Nicolas Joseph Maison

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


Nicolas Joseph Maison

Portrait by Léon Cogniet, 1835
Born(1771-12-19)19 December 1771
Épinay-sur-Seine, France
Died13 February 1840(1840-02-13) (aged 68)
Paris, France
Years of service1789–1836
RankMarshal of France
Commands heldMorea expedition (1828)
Battles/warsFrench Revolutionary Wars
Napoleonic Wars
Greek War of Independence
AwardsMarquess
Peer of France
Name engraved under the Arc de Triomphe
Grand-croix of the Order of Saint-Louis
Grand-croix of the Legion of Honour
Knight of the Military Order of Maximilian Joseph (Bavaria)
Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Redeemer (Greece)
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III (Spain)
Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold (Belgium)
Other workMinister of Foreign Affairs (1830)
Minister of War (1835 –1836)

Nicolas Joseph Maison, 1st Marquis of Maison (French pronunciation: [nikɔla ʒozɛf mɛzɔ̃]; 19 December 1771 – 13 February 1840) was a French military officer who served in the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars, and as commander of the Morea expedition during the Greek War of Independence. He was made a Marshal of France in 1829 and served as Minister of War from 1835 to 1836.[1]

Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars

Nicolas Joseph Maison, grenadier in the 1st battalion of Paris in 1792, by Léon Cogniet (1834)

Nicolas-Joseph Maison was born in

Jean Bernadotte in 1799.[1]

In 1805, he joined the I Corps of the

After the wounding of Marshal

Légion d'honneur and was made a count of the empire.[3] In 1814, he was tasked with defending what is now Belgium and the port of Antwerp. With inadequate forces, he managed to hold his own against greatly superior Allied forces and defeated Johann von Thielmann's Saxons at the Battle of Courtrai.[1]

Bourbon restoration

After the abdication of the emperor, Maison rallied to

Marseilles. In 1817, Maison was created a marquis and a Peer of France by Louis XVIII.[1]

Surrender of the Castle of Morea of Patras to General Nicolas Joseph Maison (by Jean-Charles Langlois)
Meeting of General Maison and Ibrahim Pasha at Navarino in September 1828 (by Jean-Charles Langlois)

In 1828, he was given command of the French expeditionary corps in Morea (the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece).[1][4] This expedition consisted in a land intervention of the French Army in the Peloponnese at the time of the Greek War of Independence, with the aim of liberating the region from the Turkish-Egyptian occupation forces commanded by Ibrahim Pasha.[5] The military expedition was also accompanied by a scientific expedition mandated by the French Academy. After the soldiers took control of the principal strongholds held by the Turkish troops (Navarino, Modon, Coron and Patras), General Maison was created a Marshal of France by Charles X on 22 February 1829.[6][7][8][9] Although he returned to France after 8 months, the French kept a military presence in the area until 1833. He left Greece on 22 May 1829.[5]

Later life

In 1830, Maison supported the

ambassador to Russia in St. Petersburg. Maison served as minister of war from 30 April 1835 to 19 September 1836 after which he retired from public life.[1]

Nicolas-Joseph Maison died in Paris on 13 February 1840. He is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery (division 5).[1]

Honors, military grades and decorations

Political offices

Political offices
Preceded by
Minister of Foreign Affairs

2 November 1830 – 17 November 1830
Succeeded by
Horace François Bastien, baron Sébastiani
Preceded by
Henri Gauthier, comte de Rigny
Minister of War

30 April 1835 – 6 September 1836
Succeeded by


See also

  • List of members of the Morea expedition (1828-1833)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Nicolas Joseph Maison", in Adolphe Robert and Gaston Cougny, Dictionnaire des parlementaires français (1789–1891), Bourloton, Paris, 1889.
  2. OCLC 36661226.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link
    )
  3. ^ a b "Notice no. LH/1698/41". Base Léonore (in French). .
  4. .
  5. ^ a b Nicolas-Joseph Maison (Lieutenant-general) : dépêches adressées au ministre de la Guerre Louis-Victor de Caux, vicomte de Blacquetot, October 1828, in Jacques Mangeart, Supplemental Chapter of the Souvenirs de la Morée: recueillis pendant le séjour des Français dans le Peloponèse, Igonette, Paris, 1830.
  6. ^ Eugène Cavaignac, Lettres d'Eugène Cavaignac, Expédition de Morée (1828–1829) (Gallica – BnF), Revue des deux Mondes, 141, 1er mai 1897.
  7. ^ Alexandre Duheaume, Souvenirs de la Morée, pour servir à l'histoire de l'expédition française en 1828–1829. (Gallica – BnF), Anselin, Paris, 1833.
  8. ^ Jacques Mangeart, Souvenirs de la Morée: recueillis pendant le séjour des Français dans le Peloponèse (Google books), Igonette, Paris, 1830.
  9. ^ Gaspard Roux, Histoire médicale de l'armée française en Morée, pendant la campagne de 1828 (Google books), Méquignon l'aîné père, Paris, 1829.

Bibliography

External links