive plans for redevelopment of the major Moroccan cities.[30][31]

In Morocco from 1912 he was publicly deferential to the sultan[11] and told his men not to treat the Moroccans as a conquered people.[7] He opposed Christian proselytising and the settlement of French migrants in Morocco,[32] and quoted with approval Governor Lanessan of Indo-China "we must govern with the mandarin and not against the mandarin".[10]

Minister of War

Lyautey briefly served as France's

French Army Mutinies. Lyautey was apparently surprised to receive a telegram offering him the job (10 December 1916) and demanded, and was given, authority to issue orders to Nivelle (the new Commander-in-Chief of French forces on the Western Front) and Sarrail (Commander-in-Chief at Salonika); Nivelle's predecessor Joffre had enjoyed much greater freedom from the War Minister and had also had command over Salonika. Prime Minister Aristide Briand, not going into detail about Joffre's removal, replied that Lyautey would be one of a War Committee of five members, controlling manufacturing, transport and supply, and thus giving him greater powers than his predecessors. Lyautey replied "I shall answer your call". Lyautey had to spend a good deal of time touring units and learning about the Western front.[33][34]

Lyautey was strongly disliked by the political Left, and when Briand reconstructed his government in December 1916,

Philippe Petain also played a role (Painlevé was later himself Minister of War for much of 1917, then briefly Prime Minister late in the year).[35]

Lyautey was met with a fait accompli as Nivelle, whom he would not have chosen, had been appointed Commander-in-Chief by the acting War Minister Admiral Lacaze, whilst munitions under Albert Thomas (formerly Under-Secretary for War) were hived off into a separate ministry assisted by the industrialist Louis Loucheur as Under-Secretary of State. Lyautey had hoped to rely on Joffre, Ferdinand Foch and de Castelnau, but the first soon resigned from his job as advisor, Foch had already been sacked as commander of Army Group North, de Castelnau was sent on a mission to Russia, and Lyautey was not permitted to revive the post of Chief of the Army General Staff.[36]

Lyautey was hard of hearing and inclined to dominate conversation. As minister and cabinet member, he preferred to deal directly with the British government via the British Embassy, to the annoyance of the British

the King’s adviser Clive Wigram (12 January):

Lyautey … is a dried up person of the Anglo-Indian type who has been in the colonies all his life and talks of nothing else. He talks a good deal. He has no grasp whatever of the war as yet and I should doubt if he remains long where he is now.[37]

Lyautey attended the infamous

light opera satirising the army). He contemplated trying to have Nivelle dismissed, but backed down in the face of traditional Republican hostility to military men with political aspirations.[39][40] Lyautey shared his concerns about Nivelle with Petain, commander of Army Group Centre, who would eventually replace him.[41]

Lyautey refused to discuss military aviation even at a closed session of the French Chamber, and at the subsequent open session declared that to discuss such matters even in closed session would be a security risk. He resigned as Minister of War after being shouted down in the Chamber on 15 March 1917, and after several leading politicians declined the post of Minister of War, Aristide Briand's sixth cabinet (12 December 1916 – 20 March 1917) fell four days later.[42][43][44]

Postwar

Portrait by Philip de László, 1929

Lyautey caused the Institute for Advanced Moroccan Studies and the Sherifian Scientific Institute to be set up in the early 1920s.[45]

During the

Abd-el-Krim’s rebellion in the Rif Mountains.[11]

Political opposition in Paris ensured that he received no official recognition when he resigned; his only escort home was two destroyers of the Royal Navy.[7]

Marshal Lyautey served as Honorary President of the three

French Scouting associations.[46]

Paris Exposition

Lyautey was commissioner of the

Paris Metro was built to Bois de Vincennes. Despite costing the French government and City of Paris 318m francs, the exhibition made a profit of 33m francs. Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal and the USA also contributed exhibitions on their overseas possessions, but not Britain, which despite repeated pleas by Lyautey cited the cost of its own exhibition of 1924.[47]

The Palais de la Porte Dorée in Bois de Vincennes housed part of the Colonial Exhibition of 1931; Lyautey's study is preserved as part of the foyer.[48]

Final years

The sarcophagus of Marshal Lyautey at Les Invalides, Paris

In his final years, Lyautey became associated with France's growing fascist movement. He admired Italian leader

Croix de Feu. In 1934, he threatened to lead the Jeunesses Patriotes to overthrow the government.[49] The same year he contributed to the effort to warn French people against Hitler through a critical introduction of an unauthorised edition of Mein Kampf
.

