French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars commander, Marshal of the Empire
At the Second Battle of Zurich in 1799 he led the Army of Helvetia to defeat Korsakov's Austro-Russian force, and in 1800 he held Genoa for about sixty days, tying down Austrian troops so Bonaparte could win at Marengo.
Commander of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He was born Andrea Massena on 6 May 1758 in Nice, then the County of Nice in the Kingdom of Sardinia. He began as an enlisted soldier in the royal Italian regiment, reached the highest rank open to a commoner in 1784, and became a brigade general in August 1793 and a general of division on 20 December 1793. On 19 May 1804 he became one of the first eighteen Marshals of the Empire created by Napoleon, and he was made Duke of Rivoli in 1808 and Prince of Essling in 1809, though some sources record January 1810. He died of tuberculosis in Paris on 4 April 1817, aged 58.
Career timeline
1758Born in Nice
1784Senior non-commissioned rank (adjudant) in the royal Italian regiment
1793Brigade general in August; general of division on 20 December
1799Commander of the Army of Helvetia; victory at the Second Battle of Zurich
1800Commander of the Army of Italy; defence of Genoa
1804Appointed Marshal of the Empire
1808Duke of Rivoli
1809Prince of Essling (some sources record January 1810)
1810Invasion of Portugal; defeated by Wellington at Bussaco
1811Relieved of his command on 11 May
1815Naturalised French by Louis XVIII on 20 January
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.
Revolutionary leader associated with the Cordeliers and Indulgents
From Cordeliers orator to minister of justice after the monarchy fell on 10 August 1792, and a disputed figure in responsibility for the September Massacres. He sat on the first Committee of Public Safety in 1793, later led the Indulgents demanding an end to the Terror, and was guillotined in 1794.
A prominent Cordelier, Danton became minister of justice after the monarchy fell in August 1792. He rallied support for defence of the Republic and served on the first Committee of Public Safety in 1793. Later associated with calls to moderate the Terror and stabilize the Revolution, he clashed with the ruling committee and was executed in April 1794.
Career timeline
1789–1792Rose to prominence in the radical politics of the Cordeliers district, earning the nickname 'the Thunderer', and became president of the Cordeliers Club in 1790.
1792Became minister of justice after the fall of the monarchy on 10 August and appealed for resistance in his 2 September 'daring' speech.
1793Backed the creation of the Revolutionary Tribunal in March and was appointed to the first Committee of Public Safety on 6 April.
1793–1794After losing his committee seat in June, he became the leading Indulgent demanding an end to the Terror, and was tried and executed in April 1794 on charges of conspiracy and venality.
Feuillant politician and advocate of judicial reform
One third of the triumvirate of which the Assembly said, “What Duport thinks, Barnave says, Lameth does”, he led the 1791 Feuillant split, arguing the Revolution was over and the constitutional order should be stabilised.
A magistrate and National Assembly deputy, Duport promoted jury trial and criminal-justice reform. He formed the “triumvirate” with Barnave and Lameth and helped organize the Feuillants in 1791. After the monarchy fell in 1792 he went into exile and died in Switzerland.
Career timeline
1778Admitted as an advocate in the Parlement de Paris, and appointed a councillor in that same parlement, remaining in office until 1790.
1787–1788Founded the "Parti des nationaux" in 1787, demanding that the Estates-General be convened, and in 1788 organised the Société des Trente against the distinction between the three orders.
1789Elected deputy for the Paris nobility to the Estates-General on 13 May; in late June joined the Third Estate among the 47 liberal nobles.
1789–1791Formed the "triumvirate" with Barnave and Alexandre de Lameth in the Constituent Assembly, and as rapporteur of the criminal jurisprudence committee advanced the reform of the judiciary (report of 29 March 1790) and the introduction of the jury (8 February 1791); presided over the Assembly from 14 to 26 February 1791.
