Bourbon prince who commanded the émigré Army of Condé
A Bourbon prince du sang who fled Revolutionary France and commanded the émigré Army of Condé against it.
A Bourbon prince of Condé, Louis Joseph left France soon after the Revolution began. He organized and commanded the émigré Army of Condé, which fought Revolutionary France alongside foreign monarchies. He returned to France after Napoleon’s fall.
Career timeline
1736–1740Born a cadet of the House of Bourbon; succeeded as Prince of Condé in 1740 on his father Louis Henri I's death.
1753Married Charlotte de Rohan at Versailles, consolidating his position at court.
1750s–1760sServed as Grand Maître de France under Louis XV and Louis XVI and fought in the Seven Years' War as a general.
1791Based at Coblenz, where he organized and led an émigré counter-revolutionary corps.
1792–1801Commanded the Army of Condé alongside Austria, later in British and Russian service; the corps was disbanded in 1801.
1814–1818Returned to Paris after Napoleon's defeat, resumed his court duties under Louis XVIII, and died in 1818.
French king deposed and tried during the Revolution
The National Convention ruled on 3 December 1792 that it would try Louis XVI itself; convicted of high treason by vote, he was guillotined on 21 January 1793.
King of France from 1774, Louis XVI summoned the Estates-General in 1789 amid a fiscal crisis. He accepted the Constitution of 1791, but the Flight to Varennes and foreign war deepened distrust of the crown. The monarchy was suspended in 1792; the National Convention convicted him and he was executed in January 1793.
Career timeline
1774–1792King of France from 1774 until the monarchy was abolished in September 1792.
1789Summoned the Estates-General amid fiscal crisis and, after the storming of the Bastille, recognized the National Assembly’s legislative authority.
1791His flight to Varennes failed in June; he accepted the constitution, and a constitutional monarchy was declared in September.
1792Arrested in the insurrection of 10 August and held in the Temple; on 21 September the National Convention abolished the monarchy.
1792–1793The National Convention ruled on 3 December that it would try him; trial opened on 11 December and he was convicted of high treason.
1793Executed by guillotine on 21 January at the Place de la Révolution in Paris.
Count of Artois who led émigré royalism during the Revolution
At his 1825 coronation at Reims he tried to revive the royal touch, asserting the sacredness of monarchy; in July 1830 his ordinances dissolved the chamber and censored the press, and the Paris rising forced his abdication on 2 August.
Louis XVI’s younger brother, the Count of Artois left France soon after the fall of the Bastille in 1789. Abroad he promoted Bourbon restoration and became a political centre of émigré royalism. He succeeded as Charles X in 1824 and was overthrown by the July Revolution of 1830.
Career timeline
1765Death of his father, the Dauphin Louis
1773Married Marie Thérèse of Savoy
1789Left France on 17 July, three days after the storming of the Bastille
1791–1792Set up a court-in-exile in the Electorate of Trier and prepared a counter-revolutionary invasion
1814Acted as Lieutenant General of the realm during the Bourbon Restoration
1824–1830King of France; crowned at Reims in 1825
1830Issued the July Ordinances; abdicated on 2 August
Royal Navy admiral who destroyed the French fleet at the Nile
Commanding the British fleet as Rear-Admiral of the Blue at Aboukir Bay in August 1798, he destroyed the French fleet that had escorted Napoleon's army to Egypt: the French flagship Orient exploded, and of the 17 French ships engaged only two ships of the line and two frigates escaped.
British Royal Navy officer. Born in 1758 at the rectory of Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, he entered the navy through his uncle Maurice Suckling's influence, served in the West Indies and the Mediterranean, lost the sight of one eye at Calvi in 1794 and his right arm at Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1797, destroyed the French fleet at Aboukir Bay on 1–3 August 1798, stranding Napoleon's army in Egypt, defeated Denmark at Copenhagen in 1801, and was killed at Trafalgar in 1805.
Career timeline
1794Lost the sight of one eye at Calvi
1797Lost his right arm at Santa Cruz de Tenerife
1798Destroyed the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile
A peddler and sacristan from Le Pin-en-Mauges, he took up arms in March 1793 over conscription and the clergy's civil constitution; the Vendéan chiefs elected him generalissimo at Saumur on 12 June 1793. Mortally wounded storming Nantes on 29 June, he died on 14 July.
A peddler from Anjou and devout Catholic, Cathelineau joined the anti-conscription rising of 1793. He helped unite peasant forces and was chosen as the first generalissimo of the Catholic and Royal Army. He died from a gunshot wound received during the attack on Nantes.
Career timeline
1793.03.12After the rising at Saint-Florent-le-Vieil, he gathered neighbours and marched on Jallais, followed by twenty-seven men.
1793.03.13He fought his first battle at Jallais, seizing the château and a cannon, then took Cholet with Stofflet.
1793.04.23–1793.05.05He seized Beaupréau and won the Battle of Thouars.
1793.05.16–1793.06.09Defeated at Fontenay-le-Comte, he retaliated by taking Montreuil-Bellay and Saumur.
1793.06.12After the capture of Saumur, the assembly of Vendéan chiefs proclaimed him generalissimo of the Catholic and Royal Army.
1793.06.29Leading some 40,000 men in the storming of Nantes, he was mortally wounded by a shot from a window.
