Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr

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Marshal of the Empire
Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr
Marquis of Gouvion-Saint-Cyr
Portrait by Horace Vernet, 1821
Minister of War
In office
7 July 1815 – 26 September 1815
Preceded byLouis-Nicolas Davout
Succeeded byHenri Jacques Guillaume Clarke
In office
12 September 1817 – 19 November 1819
Preceded byHenri Jacques Guillaume Clarke
Succeeded byVictor de Fay de La Tour-Maubourg
Minister of the Navy and the Colonies
In office
23 June 1817 – 12 September 1817
Preceded byFrançois Joseph de Gratet, Vicomte de Dubouchage
Succeeded byLouis-Mathieu Molé
Personal details
Born(1764-04-13)13 April 1764
French Imperial Army

French Royal Army
Years of service1792–1814
1815–1819
RankMarshal of the Empire
Battles/wars
See list:

Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, 1st Marquis of Gouvion-Saint-Cyr (French pronunciation: [loʁɑ̃ də ɡuvjɔ̃ sɛ̃ siʁ]; 13 April 1764 – 17 March 1830) was a French military commander in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars who rose to the rank of Marshal of the Empire. He is regarded as Napoleon's finest commander in defensive warfare.

Early life

He was born Laurent Gouvion in Toul, Three Bishoprics (now Meurthe-et-Moselle), the eldest child of Jean-Baptiste Gouvion, a tanner, and his wife Anne-Marie Mercier. He adopted the name Saint-Cyr after his mother, who had abandoned him at an early age.

He went to Rome when he was eighteen in order to study painting, but, although he continued his artistic studies after his return to Paris in 1784, he never adopted the profession of a painter.

He married Anne Gouvion (Toul, 2 November 1775 – Paris, 18 June 1844) and had issue, including Laurent François, Marquis de Gouvion Saint-Cyr (30 December 1815 – 30 January 1904), married in Saint-Bouize on 17 August 1847 to Marie Adélaïde Bachasson de Montalivet (5 November 1828 – 14 April 1880), daughter of Marthe Camille Bachasson, Count of Montalivet, and had issue.

Revolutionary Wars

Portrait by Jean-Urbain Guérin, 1801

In 1792, Saint-Cyr was chosen as a

Rhine Campaign of 1796, aiding in the celebrated retreat from Bavaria to the Rhine
.

In 1798 he succeeded

General Kray at Biberach
. He was not, however, on good terms with his commander and retired to France after the first operations of the campaign.

In 1801, Saint-Cyr was sent to Spain to command the army intended for the invasion of Portugal (see War of the Oranges), and was named grand officer of the Legion of Honour. When a treaty of peace was shortly afterwards concluded with Portugal, he succeeded Lucien Bonaparte as ambassador at Madrid.

Napoleonic Wars

Heraldic achievement of Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr as comte de l’Empire

Saint-Cyr was a stoic in an age of pragmatism and glory. His refusal to sign the proclamation of congratulation for declaring the birth of the empire resulted in his name not being included in the first list of Napoleonic Marshals, while commanders such as

1807 campaigns in Prussia and Poland, and in 1808, in which year he was made a count (comte de l’Empire), he commanded an army corps in Catalonia
; but, not wishing to comply with certain orders he received from Paris, he resigned his command and remained in disgrace till 1811.

He was still a

Daugava river, however, that Oudinot
was wounded, and thus Saint-Cyr assumed his command.

In October 1812, Saint-Cyr was

Allies after the Battle of Leipzig, capitulating only on 11 November, when Napoleon
had retreated to the Rhine. In this year, Saint Cyr's relation with the Emperor warmed as Napoleon commented that Saint Cyr had no match in all of the marshalate and was the equal of Napoleon himself in defence. On the day he received his baton, he wrote a lengthy letter to his wife, and, true to his character, he devoted only one line to his promotion.

Last years

During the

military law and the pension regulations. He was made a marquess in 1817. Saint-Cyr died on 17 March 1830 in Hyères
, a town in the southeast of France.

In literature

Marshal Saint-Cyr is mentioned in Joseph Conrad's short story "The Duel" (as well as Ridley Scott's film adaptation The Duellists) as the commander of Armand d'Hubert after the second and final restoration of Louis XVIII as King of France. He is also mentioned in Stendhal's "The Red and the Black".

Writings

  • Journal des opérations de l'armée de Catalogne en 1808 et 1809 (Paris, 1821)
  • Mémoires sur les campagnes des armées de Rhin et de Rhin-et-Moselle de 1794 à 1797 (Paris, 1829)
  • Mémoires pour servir de l'histoire militaire sous le Directoire, le Consulat et l'Empire (1831)

References

  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Gouvion Saint-Cyr, Laurent, Marquis de". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 292. In turn, it cites as reference Léonard Honoré Gay de Vernon's Vie de Gouvion Saint-Cyr (1857)
  • Chandler, David (editor). Napoleon's Marshals. London: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1987.
    ISBN 0-297-79124-9
Political offices
Preceded by
Louis Nicolas Davout
Minister of War

7 July 1815 – 26 September 1815 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Minister of War

12 September 1817 – 19 November 1819 		Succeeded by
Marie Victor Nicolas de Fay, marquis de La Tour-Maubourg
Preceded by
Ministers of Marine and the Colonies

23 June 1817 – 12 September 1817 		Succeeded by


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