1791Led the Feuillant split in July, was the chief architect of the decree of 27 September granting full emancipation to the Jews, and took part in the 24 September revocation of the rights of free men of colour.
1792After the fall of the monarchy on 10 August he left his post as president of the criminal tribunal of the Seine, was arrested, then released and fled into exile via England and Switzerland.
1798Forced abroad again after the 18 Fructidor coup (4 September 1797), he died of tuberculosis at Gais in Switzerland.
Revolutionary journalist associated with both the Bastille rising and Indulgents
Journalist and Convention deputy whose 1789 call to arms at the Palais-Royal helped set off the Bastille rising; he died on the guillotine with Danton after Le Vieux Cordelier demanded clemency and an end to the Terror.
On 12 July 1789 Desmoulins called the Palais-Royal crowd to arms, helping mobilize the unrest that preceded the storming of the Bastille. A Cordelier journalist, he later campaigned against the Girondins, but in late 1793 used Le Vieux Cordelier to call for clemency and an easing of the Terror. He was executed with Danton in April 1794.
Career timeline
1785Admitted as an advocate in the Parlement of Paris, but a stammer and weak connections hampered practice
1789Began radical pamphleteering and journalism with La France Libre, the Discours de la lanterne and the Révolutions de France et de Brabant
1790Joined the Club des Cordeliers and became a prominent member
1792Became Secretary-General to Justice Minister Danton, then was elected deputy for Paris to the National Convention in September
1793Led the attack on the Girondins in the Histoire des Brissotins, then from December published Le Vieux Cordelier demanding clemency and an easing of the Terror
1794Arrested on 31 March, tried as a Dantonist and executed on 5 April
Girondins
1760–1794
✕ Died by suicide while in hiding
Girondin deputy who argued after Varennes that the king could be tried
After the flight to Varennes in 1791 he cited English precedent in the Constituent Assembly to argue that the king could be tried; Barnave answered him in his speech of 15 July.
A lawyer from Évreux, Buzot was elected for the Third Estate to the Estates-General in 1789 and in the Constituent Assembly demanded the nationalization of church property. After the flight to Varennes in 1791 he cited English precedent to argue that the king could be tried; Barnave replied that England, having no written constitution, could not serve as a model. Re-elected to the National Convention in 1792, he became a leading Girondin orator under the influence of Madame Roland, attacked Marat and proposed a guard drawn from the departments to protect the Convention. Proscribed with the Girondins on 2 June 1793, he fled to Normandy and helped organize the revolt there. He later hid near Bordeaux and in 1794 was found dead with Pétion, most likely by suicide.
Career timeline
1789Elected for the Third Estate of the bailliage of Évreux to the Estates-General; called for the nationalization of church property.
1791After Varennes, cited English precedent to argue that the king could be tried; Barnave rebutted him.
1792Presided over the criminal tribunal at Évreux, then was elected to the National Convention for the Eure and joined the Girondins.
1793Proscribed with the Girondins on 2 June; fled to Normandy and helped organize the revolt against the Convention.
1794Found dead with Pétion after hiding near Bordeaux.
French thinker who held that society should be led by its productive “industrials”
Chapter III of the Communist Manifesto names him, with Fourier and Owen, among the founders of critical-utopian socialist systems born before the class struggle had developed.
Born in Paris to an aristocratic family, Saint-Simon fought in the American War of Independence and took part in the siege of Yorktown. During the Revolution he made money speculating in national property and was imprisoned under the Terror. In L’Industrie, L’Organisateur and the Catéchisme des industriels he argued that the productive “industrials” — scientists, entrepreneurs and workers alike — rather than the idle classes should direct society; his last work, Nouveau Christianisme, made the improvement of the poorest class society’s aim. The Communist Manifesto’s classification of him as a critical-utopian socialist who saw no independent political movement of the proletariat is Marx and Engels’ assessment, not his own self-understanding.
