Maurice d'Elbée | |
|---|---|
 Portrait byJean-Baptiste Paulin Guérin, 1827 | |
| Nickname | General Providence |
| Born | (1752-03-21)21 March 1752 |
| Died | 6 January 1794(1794-01-06) (aged 41) |
| Allegiance |  Kingdom of FranceRoyalist rebels |
| Branch | French Royal Army |
| Years of service | 1777–1783 1793–1794 |
| Rank | Major General (France) Generalissimo (Vendée) |
| Battles / wars | |
Maurice-Joseph-Louis Gigost d'Elbée (French:[mɔʁisʒozɛflwiʒiɡodɛlbe,moʁ-]; 21 March 1752 – 6 January 1794) was aFrenchRoyalist military leader. Initially enthusiastic about theRevolution, he became disenchanted with theCivil Constitution of the Clergy and retired to his estates inBeaupreau. He was the secondcommander in chief of theCatholic and Royal Army formed by Royalist forces of theVendean insurrection against theRepublic.
Maurice d'Elbee was born inDresden,Electorate of Saxony to a French family in 1752. He moved to France in 1777, becoming a naturalised citizen and joining theFrench 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 nearBeaupréau inAnjou. He then served as an officer in the army ofFrederick Augustus I, thePrince-Elector of Saxony. After the Revolution, he returned in obedience to the law which ordered emigrants to return to France.
The peasantry and much of the middle class in the Vendée remained loyal to theCatholic Church and, in 1792, theMarquess 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 theatheist Republic. The peasants ofBeaupréau to appoint him as their leader. His troop joined those ofFrançois de Charette,Charles Bonchamps,Jacques Cathelineau andJean-Nicolas Stofflet. The army experienced several successes: Stofflet defeated the republican army atSaint-Vincent, in theBattle of Pont-Charrault; D'Elbée and Bonchamps won atBeaupreau; andHenri de la Rochejaquelein won the victories at theAubiers andFirst Cholet.[1] He is famous for his actions after theBattle 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'sPater Noster).
By spring 1793, the insurgents controlled the province of Brittany. On 2 June, La Rochejacquelein stormedSaumur and Cathelineau was elected as commander in chief. D'Elbée was the top deputy of Cathelineau. The eight-year-oldLouis XVII held in the Temple prison in Paris, the son of the executed Louis XVI, was proclaimed king of France, and Charette and Cathelineau united their armies to advance uponNantes. 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 atCoron andTorfou. Even at his loss at theBattle of Luçon (14 August 1793), he managed to extract his force from danger. At theBattle of Luçon he managed to extricate the Royalist force from a potential rout, but suffered a significant reverse.[1][2]
The Republican government in Paris entrusted its fighting to generals from the old army. Westermann was sent against them first, but on 5 July 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 sentJean Antoine Rossignol, formerly a goldsmith's apprentice,Antoine Joseph Santerre, a brewer, andCharles-Philippe Ronsin, a playwright; all were beaten in successive battles, although Rossignol managed to hang on to his command.[3]
Eventually,Jean Baptiste Kléber took command of the Republic army in the Vendée and inflicted a series of defeats. Following theSecond 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 ofNoirmoutier. 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.[4]
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.
His son Louis-Joseph Maurice d'Elbée was born on 12 March 1793. Louis-Joseph Maurice d'Elbée was raised inBeaupréau. He served in the armies ofNapoleon, where he distinguished himself in theBattle of Leipzig and theBattle of Hanau. Wounded in Hanau, he was taken prisoner and transported to thePotsdam hospital where he died the following year.[5]
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 theChâteau de Noirmoutier.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
