Jean-de-Dieu Soult | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Portrait byGeorge Healy, 1840 | |
| Prime Minister of France | |
| In office 29 October 1840 – 18 September 1847 | |
| Monarch | Louis Philippe I |
| Preceded by | Adolphe Thiers |
| Succeeded by | François Guizot |
| In office 12 May 1839 – 1 March 1840 | |
| Monarch | Louis Philippe I |
| Preceded by | Louis-Mathieu Molé |
| Succeeded by | Adolphe Thiers |
| In office 11 October 1832 – 18 July 1834 | |
| Monarch | Louis Philippe I |
| Preceded by | Casimir Perier |
| Succeeded by | Étienne Maurice Gérard |
| Minister of War | |
| In office 29 October 1840 – 10 November 1845 | |
| Prime Minister | Himself |
| Preceded by | Amédée Despans-Cubières |
| Succeeded by | Alexandre Moline de Saint-Yon |
| In office 17 November 1830 – 18 July 1834 | |
| Prime Minister | Jacques Laffitte Casimir Perier |
| Preceded by | Étienne Maurice Gérard |
| Succeeded by | Étienne Maurice Gérard |
| In office 26 November 1814 – 11 March 1815 | |
| Prime Minister | Pierre Louis Jean Casimir de Blacas |
| Preceded by | Pierre Dupont de l'Étang |
| Succeeded by | Henri Clarke |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1769-03-29)29 March 1769 Saint-Amans-la-Bastide,France |
| Died | 26 November 1851(1851-11-26) (aged 82) Saint-Amans-la-Bastide,Tarn,France |
| Political party | Resistance Party |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Profession | Military officer |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | |
| Branch/service | Army |
| Years of service | 1785–1815 |
| Rank | Marshal of the Empire |
| Unit |
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| Battles/wars | |
Marshal GeneralJean-de-Dieu Soult,[1][2]1st Duke of Dalmatia (French:[ʒɑ̃dədjøsult]; 29 March 1769 – 26 November 1851) was a French general and statesman. He was aMarshal of the Empire during theNapoleonic Wars, and served three times asPresident of the Council of Ministers (prime minister) of France.
Son of a countrynotary from southern France, Soult enlisted in theFrench Royal Army in 1785 and quickly rose through the ranks during theFrench Revolution. He was promoted to brigadier general after distinguishing himself at theBattle of Fleurus in 1794, and by 1799 he was a division general. In 1804,Napoleon made Soult one of his first eighteen Marshals of the Empire. Soult played a key role in many of Napoleon's campaigns, most notably at theBattle of Austerlitz, where his corps delivered the decisive attack that secured French victory. He was subsequently created Duke of Dalmatia and from 1808, he commanded French forces during thePeninsular War. Despite several initial victories, for instance at theBattle of Ocaña, Soult was eventually outmaneuvered and driven out of Spain by the coalition forces under the command ofArthur Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington). He was again defeated by Wellington atToulouse in 1814, days after Napoleon's first abdication. Soult declared himself a royalist following theBourbon Restoration, but rejoined Napoleon during theHundred Days. He was Napoleon's chief of staff during theWaterloo campaign in 1815, where the emperor suffered a final defeat.
Following the second restoration, Soult went into exile in Germany. In 1819 he was recalled to France and returned to royal favour, and in 1830 he was madeMinister of War after theJuly Revolution. Soult oversaw reforms of the French military and was responsible for the creation of theFrench Foreign Legion. Under KingLouis Philippe, he was three times French prime minister from 1832 to 1834, almost a year between 1839 and 1840 and from 1840 to 1847. In 1847, he was awarded the titleMarshal General of France. Soult again declared himself a Republican after Louis Philippe's overthrow in theFrench Revolution of 1848. He died in 1851.
