1762–1833
General of the Revolutionary Wars, victor of Fleurus and framer of the 1798 conscription law
His defining revolutionary moment was the decisive victory over the First Coalition at Fleurus in 1794. In 1798, in the Council of Five Hundred, he proposed with fellow deputy Pierre Delbrel the Jourdan Law, conscripting single and childless men aged 20 to 25.
A French soldier who served in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars and became a Marshal of the Empire in 1804. Born at Limoges in 1762, son of the surgeon Roch Jourdan, he fought in the American War of Independence, then in the revolutionary wars led the Army of the North to victory at Wattignies in October 1793 and broke the siege of Maubeuge. He went on to command the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse and won a decisive victory over the First Coalition at Fleurus in 1794. A Jacobin politician under the Directory, he sat in the Council of Five Hundred (1797–1799) and framed the conscription law of 1798, the Jourdan Law. Defeated at Vitoria in 1813, he supported the July Revolution of 1830 and served as governor of the Hôtel des Invalides until his death.
Also known as: Marshal Jourdan · Count Jourdan
Activities and affiliations
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French First Republic state institutionsCommander of the Army of the North and the Army of Sambre-et-MeuseMain
Military command
Career Timeline
- 1778–1783Joined the Auxerrois regiment and fought in the American War of Independence, serving at Savannah in 1779 and in the West Indies
- 1793Promoted brigadier general on 27 May and general of division two months later; named to lead the Army of the North on 22 September and won at Wattignies in October
- 1794Led the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse, formally named on 29 June, and won at Fleurus on 26 June
- 1797–1799Elected to the Council of Five Hundred, where he proposed and carried the conscription law of 1798; defeated at Ostrach and Stockach in 1799
- 1804–1815Made marshal and count by Napoleon, governor of Piedmont, chief of staff to Joseph Bonaparte in Spain in 1808, and defeated at Vitoria in 1813
- 1816–1833After 1815 adhered to the Bourbons, becoming governor of Grenoble in 1816 and Peer of France in 1819; backed the July Revolution of 1830, briefly held the foreign affairs portfolio, then served as governor of the Hôtel des Invalides until his death
Related historical events
The Peninsular War and Joseph Bonaparte's staff
In 1804 Napoleon made Jourdan a Marshal of the Empire, but the marshal's baton gave him no independent command. He stayed on in the newly created Kingdom of Italy, and when Joseph Bonaparte became King of Naples in 1806 Jourdan became his military adviser, following Joseph to Spain when he took the Spanish throne in 1808. Throughout the Peninsular War that followed, Jourdan served Joseph as chief of staff of the French forces in Spain, but the other marshals, who answered directly to Napoleon, rarely obeyed orders from Joseph and Jourdan. The Russian-language biography likewise says that he had no authority among the other marshals, who put Napoleon's instructions first and ignored the orders of Jourdan and the king.
The defeat at the Battle of Talavera in 1809 was blamed on Jourdan, and he was replaced by Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult. He returned as Joseph's chief of staff in September 1811, but with few troops assigned to him. After the Battle of Salamanca in July 1812, Joseph and Jourdan had to abandon Madrid and fall back on Valencia. When Wellington advanced again the following year, the two were forced to give battle at Vitoria on 21 June 1813. The French were decisively defeated and lost Spain for good, and Jourdan's marshal's baton fell into British hands. According to the Russian-language biography, the French lost almost their entire baggage train, including Jourdan's own carriage.
Frustrated that his advice went unheeded, Jourdan asked to be recalled; the request was granted in 1809, and he remained out of service until 1812. The Russian-language biography attributes his unsuccessful career under Napoleon to Napoleon himself, who placed him in the ambiguous position of a military adviser with ill-defined powers. On Saint Helena, Napoleon admitted that he had not treated Jourdan fairly and called him a true patriot. Jourdan left memoirs, including an account of the 1796 campaign (Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de la campagne de 1796) and one of the operations of the Army of the Danube.