Laurent Jean François Truguet

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Laurent Jean François Truguet
conseiller d'État, knight grand-cross of the order of Saint Louis, comte, peer of France

Laurent Jean François Truguet (10 January 1752, Toulon – 26 December 1839, Toulon) was a French admiral.

Life

Youth up to the Revolution

Of aristocratic origins, and the son of a

Louis XV. He became enseigne de vaisseau
in 1773 and had already been in eight campaigns by July 1778, when war was declared against England.

In the

comte d'Estaing, and took part in the battle at Saint Lucia. Lieutenant de vaisseau from 1779, in the land attack on Savannah, he saved the life of admiral d'Estaing despite being severely wounded himself, for which he was made a knight of Order of Saint Louis
.

On the Languedoc then the Citoyen, he took part in various battles as a member of

Battle of St. Kitts, Battle of the Saintes
).

Major de Vaisseau from 1784, he cooperated in the tasks assigned to M. Choiseuil-Gouffier, ambassador to Constantinople, and was charged with instructing the Ottomans in the arts of fortification, artillery, metallurgy, naval architecture, and so on. Truguet commanded a brig, the Tarleton, with which he re-mapped the hydrography of the Dardanelles
in 1785 and 1786, and in 1787 published a "Traité de Marine" (Naval Treatise) at Constantinople.

French Revolutionary Wars

On his return to France in 1789, he was sent to Brest in 1790 to take the command of a frigate there intended for a mission that was, in the end, rendered unnecessary by the course of events. He then made a trip in England for there to complete his naval education. Made

Expédition de Sardaigne, a failed invasion of the island of Sardinia; he had moved to bombard Cagliari
, when an insurrection broke out among the disembarking troops which obliged him to sail to the beaches and reembark them.

Passing

penal code, that would prevent many future insurrections and mutinies but still provoke much discontent in France's naval bases. He was discharged at the end of 31 May that year and imprisoned at the time of the publication of the law of suspects, but was liberated on 9 Thermidor
(27 July).

He was promoted vice admiral in 1795 and

Morard de Galle commanding the naval forces. This operation proved to be a complete fiasco. He organized and sent a division of frigates into the Indian Ocean under the command of Sercey
.

He strove to get the colonies to respect the 1794 decree of the abolition of the slavery, and supported the creation of a collège intended for black and mixed-race children close to Paris; this collège later had the sons of Toussaint Louverture among its pupils, but was closed by Decrès in 1802.

Truguet also took the initiative in composing a new collection of naval tactics that would be adopted in year V of the

French Republican Calendar
. He broke with the exclusively defensive conceptions of the collection of 1769. He officialised and systematised the practice of having a light attack squadron within each fleet. This collection was later completed by the collection of year IX, also inspired by Truguet.

At the time of the ministerial reshuffle in preparation for the coup of 18 Fructidor year V (4 September 1797), he was replaced by

conseiller d'État
on 20 September 1801.

He composed four reports for the

peace of Amiens
brought the admiral back to Paris.

First French Empire

When war broke out again, Bonaparte entrusted to Truguet the organisation and command of the fleet at Brest, with his flagship being the Alexandre, then the Vengeur. In 1804, while all were conscientiously signing a "spontaneous" petition amidst his whole fleet to demand an imperial crown for Bonaparte, in the same way as was being done in the army, Truguet publicly took a stand against the establishment of the Empire in a letter that became historic. This consigned him to 5 years of severe disgrace, and the loss of all his titles and his membership of the

légion d'honneur
.

In 1809, the Emperor recalled him to command the squadron gathered at

île d'Aix. The following year, Napoleon put him at the head of the Kingdom of Holland
's naval high command. Repulsed by foreign invasion, Truguet was one of the first to leave his post in the last years of the Empire.

Bourbon Restoration

Admiral Truguet returned to Paris where

Louis XVIII brought him back into the navy at the head of the naval corps, and made him a knight grand-cross of the Légion d'honneur. During the Hundred Days, he received neither a command nor any favours from Napoleon. On the second restoration, he was given overall command of the Brest fleet, and received orders to keep the town's arsenal safe from the approaching foreign occupation troops. Succeeding in doing so, he was rewarded by the King by being made knight grand-cross of the order of Saint Louis, a comte, and a peer of France
(5 May 1819).

At the end of the July Revolution, Truguet was elevated to the highest naval honour, that of Grand Amiral, naval equivalent to Marshal of France. He died aged 87 in 1839 in Toulon.

Analysis

Certainly one of the most competent French sailors of his generation, Truguet was a convinced republican despite his aristocratic origins. He was an effective minister and reestablished a little order in the navy after the excesses of the Terror. On the other hand, he bears some of the responsibility for the fiasco of the expedition to Ireland. Few men like him with important responsibilities dared to oppose Napoleon's re-legalisation of slavery in the colonies or establishment of the Empire, and though his courageous stands made his relations with Napoleon complex and often stormy, Napoleon still considered him one of his better admirals and in difficult circumstances called upon him for confidential missions. He appears on the Arc de Triomphe.

Sources

  • (in French) "Laurent Truguet", in Charles Mullié, Biographie des célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 à 1850, 1852
  • (in French) Granier (Hubert) : Marins de France au Combat 1793–1815
  • Six, Georges (1934). "Truguet (Laurent-Jean-François)". Dictionnaire biographique des généraux et amiraux français de la Révolution et de l'Empire: 1792–1814 (in French). Vol. 2. Paris: Librairie Historique et Nobilaire. p. 515.
  • (in French) Thomazi (Auguste) : Les Marins de Napoléon
Military offices
Preceded by
French Naval Minister

15 July 1797 – 27 April 1798 		Succeeded by
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