Career timeline
1779–1783Fought in the American War of Independence and took part in the siege of Yorktown.
1793–1794Imprisoned at Sainte-Pélagie and the Luxembourg during the Terror; released after 9 Thermidor.
1803Published his first work, Lettres d’un habitant de Genève.
1816–1817Published L’Industrie; from 1817 Auguste Comte worked with him as secretary.
1823–1824Published the Catéchisme des industriels.
1825Published Nouveau Christianisme and died in Paris the same year.
Politician who moved from the revolutionary triumvirate to the Feuillants
He joined the Third Estate in 1789 but, through the triumvirate and the Feuillants, sought to stabilise the Revolution behind a constitutional monarchy; when the monarchy fell in 1792 he emigrated.
An aristocratic officer and veteran of the American War of Independence, Lameth joined the Third Estate in 1789 and supported the abolition of privilege. He formed the “triumvirate” with Barnave and Duport before becoming a Feuillant defender of constitutional monarchy. After exile and return, he served as a prefect under Napoleon and later as a liberal deputy.
Career timeline
1777–1785Entered the king's bodyguard corps and served as a cavalry officer; in 1782 he fought in the American War of Independence as a colonel under Rochambeau.
1789Elected deputy of the nobility of Péronne to the Estates-General, he rallied to the Third Estate and was among the promoters of the abolition of privilege on the night of 4 August.
1789–1791With Barnave and Duport he formed the triumvirate leading the Assembly's left; on 20 November 1790 he was elected president of the Assembly.
1791–1792A founding Jacobin and then a Feuillant leader defending constitutional monarchy; promoted maréchal de camp in the Army of the North in May 1792, he crossed to the enemy with Lafayette on 10 August and was interned by Austria.
1800–1814Returning to France, he served as prefect of the Basses-Alpes, Rhin-et-Moselle, Roer and Pô, was made a Baron of the Empire in 1810, and became lieutenant general and prefect of the Somme in 1814.
1820–1827Under the Restoration he sat as a liberal opposition deputy for Seine-Inférieure and then Seine-et-Oise, fighting the Villèle ministry.
Leading Feuillant orator who sought to preserve constitutional monarchy
On 15 July 1791 he defended the king’s inviolability: “Are we going to end the Revolution, or begin it again?” One step further, he warned, would destroy the monarchy, and one step further toward equality would destroy property.
A Third Estate deputy and leading National Assembly orator, he formed the “triumvirate” with Duport and Lameth. After the Flight to Varennes he helped lead the Feuillants in defence of constitutional monarchy and secretly advised the royal family. Papers revealing those contacts contributed to his conviction and execution.
Career timeline
1789Elected deputy of the Third Estate for Grenoble to the Estates-General; defended the union of the orders and voting by head.
1790Elected president of the Constituent National Assembly; became mayor of Grenoble the same year.
1791Escorted the royal family from Varennes to Paris, then helped form the Feuillants and defended the king’s inviolability.
1792–1793Denounced in August 1792; imprisoned at Grenoble and Fort Barraux, condemned for treason by the Revolutionary Tribunal and executed in Paris in November 1793.
French Revolutionary Wars general, royalist conspirator
In February 1794 he took command of the Army of the North and fought at Fleurus; crossing the frozen rivers in the winter of December 1794–January 1795, he entered Utrecht and Amsterdam, while French hussars captured the Dutch fleet over the ice.
French general of the Revolutionary Wars. In the Flanders campaign he overran the Austrian Netherlands and the Dutch Republic, then fought on the Rhine front; he later adopted Royalist positions, was deported to Cayenne after the Coup of 18 Fructidor (1797), escaped to exile in London and served on Korsakov's staff in 1799. He returned to France, was arrested in the royalist conspiracy against Napoleon, and was found dead in prison in April 1804.