Lyautey would have liked to have been a national saviour; he was disappointed to have played only a minor role in France's political life and in the First World War.[50]

Lyautey died in Thorey-Lyautey in 1934. His ashes were brought back to Morocco, where they lay in state in a mausoleum in the Chellah, at Rabat. After Morocco became independent in 1956, his remains were returned to France and interred in Les Invalides in 1961.[51][11]

Homosexuality

Lyautey has been called "perhaps France's most distinguished – or infamous – homosexual."

Remembrance of Things Past.[52]

The actual evidence for Lyautey being a homosexual is primarily circumstantial,[54] but it was widely regarded as an open secret at the time,[53][55] one which some historians claim Lyautey did not take any effort to hide.[56][57] Robert Aldrich writes that he liked hot climates and "the masculine company of young officers".[10] Lyautey's wife is said to have told a group of her husband's young officers that "I have the pleasure of informing you that last night I made you all cuckolds," implying that the officers were all paramours of her husband, and that she had had sex with Lyautey the night before.[53]

Lyautey's homosexuality, or at the very least his "homophile sensuality"[57] or "Greek virtues",[53] was in some ways connected with his time in Morocco. Lyautey's sexual preference for men was not caused by his sojourn in Morocco, as there were those who objected to his appointment as commander there because he was a homosexual.[56]

In popular culture

Lyautey plays a major role in Garment of Shadows (2013), a Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell novel by Laurie R. King, set in Morocco in 1925. He is said to be a distant cousin of Holmes.

Military ranks

Cadet Second lieutenant Lieutenant Captain Squadron chief[d]
22 October 1873[58] 25 September 1875[59] 1 January 1876 22 September 1882 22 March 1893[60]
Lieutenant colonel Colonel Brigade general Division general Marshal of France
7 September 1897 1900 9 October 1903[61] 30 July 1907[62] 19 February 1921[63]

Honours and decorations

Coat of arms as Knight of the Order of Charles III : Azure a faith Or, in chief a Sun of the second, all supported by three cinquefoils Argent.

French Honours

Foreign Honours

Dynastic Orders

Burial and legacy

Lyautey's Mausoleum in 1936
Lyautey's tomb, Les Invalides

Following his resignation from the position of Resident-general in 1925, Lyautey planned for his own burial in Rabat and in 1933 requested painter

Mohamed Belhassan Wazzani and other nationalist and Muslim leaders. Reflecting those misgivings, Sultan Mohammed V of Morocco declined to attend the funeral on the Residence grounds on 1935-10-31, when Lyautey's remains were eventually placed in the completed mausoleum, even though he participated in a ceremony earlier the same day at Bab er-Rouah in downtown Rabat. The mausoleum building was designed by architect René Canu based on La Nézière's sketch.[65]

Following Moroccan independence, French President

art deco metalworker Raymond Subes [fr].[67]

