Maurice d'Elbée: Difference between revisions
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{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2013}} |
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{{Infobox military person |
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| image = Maurice d'Elbée.jpg |
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| caption = ''Maurice d'Elbée'', by [[Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson|Girodet]] |
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| nickname = General Providence |
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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1752|3|21|df=y}} |
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| birth_place = [[Dresden]], [[Electorate of Saxony]] |
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| death_date = {{Death date and age|1794|1|6|1752|3|21|df=y}} |
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| death_place = [[Noirmoutier (island)|Noirmoutier]], [[French First Republic]] |
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| placeofburial = |
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| allegiance = {{flag|Kingdom of France}}<br />[[Revolt in the Vendée|Royalist rebels]] |
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| branch = [[French Royal Army (1652–1830)|French Royal Army]] |
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| serviceyears = 1777–1783<br />1793–1794 |
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| rank = [[Major General]] (France)<br />[[Generalissimo]] (Vendée) |
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| unit = |
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| commands = |
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| battles = [[War in the Vendée]] |
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*[[Battle of Fontenay-le-Comte|First Battle of Fontenay-le-Comte]] |
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*[[Battle of Saumur (1793)|Battle of Saumur]] |
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*[[Battle of Nantes]] |
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*[[Battle of Luçon]] |
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*[[Battle of Tiffauges]] |
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*[[Battle of Cholet]] |
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| awards = |
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| relations = |
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| laterwork = |
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}} |
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'''Maurice-Joseph-Louis Gigost d'Elbée''' ({{IPA-fr|mɔʁis ʒɔzɛf lwi ʒiɡo dɛlbe, moʁ-|pron}}; 21 March 1752 – 6 January 1794) was a [[French people|French]] [[Royalist]] military leader. Initially enthusiastic about the Revolution, he became disenchanted with the [[Civil Constitution of the Clergy|disestablishment]] of the Catholic Church and retired to his estates in [[Beaupreau]]. He was the second [[commander in chief]] of the ''Royal and Catholic Army'' formed by Royalist forces of the [[Revolt in the Vendée|Vendean insurrection]] against the [[First French Republic|Republic]] and the [[French Revolution]]. |
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==Life== |
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Louis d'Elbee was born in [[Dresden]], [[Electorate of Saxony]] to a French family in 1752. He moved to France in 1777, becoming a naturalised citizen and joining the [[French Royal Army (1652–1830)|French Royal Army]]. He embarked on a military career, reaching the rank of lieutenant, but resigned from the army in 1783 and married, thereafter living a retired country life near [[Beaupréau]] in [[Anjou]]. He then served as an officer in the army of [[Frederick Augustus I of Saxony|Frederick Augustus I]], the [[Rulers of Saxony|Prince-Elector of Saxony]]. After the Revolution, he returned in obedience to the law which ordered emigrants to return to France. |
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===Participation in the Vendéan Revolt=== |
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{{see also|Revolt in the Vendée}} |
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The peasantry and much of the middle class in the Vendée remained loyal to the [[Catholic Church]] and, in 1792, the [[Charles Armand Tuffin, marquis de la Rouërie|Marquess de la Rouërie]] had organized a general rising, although this was frustrated by the count's arrest. However, when the Convention decreed the levee en masse of 300,000 men, the Vendée mounted a war against what they considered the [[atheist]] Republic. The peasants of [[Beaupréau]] to appoint him as their leader. His troop joined those of [[François de Charette]], [[Charles Melchior Artus de Bonchamps|Charles Bonchamps]], [[Jacques Cathelineau]] and [[Jean-Nicolas Stofflet]]. The army experienced several successes: Stofflet defeated the republic army at [[Battle of St. Vincent|St. Vincent]]; D'Elbée and Bonchamps won at [[Battle of Beaupreau|Beaupreau]]; and [[Henri de la Rochejaquelein]] won the victories at the [[Battle of Aubiers|Aubiers]] and [[First Battle of Cholet|First Cholet]].<ref name=Keegan>John Keegan, Andrew Wheatcroft, ''Who's Who in Military History: From 1453 to the Present Day.'' Routledge, 2014. p. 86.</ref> He is famous for his actions after the [[Battle of Chemillé]], on 11 April 1793: after the insurgents' victory, many of them planned to avenge their dead and slaughter the Republican prisoners (approx. 400). D'Elbée tried to prevent them, and eventually asked them to recite the Our Father, which they did; then, when they had reached the sentence "And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us", he interrupted them with the words: "Do not lie to God!". Moved by this reproach, his men turned away, and d'Elbée was able to save the prisoners. This episode has since become known as "''Le Pater d'Elbée''" (d'Elbée's ''[[Pater Noster]]''). |
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[[File:D'Elbée Chemillé.jpg|250px|thumbnail|left|''D'Elbée protecting Republican prisoners after the battle of Chemillé'', by Marie Felix Edmond de Boislecomte.]] |