1793.07.14Carried to Saint-Florent-le-Vieil, he died of his wounds.
Royalist commander who led guerrilla war in the Lower Vendée
A royal navy officer of the Breton petty nobility, he became the emblematic commander of the Vendéan insurgency against the Republic. His choices and rivalries made him its most controversial general, even among royalists.
A former French naval officer, Charette became a commander of the Catholic and Royal Army in the War in the Vendée. He led guerrilla warfare in the Lower Vendée, signed the Treaty of La Jaunaye in 1795, and later resumed the revolt. Captured in 1796, he was executed by firing squad in Nantes.
Career timeline
1779–1790Entered the royal navy as a garde de la Marine at Brest in 1779; promoted lieutenant de vaisseau in 1787 and resigned in 1790.
1793Took command of the insurgents around Machecoul and was elected general of the Catholic and Royal Army of Bas-Poitou in December 1793.
1795Signed the Treaty of La Jaunaye in February, recognizing the Republic, but resumed fighting in May and was recognized as generalissimo by Louis XVIII in July.
1796Captured at La Chabotterie in March and executed by firing squad at Nantes.
French revolutionary general, commander of the 1798 Irish expedition
On 22 August 1798 he landed at Killala and on 27 August defeated British forces under Lord Lake at Castlebar. The Connacht republic was proclaimed on 31 August, and on 8 September he was defeated and taken prisoner at Ballinamuck.
Born in 1767 at Saint-Nabord in the Vosges, he volunteered in 1792, rose quickly, and became a général de brigade in 1794. In 1798 he commanded the expedition to Ireland, landing at Killala on 22 August and defeating British forces at Castlebar on 27 August; he took part in the proclamation of the Connacht republic on 31 August, but surrendered at Ballinamuck on 8 September and returned home in a prisoner exchange. He later served in the Saint-Domingue expedition, moved to the United States in 1813, aided US forces at New Orleans in 1815, and taught French in his last years; he died at New Orleans in 1823.
Career timeline
1792Enlisted as a volunteer in the 13th battalion
1794Promoted to général de brigade
1798Commanded the Irish expedition, landing at Killala and winning at Castlebar
Norman noble and Girondin sympathizer who assassinated Marat
On 13 July 1793 she gained an interview with Marat by claiming to know of a Girondin plot, then stabbed him to death in his medicinal bath.
A figure of the French Revolution who supported the Girondins. On 13 July 1793 she assassinated the Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat, whom she held responsible for the September 1792 massacres; she judged that the radicalised Jacobins had placed the Revolution in danger. Arrested at the scene and convicted by the Revolutionary Tribunal, she was guillotined on 17 July.
A conqueror who rose from revolutionary general to emperor
In the coup of 9–10 November 1799 (18 Brumaire), he conspired with Talleyrand and Sieyès and used troops with fixed bayonets to disperse the Council of Five Hundred and overturn the Directory, then took effective power as First Consul.
Born into an Italian-descended Corsican family, he was commissioned in the French royal artillery in 1785, supported the Revolution of 1789, and rose through his victories over royalists at Toulon in 1793 and Vendémiaire in 1795. The Italian campaign of 1796 made him a national hero, and in November 1799 the Brumaire coup overthrew the Directory and made him First Consul; in 1804 he became emperor of the First Empire. He won at Austerlitz in 1805 but was ruined by the Russian campaign of 1812 and Leipzig in 1813, was exiled to Elba in 1814, and after the Hundred Days lost at Waterloo and died on Saint Helena in 1821. His reforms such as the Napoleonic Code and public education endure, while the plunder of occupied lands, suppression of the press and deportation or imprisonment of critics, and the restoration of slavery in the colonies make him a contested figure.
Career timeline
1785Commissioned as an artillery second lieutenant in the French royal army.
1793Led the recapture of Toulon and was promoted to brigadier general.
1795Suppressed the royalist rising of Vendémiaire.
1796–1797Commanded the Army of Italy, defeating Austrian forces.
1798–1799Commanded the Egyptian and Syrian expedition.
1799Overthrew the Directory in the Brumaire coup and became First Consul.
1804–1814Ruled as emperor of the French First Empire.
1815Returned to power for the Hundred Days and was finally defeated at Waterloo.
Young noble officer elected generalissimo of the Vendéan army
Emerging as a Vendéan commander in 1793, he was elected royalist commander-in-chief at 21 after Cholet. He led the campaign north of the Loire in late 1793 and died fighting a guerrilla war in January 1794.
A former royal army officer, La Rochejaquelein joined the Vendéan rising in 1793 and led forces in its major battles. After the defeat at Cholet he was elected generalissimo of the Catholic and Royal Army at age twenty-one and took part in the campaign north of the Loire. He was killed in a skirmish in 1794.
Career timeline
1787Joined the Royal Polish Regiment, in which his father was colonel
1792As an officer of the Constitutional Guard, fought in the defence of the Tuileries on 10 August
1793After refusing conscription, joined the rising with Lescure and won at Fontenay-le-Comte and Saumur
1793.10Elected commander-in-chief of the Catholic and Royal Army after the defeat at Cholet
1793.11In the campaign north of the Loire, failed to take Granville and fell back on Angers
1793.12Defeated at Le Mans and Savenay, where his army was destroyed
1794.01.28Shot dead by a Republican soldier near Nuaillé while on reconnaissance