Career timeline
1783Entered the 1st artillery regiment; briefly served in the American Revolutionary War
1793Promoted brigade general, then divisional general and given command of the Army of the Rhine
1794Took command of the Army of the North; led the Flanders and Netherlands campaign
1795Crushed the 12 Germinal insurrection and was titled 'Saviour of the Fatherland'
1797Became a member of the Council of Five Hundred; arrested at 18 Fructidor and deported to Cayenne
1799Served on Korsakov's staff
1804Arrested in the royalist conspiracy and found dead in prison
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.
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
Paris Commune prosecutor prominent in dechristianisation
As the Commune’s procurator he linked social policy to sans-culotte pressure, advanced the Terror and dechristianisation, opposed women’s political activity, and split with Robespierre before his 1794 execution.
As procurator of the Paris Commune, Chaumette was involved in urban policies on prices, relief, and public education as well as radical popular politics. He became a prominent promoter of dechristianisation in 1793 and was close to Hébert and Cordelier networks. He was arrested after the government’s purge of the Hébertists and executed in April 1794.
Career timeline
1790As a member of the Jacobin Club, he edited the radical Revolutions de Paris journal.
1792In August he became chief procurator of the Paris Commune and was delegated to inspect the prisons with power of arrest during the insurrection of 10 August.
1792Elected president of the Commune on 31 October, he defended the municipality before the National Convention and was re-elected on 2 December.
1793He helped lead the attack on the Girondins and in October acted as prosecutor at their trial alongside Hébert.
1793In September, amid the subsistence crisis, he led popular mobilisation and contributed to the establishment of the Terror.
1793He led the dechristianisation campaign, organising the Festival of Reason of 10 November.
1794Arrested on 13 March, after the Hébertists’ arrest on 4 March; convicted over the Luxembourg prison plot and guillotined on 13 April.
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, victor of Hohenlinden
On 3 December 1800 he led the Army of the Rhine to a decisive victory over an Austrian-Bavarian force at Hohenlinden. The allies' disastrous retreat forced an armistice and led to the Treaty of Lunéville, effectively ending the War of the Second Coalition.
A general produced by the French Revolution, he campaigned on the Rhine and in Italy and won a decisive victory at Hohenlinden in 1800, breaking the Second Coalition. He later became Napoleon's leading rival and was banished; returning to Europe in 1813 as an adviser to the coalition, he was mortally wounded at Dresden.
Career timeline
1791Elected lieutenant-colonel of the Ille-et-Vilaine volunteers.
1793Promoted to général de brigade; served under Dumouriez.
1794Made général de division by Carnot; served under Pichegru in Flanders and won at Tourcoing.
1795–1796Took command of the Army of the Rhine and Moselle; won renown in 1796 for a celebrated 40-day retreat through the Black Forest.
1799Recalled to Italy against Suvorov; defeated at the Adda and Novi, where Joubert fell, and retreated to Genoa. He then assisted Bonaparte in the Brumaire coup.
1800Commanding the Army of the Rhine again, he won at Hohenlinden on 3 December.
1804Implicated in the Pichegru–Cadoudal conspiracy; sentenced to imprisonment, commuted by Napoleon to banishment. He left via Spain for America and settled near Philadelphia.
1813Returned to Europe as an adviser to the allied monarchs; mortally wounded at Dresden on 27 August and died on 2 September.
Civil commissioner who proclaimed emancipation in northern Saint-Domingue
On 29 August 1793, as civil commissioner in Saint-Domingue, he proclaimed all slaves of the Northern Province free, five months before the Convention abolished slavery in all the colonies.
A lawyer at the Parlement of Paris who wrote in support of the Society of the Friends of the Blacks and was close to Brissot, he was sent to Saint-Domingue as a civil commissioner with Polverel and others in 1792. Their stated mission was not emancipation but equal rights for free people of colour. Amid conflict with white colonists and the threat of Britain and Spain, he proclaimed freedom for the slaves of the Northern Province on 29 August 1793, with an obligation for non-combatants to return to plantation labour. On 4 February 1794 the Convention extended abolition to all French colonies. Historians debate whether his motives lay in revolutionary ideals of equality or in the need to hold on to power.
