Jean-Nicolas Stofflet

Catholic and Royal Army (Vendée) Counter-revolutionary forces 1753–1796 ✕ Shot

Gamekeeper who became commander of the Vendéan army of Anjou, shot at Angers

Born in 1753 at Bathelémont in Lorraine, a miller’s son, he served for long as a private in a Swiss regiment and later became a gamekeeper at Maulévrier. Chosen as a leader for his military past when Anjou rose in March 1793, he took Saint-Florent-le-Vieil with Cathelineau and fought under d’Elbée at Fontenay, Cholet, Laval and Antrain. Appointed major-general of the royalist army, he took command after La Rochejaquelein was killed in January 1794 and, with peasants fleeing the infernal columns, briefly retook Cholet on 8 February. At La Jaunaye in February 1795 he refused to recognise the Republic, but Canclaux’s offensive drove him to make peace on the same terms at Saint-Florent-le-Vieil on 2 May. On the orders of the Count of Artois he rose again in January 1796, was surprised in a farmhouse near La Poitevinière, condemned by a military commission at Angers and shot on 25 February.