Soult was born in Saint-Amans-la-Bastide (now calledSaint-Amans-Soult in his honor, nearCastres, in theTarn department) and named afterJohn of God. He was the son of a countrynotary named Jean Soult (1726–1779) by his marriage to Brigitte, daughter of Pierre François de Grenier de Lapierre. He was aCatholic.[citation needed]
Jean-de-Dieu Soult was expected to have a promising career as a lawyer. However, on 16 April 1785, at the age of sixteen, he enlisted as a private in theRoyal-Infanterie regiment, to help his mother financially after the death of his father. His younger brother,Pierre-Benoît Soult, followed his example three years later, and would also become a French general.[citation needed]
Jean Soult fought in thewars of Revolutionary France. Soult's superior education ensured his promotion to the rank of sergeant after six years of service, and in July 1791 he became instructor to the first battalion of volunteers of theBas-Rhin. On 17 January 1792 his colonel appointed him instructor in the 1st battalion ofHaut-Rhin volunteers, with the rank of second lieutenant (sous-lieutenant). The war period, which began in April 1792, offered him many opportunities to stand out and he rose through the ranks with regularity. Adjutant-major on 16 July 1792, captain on 20 August 1793, provisional adjutant to thestaff of GeneralLazare Hoche to theArmy of the Moselle on 19 November 1793. He took part in theBattle of Kaiserslautern from 28 to 30 November, which allowed the recapture ofWissembourg and the relief ofLandau. Hoche gives Soult the command of a detached body to take Marsthal's camp, a task which was brilliantly executed.[citation needed]
From 26 to 29 December he was present at theSecond Battle of Wissembourg. He was appointed chief of staff of the avant-garde on 27 January 1794, provisional battalion commander on 7 February 1794, titular battalion commander on 3 April and adjutant-general brigade chief (adjudant-général chef de brigade) on 14 May. On 19 March 1794 theArmy of the Moselle was replaced by theArmy of the Rhine under the command of GeneralJean-Baptiste Jourdan. This army immediately returns to the campaign. Two battles were fought inArlon on17, 18 and 29 April, then on 21 May, in which Soult took an active part.[citation needed]
After theBattle of Fleurus of 1794, in which he distinguished himself for coolness, he joined theArmy of Sambre and Meuse on 28 June. Soult was promoted to brigadier general by the representatives on mission. For the next five years, Soult was employed in Germany under GeneralsJean-Baptiste Jourdan (a veteran of theAmerican War of Independence and a futureMarshal),Jean Victor Marie Moreau,Jean-Baptiste Kléber andFrançois Lefebvre (also a futureMarshal). He took part in theBattle of Aldenhoven on 2 October 1794. He moved toJacques Hatry's division and took part in theSiege of Luxembourg from 22 November to 7 June 1795. He took a brilliant part in the battles ofAltenkirchen on 4 June 1796, of Friedberg on 10 July 1796, and in theBattle of Stockach against the army ofCharles of Austria on 25 March 1799. The rank of division general was attributed to him on 4 April 1799, provisionally, and it is confirmed on the following 21 April.[citation needed]
Soult passed to theArmy of Helvetia under the orders of GeneralAndré Masséna (another futureMarshal). It was at this time that he built the bases of his military reputation, in particular during theFirst Battle of Zurich of 2–5 June 1799; then he subdued the insurgent cantons, drove the rebels on theReuss and drove them back to in the valley ofUrseren - relievingFrauenfeld,Altikon,Audelfinden. He obtained a citation on the order of the day of 2 June 1799. On the 10th of the same month, he hunted down, at the head of the110th Demi-Brigade, theAustrians, occupying Mount Albis. Crossing theLinth River on 22 September, Soult led the enemy to suffer a loss of 4,000 men, then he came to meet theRussians who advanced onKaltbrunn, forcing the surrender of a body of 2,000 men, seizedWeesen and pushed the enemy back toLake Constance.[citation needed] He won a significant victory at thebattle of the Linth (25 to 26 September). Moreover, he had the honour of coordinating the actions ofGazan's andMolitor's divisions, which halted theadvance of Suvorov's army at thebattle of Näfels.
When in 1800 the First ConsulNapoleon Bonaparte entrusted Masséna to reorganize theArmy of Italy, he insisted that Soult be his deputy; giving him the command of the right wing.[citation needed]
Soult distinguished himself for his active part in the defense of the country ofGenoa. On 6 April, in an initial sortie, at the head of several battalions, he crossed the Austrian army and relieved GeneralGardanne. The enemy was repulsed beyondPiotta, and Soult pursuedGeneral Suvorov into the Alps, seizingSassello and returning to Genoa with numerous prisoners, cannons, and flags. During another sortie, the general pushed in against the Austrian army, trapping a division at Monte-Facio. But, during a fight inMontecreto on 13 April 1800, a gunshot shattered his leg; lying on the battlefield wounded, he was robbed and taken prisoner, spending days in agony in a filthy hospital. This experience traumatized Soult, and he would never again place himself so forward in the battleline.[citation needed]
He was rescued after the victory atMarengo on 14 June 1800. Appointed military commander ofPiedmont, then in the midst of a rebellion, Soult managed to put down the so-calledBarbets insurrection. He even managed to discipline the rowdy hordes and use them for his service. Soult then received command of the southern part of theKingdom of Naples.[citation needed]
Shortly before theTreaty of Amiens, General Soult returned to Paris, where the First Consul welcomed him with the highest distinction. On 5 March 1802 he was one of the four generals called to command theConsular Guard with the post of colonel general. He thereafter pledged allegiance to the new regime. In August 1803, Soult was entrusted with the command-in-chief of theCamp of Boulogne. Soult, a former drill instructor, imposed a rigorous discipline there, which ensured the effectiveness of French troops during future campaigns, and also earned him the nickname"Bras de Fer" ("Iron Arm"). Even Napoleon wondered if he was being too severe, to which assertions Soult replied:[citation needed]
"Those who can't handle what I myself endure will be left behind in the depots. Those that can will be fit to conquer the world."