Career timeline
1784Took his law degree and became a lawyer at the Parlement of Paris.
1792Sent to Saint-Domingue as a civil commissioner with Polverel and others.
1793Proclaimed the emancipation of the slaves of the Northern Province on 29 August.
1794–1795Recalled to France to answer charges brought by the colonists, and was vindicated.
1796–1797Returned to Saint-Domingue, but Toussaint Louverture had him put aboard a ship for France in August 1797.
Enragé activist who championed section assemblies and direct democracy
Enragé who linked subsistence riots and section politics to the removal of the Girondins; a deputy in the 1792 National Convention.
A former postal employee and Paris section activist, Varlet joined the Enragés in pressing subsistence demands and direct democracy. He participated in the insurrection of 31 May–2 June 1793 that removed the Girondins. He later criticized the revolutionary government for suppressing popular sovereignty and was repeatedly arrested.
Career timeline
1789–1792In the Revolution's early years he wrote patriotic songs, campaigned by petition against the king's flight and for his deposition, and took part in popular mobilisation in the Paris sections.
1792After the Legislative Assembly suspended the king and called elections for a National Convention to write a new constitution, he was elected a deputy and argued for direct universal suffrage and the recall of elected officials.
1793He joined the Parisian poor's demands for price controls on 22 February, was arrested on 24 May and released three days later, then sat on the nine-member insurrectionary committee formed by section delegates on 29 May, which led the insurrection of 31 May to 2 June.
1793–1795Arrested again at the start of the Terror and released on 29 October 1793, he was arrested once more after the fall of Robespierre and spent almost a year in prison.
after 1800After his release he settled at Pailly in the Yonne, married and had three children; from 1800 he supported Bonaparte and lived for a time in Nantes.
1830–1837He returned to Paris for several months in 1830 to take part in the July Revolution; in 1836 he left Nantes for Corbeil-Essonnes, where he drowned the following year.
Cordelier and Hébertist who served as secretary-general of the War Ministry
As secretary-general of the War Ministry he filled its offices with radical patriots; arrested with the Hébertists in March 1794, he was executed on 24 March.
The son of a Paris prison concierge, Vincent worked as a lawyer’s clerk. An early member of the Cordeliers Club, where he served as secretary, he entered the General Council of the Paris Commune after the rising of 10 August 1792. In April 1793 he became secretary-general of the War Ministry under Bouchotte and filled its offices with radical patriots. Arrested in December 1793 and freed the following February, he joined the Hébertist campaign against the Indulgents and the revolutionary government. In the course he appears among those arrested in March 1794 with Hébert, Ronsin, Momoro and others and executed on 24 March. No material evidence was produced for the conspiracy charges against them.
Career timeline
1792Entered the General Council of the Paris Commune after 10 August, replacing Fabre d’Églantine.
1793Appointed secretary-general of the War Ministry under Bouchotte in April.
1793–1794Arrested on 17 December on the orders of the Committee of General Security; released on 2 February.
1794Re-arrested with Hébert on 14 March and executed on 24 March.
Committee of Public Safety member and theorist of revolutionary government
The youngest deputy ever elected to the National Convention and Robespierre's closest ally, he pushed to confiscate the property of the Republic's enemies for poor patriots. He fell with Robespierre on 9 Thermidor.
The youngest deputy in the National Convention, Saint-Just became a leading Montagnard and close ally of Robespierre. On the Committee of Public Safety he served on missions to the armies and delivered reports against the Girondins, Hébertists, and Dantonists. He defended a strongly centralized revolutionary government and was arrested with Robespierre on 9 Thermidor and executed the next day.
