Pierre Daru

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Pierre Antoine Noël Bruno
Comte de Daru
1 April 1814
Preceded byHenri Jacques Guillaume Clarke
Succeeded byPierre Dupont de l'Étang
Personal details
Born(1767-01-12)12 January 1767
French Imperial Army
Years of service1793 – 1814

Pierre Antoine Noël Bruno, Comte de Daru (12 January 1767 – 5 September 1829) was a French soldier, statesman, historian, and poet.

Early career

Born in

Montpellier, he was educated at the Oratorian-maintained military school of Tournon, and entered artillery service at an early age. He also took an interest in literature, and he published several minor pieces, until the outbreak of the French Revolution
made him concentrate on his military assignments.

In 1793 he became commissary to the army, protecting the coasts of Brittany from projected descents of the British, or of French Royalists. Thrown into prison during the Reign of Terror, on an unsubstantiated charge of friendliness to the Royalists and the British, he was released after the fall of Maximilien Robespierre in the summer of 1794 (during the Thermidorian Reaction), and rose through the ranks until, in 1799, he became chief commissary to the French Revolutionary Army serving under André Masséna in the north of Switzerland.

In that position he won repute for his organizing capacity, capacity of work and probity (the last of which qualities was contrasted with the wave of corruption). He did not however limit himself to his tasks, and found time, even during the campaign, to translate part of Horace and to compose two poems, the Poème des Alpes and the Chant de guerre – the latter was a condemnation of the murder of the French envoys to the Second Congress of Rastatt.

Consulate and early Empire

The accession of

First Consul. Conjointly with Berthier and Dejean, he signed the armistice with the Holy Roman Empire
which closed the campaign in North Italy in June 1800.

Daru now returned, for a time, mainly to civil life, and entered the

Treaty of Pressburg
.

Prominence

At this tune, too, he became

Treaty of Tilsit (7 July 1807). After this he supervised the administrative and financial duties in connection with the French army which occupied the principal fortresses of Prussia, and was one of the chief agents through whom Napoleon pressed hard on that land. At the Congress of Erfurt, Daru had the privilege of being present at the interview between Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
and Napoleon, and interposed tactful references to the works of the great poet.

Daru fulfilled his usual duties in the

Josephine Beauharnais and the choice of a Russian or of an Austrian princess came to be discussed, Daru, on being consulted by Napoleon, is said to have boldly counselled his marriage with a French lady, and that Napoleon, who admired his frankness and honesty, was not angered by the remark. Still in 1809, he was created a count
of the Empire.

In 1811 he became secretary of state in succession to

portfolio of military affairs
.

After the first abdication of Napoleon in 1814, Daru retired into private life, but aided Napoleon during his return (the

Meulan
.

His son who inherited the title is Napoléon Daru, brother of Viscount Paul Daru. Pierre Daru often appears in the autobiographical works of Stendhal, of whom he was a cousin.

Legacy

Several elements of Napoleon III's Louvre expansion bear Daru's name, including the Louvre's most monumental staircase and several exhibition rooms (escalier Daru, galerie Daru, salle Daru).

Works

Besides his translation of Horace, Daru was the author of:

  • Histoire de la République de Venise (in 7 vols, Paris, 1819)
  • Histoire de Bretagne, (3 vols, Paris, 1826)
  • Discours en vers sur les facultés de l'homme (Paris, 1825)
  • Astronomie (a didactic poem in six cantos; Paris, 1820)

References

  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: John Holland Rose (1911). "Daru, Pierre Antoine Noël Bruno, Count". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. In turn, it cites as references:
    • Correspondance de Napoleon I (32 vols, Paris, 1858–1870), for the many letters of Napoleon to Daru.
    • Articles by Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve in Causeries du lundi, vol. ix.
    • Jean-Pons-Guillaume Viennet, Notice sur Daru (prefixed to the fourth edition of Daru's Histoire de la République de Venise (9 vols, 1853).
Political offices
Preceded by
1 April 1814
 Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pierre_Daru&oldid=1211730361"