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In May 1804, Soult was made one of the first eighteenMarshals of the Empire. He commanded a corps in the advance onUlm, and atAusterlitz he led the decisive attack on the Allied centre.
Soult played a great part in many of the famous battles of theGrande Armée, including the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805 and theBattle of Jena in 1806. However, he was not present at theBattle of Friedland because on that same day he was capturingKönigsberg. After the conclusion of theTreaties of Tilsit, he returned to France and in 1808 was anointed by Napoleon as 1st Duke ofDalmatia (French:Duc de Dalmatie). The awarding of this honour greatly displeased him, for he felt that his title should have been Duke of Austerlitz, a title which Napoleon had reserved for himself. In the following year, Soult was appointed as commander of the II Corps with which Napoleon intended to conquer Spain. After winning theBattle of Gamonal, Soult was detailed by the emperor to pursueLieutenant-GeneralSir John Moore's British army. At theBattle of Coruña, in which Moore was killed, Soult failed to prevent British forces escaping by sea.[citation needed]
For the next four years, Soult remained in Spain engaged in thePeninsular War. In 1809, he invaded Portugal and tookPorto, but was isolated by GeneralFrancisco da Silveira's strategy of contention. Busying himself with the political settlement of his conquests in French interests and, as he hoped, for his own ultimate benefit as a possible candidate for the Portuguese throne, he attracted the hatred of Republican officers in his army. Unable to move, he was eventually driven from Portugal in theSecond Battle of Porto by Lieutenant-GeneralSir Arthur Wellesley (later madeDuke of Wellington), making a painful and almost disastrous retreat over the mountains, pursued by GeneralWilliam Beresford and Silveira. After theBattle of Talavera, Soult was made chief of staff of French forces in Spain with extended powers, and on 19 November 1809, won a great victory at theBattle of Ocana.[citation needed]
In 1810, he invadedAndalusia, which he quickly overran. However, because he then turned to seizeSeville, the capture ofCádiz eluded him, saying,"Give me Seville and I will answer for Cádiz."[3] This led to the prolonged and futileSiege of Cadiz, a strategic disaster for the French. In 1811, Soult marched north intoExtremadura and tookBadajoz. When the Anglo-Portuguese army laid siege to the city, he marched to its rescue and fought and nearly won the famous and bloodyBattle of Albuera on 16 May.[citation needed]
In 1812, after Wellington's great victory atSalamanca, Soult was obliged to evacuate Andalusia. In the subsequentSiege of Burgos, he was able to drive Wellington's Anglo-allied Army back to Salamanca. There, the Duke of Dalmatia, as Soult was now known, failed to attack Wellington despite superiority in numbers, and the British Army retired to the Portuguese frontier.[4] Soon after, he was recalled from Spain at the request ofJoseph Bonaparte (who had been installed by his brother as King of Spain) with whom, as with the other marshals, he had always disagreed.[citation needed]
In March 1813, Soult assumed command of theIV Corps of theGrande Armée and commanded the centre atLützen andBautzen, but he was soon sent, with unlimited powers, to the South of France to repair the damage done by the defeat atVitoria. It is to Soult's credit that he was able to reorganise the demoralised French forces.[citation needed]
His last offensives into Spain were turned back by Wellington in theBattle of the Pyrenees (Sorauren) and by GeneralManuel Freire's Spaniards atSan Marcial. Pursued onto French soil, Soult was maneuvered out of several positions atNivelle,Nive, andOrthez, before suffering what was technically a defeat at Wellington's hands at theBattle of Toulouse. He nevertheless inflicted severe casualties on Wellington and was able to stop him from trapping the French forces.[citation needed]
After Napoleon's first abdication in 1814, Soult declared himself a royalist, received theOrder of Saint Louis, and acted as minister of war from 26 November 1814 to 11 March 1815. When Napoleon returned fromElba, Soult at once declared himself aBonapartist, was made apeer of France, and acted as chief of staff to the emperor during theWaterloo campaign, in which role he distinguished himself far less than he had done as commander of an over-matched army.[citation needed]