Career timeline
1792.09–1794.07Deputy of the National Convention (for Aisne; youngest member)
1792.11–1793Reports condemning the Girondins; speech demanding the King's execution
1793.05–1794.07Member of the Committee of Public Safety
1793.11–1794Representative on mission to the armies, overseeing the Rhine and North armies
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.
French Revolutionary Wars general killed at Marengo
Returning to Europe in March 1800, he arrived at Marengo on 14 June as the Austrians were victorious along the line and led his three regiments against the enemy centre, yet was killed by a musket ball at the moment of victory.
A general of the French Revolutionary Wars. Born in 1768 at Ayat-sur-Sioule in Auvergne, he was educated at the Effiat military school and served in the royal army. In 1792, when most of his family emigrated, he refused and joined the Army of the Rhine, becoming provisional brigadier general on the merits of the combat at Lauterbourg. He served with the Army of the Rhine and in the 1795–1796 campaigns, covering Moreau's retreat, and was provisional commander-in-chief of the Army of England. In Egypt his division bore the Mamluk attack at the Battle of the Pyramids, and his Upper Egypt campaign won him the name 'Just Sultan' among the local population. Returning to Italy in 1800, he led the counterattack at Marengo with Boudet's division and was killed at the moment of victory. He is counted among the greatest generals of the Revolutionary Wars.
Career timeline
1783Commissioned sub-lieutenant in the Régiment de Bretagne
1793Made brigadier general on the merits of the combat at Lauterbourg, then general of division
1797–1798Provisional commander-in-chief of the Army of England
1798–1800Egyptian expedition; commanded the campaign in Upper Egypt
1800Fought at Marengo with the Army of Italy; killed in action
French Revolutionary Wars general and commander of the Guadeloupe expedition
Commander of the Guadeloupe expedition Napoleon sent in 1801–1802; he suppressed Delgrès's resistance but died of yellow fever at Basse-Terre on 3 September 1802, and the insurgency continued until 1804.
Born in Metz in 1770, he joined his father's Conti Dragoon Regiment as a cadet at five. A supporter of the Revolution, he rose from second lieutenant in 1791 to captain in 1793 and chef d'escadron in 1794, and Kléber made him a brigade general in 1796. He served under Hoche in the Army of Sambre and Meuse and distinguished himself at Neuwied. In 1800 he commanded a division in Moreau's Army of the Rhine, leading the flank envelopment at Hohenlinden on 3 December that decided the victory. After the army was dissolved in 1801 he became inspector-general of cavalry of the Batavian Republic. In 1801–1802 Napoleon named him commander of the Guadeloupe expedition; he suppressed Delgrès's resistance and enforced the forcible reinstatement of slavery. He died of yellow fever at Basse-Terre on 3 September 1802.
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
French social thinker who designed the cooperative phalanstery
He attacked commercial civilization and designed the phalanstery, a cooperative community where people would work according to their passions; the Communist Manifesto counts him among the critical-utopian socialists.
Born into a merchant family in Besançon, Fourier worked from 1791 to 1816 as a travelling salesman and correspondence clerk in several cities. After publishing his Théorie des quatre mouvements anonymously in 1808, he attacked commerce as a source of fraud and misery and designed the phalanstery, a cooperative community organized around “attractive labour” matched to each person’s passions. Followers such as Victor Considerant spread his ideas, and community experiments were attempted in several countries. Chapter III of the Communist Manifesto names him, with Saint-Simon and Owen, among the founders of critical-utopian socialism and criticizes his disciples for clinging to experiments such as phalansteries and opposing workers’ political movements; this is Marx and Engels’ assessment.
Career timeline
1791–1816Worked as a travelling salesman and correspondence clerk in Paris, Rouen, Lyon, Marseille and Bordeaux.
1808Published the Théorie des quatre mouvements anonymously in Lyon.
1822Published his major treatise on domestic-agricultural association.
1829Published Le Nouveau Monde industriel et sociétaire, a summary of his theory.