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By spring 1793, the insurgents controlled the province of Brittany. On 2 June, LaRochejacquelin stormed [[Battle of Saumur (1793)|Saumur]] and Cathelineau was elected as commander in chief. D'Elbée was the top deputy of Cathelineau. The eight-year-old [[Louis XVII of France|Louis XVII]] held in the Temple prison in Paris, the son of the executed Louis XVI, was proclaimed king of France, and Charette and Cathelineu united their armies to advance upon [[Nantes]]. When Cathelineau knelt at the town square to thank God for their victories, he was killed by a Republican sniper on 14 July 1793; d'Elbée replaced him as generalissimo. A skillful general, he led the small Vendéan army to several victories, most notably at [[Battle of Coron|Coron]] and [[Battle of Torfou|Torfou]]. Even at his loss at the [[Battle of Luçon]] (19 August 1793), he managed to extract his force from danger. At the [[Battle of Luçon]] he managed to extricate the Royalist force from a potential rout, but suffered a significant reverse.<ref name=Keegan/><ref>Thomas Edward Watson, ''From the end of the reign of Louis the Fifteenth to the consulate...'' Macmillan Company, 1901, pp. 799–800.</ref> |
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[[File:Mortd'Elbée.jpg|300px|thumb|right|''Death of General D'Elbée'', by [[Julien Le Blant]].]] |
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The Republican government in Paris entrusted its fighting to generals of the old army. Westermann was sent against them first, but on July 5 he was driven from Chatillon and suspended by the representatives on mission. After his dismissal, some of the most incompetent generals of the old army sought to defeat the rebellion. He was succeeded by the Duke of Lauzun, General Biron, who was no more successful, and who was dismissed less than a week later; the committee then sent [[Jean Antoine Rossignol]], formerly a goldsmith's apprentice, [[Antoine Joseph Santerre]], a brewer, and [[Charles-Philippe Ronsin]], a playwright; all were beaten in successive battles, although Rossignol managed to hang on to his command.<ref>Watson, p. 859. As a general Rossignol was accused of incompetence by his subordinate, [[Augustin Tuncq]].</ref> |
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Eventually, [[Jean Baptiste Kléber]] took command of the Republic army in the Vendée and inflicted a series of defeats. Following the [[Battle of Cholet|Second Battle at Cholet]] (17 October 1793), he was badly wounded and Bonchamps was killed. Afterwards d'Elbée was transported first to Beaupréau, then the island of [[Noirmoutier (island)|Noirmoutier]]. Three months later, the Republicans took control of the island and brought him before a military commission for a show trial. Condemned to death, he was executed by firing squad in the public square of the town of Noirmoutier. He was shot sitting in a chair, since he was unable to stand due to his fourteen wounds. Rochejaquelein, (1772–1794) a former royal cavalry officer, succeeded him as general of the Vendéan force.<ref>Keegan, p. 251.</ref> |
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==Personal life== |
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He was married to Marguerite Charlotte Holly Hauterive on 17 November 1788 in the Church of the Gaubretière, and therefore lived retired in a country very close to Beaupréau in Anjou. Marguerite d'Elbée was shot twenty days following the execution of her husband in January 1794 and buried in a sunken road. The remains of her body were discovered by chance much later. |
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His son Louis-Joseph Maurice d'Elbée was born on 12 March 1793. Louis-Joseph Maurice d'Elbée was raised in [[Beaupréau]]. He served in the armies of [[Napoleon]], where he distinguished himself in the [[Battle of Leipzig]] and the [[Battle of Hanau]]. Wounded in Hanau, he was taken prisoner and transported to the [[Potsdam]] hospital where he died the following year.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.esag.terre.defense.gouv.fr/Vauban-LdG-telecharger/LG_25.PDF |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2016-04-09 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924001924/http://www.esag.terre.defense.gouv.fr/Vauban-LdG-telecharger/LG_25.PDF |archivedate=24 September 2015 |df=dmy-all }} Jacques Dupire - Le général d'Elbée. - En "La lettre du génie"</ref> |
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The chair d'Elbée was executed in remained within his family until 1975, when his relative Marquis Charles Maurice d'Elbée donated the chair to the Vendée Museum in the [[Château de Noirmoutier]]. |
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==References== |
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{{Reflist}} |
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{{Authority control}} |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Elbee, Louis d}} |
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[[Category:1752 births]] |
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[[Category:1794 deaths]] |
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[[Category:People from Dresden]] |
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[[Category:Royalist military leaders of the War in the Vendée]] |
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[[Category:Executed French people]] |
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[[Category:People executed by the French First Republic]] |
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[[Category:People executed by France by firing squad]] |
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[[Category:Executed German people]] |
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[[Category:People executed during the French Revolution]] |
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[[Category:Executed people from Saxony]] |
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Revision as of 05:59, 26 April 2020
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