References

  1. ^ Government of the French Empire. "Birth certificate of Lyautey, Hubert". culture.gouv.fr. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
  2. ^ Teyssier, Arnaud. Lyautey: le ciel et les sables sont grands. Paris: Perrin, 2004.
  3. ^ a b Bell, John (1 June 1922). "Marshal Lyautey: The man and his work". The Fortnightly Review. pp. 905–914. Retrieved 1 August 2013.
  4. S2CID 159504670
    .
  5. ^ Douglas Porch, "Bugeaud, Gallieni, Lyautey: The Development of French Colonial Warfare", in Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age, Peter Paret, ed. Princeton University Press, USA, 1986. p. 394.
  6. ^ a b Aldrich 1996, p134
  7. ^ a b c d e f Clayton 2003, p216-7
  8. ^ a b Aldrich 1996, p135
  9. ^ Aldrich 1996, p63, 135
  10. ^ a b c d e Aldrich 1996, p137
  11. ^ a b c d e f Aldrich 1996, p136
  12. ISBN 978-0-312-12529-5
    .
  13. ^ this was a few years after the Fashoda Incident and the Entente Cordiale was not yet in existence
  14. ^ Aldrich 1996, p32-3
  15. ^ Aldrich 1996, p158
  16. ^ Aldrich 1996, p34-5
  17. ISBN 978-0-299-19904-3
    .
  18. ^ Aldrich 1996, p35
  19. ^ Académie Française. "Louis-Hubert LYAUTEY". www.academie-francaise.fr. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  20. ^
    S2CID 145277431
    .
  21. ^ Le Révérend, André. Lyautey. Paris: Fayard, 1983. p. 368.
  22. ^ Herwig 2009, p28
  23. ^ Doughty 2005, p50
  24. ^ Clayton 2003, p175
  25. ^ a b Greenhalgh 2014, pp119-20
  26. ^ Clayton 2003, p181-2
  27. S2CID 154508657
    .
  28. ^ Aldrich 1996, p106
  29. OCLC 316825565
    .
  30. ^ Cohen, Jean-Louis. Henri Prost and Casablanca: the art of making successful cities (1912–1940). The New City, (fall 1996), № 3, p. 106-121.
  31. ^ Wright, Gwendolyn. Tradition in the service of modernity: architecture and urbanism in French colonial policy, 1900–1930. The Journal of Modern History, 59, № 2 (1987): 291–316.
  32. ^ Aldrich 1996, p136-7
  33. ^ Doughty 2005, p320-1
  34. ^ a b Woodward, 1998, p. 86.
  35. ^ Doughty 2005, p338
  36. ^ Greenhalgh 2014, pp172-3
  37. ^ Bonham-Carter 1963, p200 "Anglo-Indian" in this context means a British person who has spent his life abroad in the Empire, not a person of mixed race.
  38. ^ Doughty 2005, p331-2
  39. General Boulanger and in particular of the Dreyfus affair. General Gallieni
    , one of Lyautey's predecessors, had faced similar hostility, wholly unfounded as he had in fact been attempting to assert ministerial control over the Army
  40. ^ Clayton 2003, p125
  41. ^ Greenhalgh 2014, p184
  42. ^ "Lyautey Resigns as War Minister; French Official Steps Down Because of Stormy Scene in the Chamber. Uproar Prevents Speech. Cabinet's Foes in Tumult When He Questions Desirability of Discussion". The New York Times. 15 March 1917. Retrieved 1 August 2013.
  43. ^ Woodward, 1998, p. 104.
  44. ^ Doughty 2005, p336
  45. ^ Aldrich 1996, p248
  46. ^ John S. Wilson (1959), Scouting Round the World. First edition, Blandford Press. p. 33
  47. ^ Aldrich 1996, p260-3
  48. ^ Aldrich 1996, p324
  49. ^ Szaluta, Jacques "Marshal Petain's Ambassadorship to Spain: Conspiratorial or Providential Rise toward Power?", French Historical Studies 8:4
  50. ^ Aldrich 1996, p138
  51. ^ David S. Woolman - Rebels in the Rif - Abd El Krim and the Rif Rebellion (1968, Stanford University Press), p221
  52. ^
    ISBN 9781584659440
    , p.9
  53. ^
    ISBN 9781847085948
  54. ISBN 1560232633
    , p. 208-209
  55. ISBN 9781136325878
    p.91 n.27
  56. ^
    ISBN 9781429998857
    , pp.84–86
  57. ^
    ISBN 9781134644599
  58. ^ Government of the French Republic (12 October 1873). "Liste des élèves admis à l'école spécial militaire". gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  59. ^ Government of the French Republic (25 September 1875). "Classement de sortie de l'école spécial militaire". gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  60. ^ Government of the French Republic (22 March 1893). "Décret portant promotion dans l'armée active". gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  61. ^ Government of the French Republic (9 October 1903). "Décret portant promotion dans l'armée active". gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  62. ^ Government of the French Republic (31 July 1907). "Décret portant promotion dans l'armée active". gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  63. ^ Government of the French Republic (19 February 1921). "Décret portant nomination de Maréchaux de France". gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  64. ^ Government of the French Republic. "Military Medal certificate". culture.gouv.fr. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  65. ^ a b Stacy Holden (2017), "An Islamicized Mausoleum for Maréchal Hubert Lyautey" (PDF), Hespéris-Tamuda, LII (2): 151–177
  66. ^ Roland Benzaken (1 March 2014). "Transfert des cendres de Hubert Lyautey à Rabat". Souvenir et récit d'une enfance à Rabat.
  67. ^ Marie-Christine Pénin (17 November 2016). "Lyautey Hubert (1854-1934), Eglise du Dôme des Invalides (Paris)". Tombes sépultures dans les cimetières et autres lieux.
  68. ^ Bentaleb, Rachida (4 November 2013). "Morocco's Kenitra: a City of Contrasts". Morocco World News. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
  69. ^ "Le maréchal Lyautey Archived 2016-08-09 at the Wayback Machine." Lycée Lyautey. 12 June 2006. Retrieved on 13 July 2016.
  70. ^ "Louis Hubert Gonsalve Lyautey". Equestrian Statues. 6 April 2016.
  71. ^ La gouvernance linguistique : le Canada en perspective (in French). University of Ottawa Press. 1 January 2004.
    ISBN 9782760305892
    . Retrieved 10 January 2010.

Notes

  1. ^ Marshal of France is a dignity and not a rank.
  2. ^ French pronunciation: [ybɛʁ ljotɛ]
  3. ^ i.e. an absolute ruler
  4. ^ equivalent to major

General references

Further reading

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hubert_Lyautey&oldid=1219405254"