In his book,Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles,Bernard Cornwell summarizes the opinions of several historians that Soult's presence in theArmy of the North was one of several factors contributing to Napoleon's defeat, because of the animosity between him and MarshalMichel Ney, the other senior commander, and because, in spite of his experience as a soldier, Soult lacked his predecessor MarshalLouis-Alexandre Berthier's administrative skills. The most glaring instance of this was his written order, according to Napoleon's instructions, to MarshalEmmanuel de Grouchy to position his force on the Anglo-allied army's left flank in order to prevent reinforcement by the Prussians. Cornwell decries the wording of Soult's order as"almost impenetrable nonsense", and Grouchy misinterpreted the order, instead marching against the Prussian rearguard atWavre.[citation needed]
Following the Second Bourbon Restoration in 1815, Soult went into exile in Germany, but in 1819 he was recalled and in 1820 again made aMarshal of France. He once more tried to show himself as a fervent royalist and was made a peer in 1827. After therevolution of 1830 he declared himself a partisan ofLouis Philippe, who welcomed his support and revived for him the title ofMarshal General of France, previously held only byTurenne,Claude Louis Hector de Villars, andMaurice de Saxe.[citation needed]
AsMinister of War (1830 to 1834), Soult organized and oversaw the rearmament of the French military. The strength of the Army of the Restoration numbered only a little over 200,000 men and Soult sought to double its size, carrying the necessary reforms from 1831 to 1832. The first law of this important military reform was that creating theForeign Legion, on 9 March 1831; a force of foreign volunteers which could only be used outside the territory of metropolitan France, especially aimed at garrisoning the recentlyconquered Algiers. The Legion, when created, was loathed by the army and considered a lower posting; the force being colloquially called as the "Bastard of Soult".[citation needed]
Louis-Philippe, worried about having to rely solely on the National Guard to maintain public order, instructed Marshal Soult to reorganize the line army without delay. Soult wrote a report to the king, presented to the Chamber of Deputies on 20 February 1831, in which he criticized the recruitmentGouvion-Saint-Cyr law of 1818: the voluntary system combined with thedrawing of ballots and the possibilityof being replaced had not made it possible to increase the number of manpower sufficiently, and that the promotion procedures helped to maintain over-staffing. Soult proposed the main lines of a military policy aimed at increasing the army's strength, reducing said over-staffing and ensuring the supply of arms and ammunition.[citation needed]
Following the creation of the Legion on 9 March, Soult passed the laws of 11 April 1831 on military pensions, of 21 March and 14 April 1832, on army recruitment and promotion, and of 19 May 1834 on the status of officers. Soult also oversaw the construction of the fortifications of Paris. In 1831, he was sent by Louis-Philippe toLyon with 20,000 men to crush thefirst insurrection of the city's silk workers, the canuts. Order is restored, but Soult becomes very unpopular within theRepublican camp. In his playNapoléon Bonaparte ou Trente ans de l'histoire de France (Napoleon Bonaparte or Thirty Years of the History of France),Dumas Père represents him in a dreadful appearance during theHundred Days.[citation needed]
In 1834, when a new insurrection broke out in April in Lyon, Marshal Soult received from Lieutenant-General Aymar, commander of the troops in the city, a desperate telegraphic dispatch about evacuating the city. The Duke of Dalmatia's firm response was not long in coming, chastising the general and ordering him to hold all his positions and to man the walls and be buried beneath them.[citation needed]
While he was minister of war, he held thepresidency of the Council of Ministers (or Prime Minister) for the first time in 1832–1834. France being the guarantor of theTreaty of the XXIV articles, he had the Antwerp expedition carried out byMarshal Gérard, who seized the cityafter heroic resistance from the Dutch (December 1832) and returned it to Belgium, its country of attribution.[citation needed]
In April 1838, Louis-Philippe chose Soult to represent him at thecoronation of Queen Victoria. He received a triumphant welcome in London – where his former enemy, theDuke of Wellington, reputedly caught him by the arm and exclaimed"I have you at last!"[5]
Once again at the head of the government (1839–1840), he was at the same time the holder of the Foreign Affairs portfolio. He participated in the ceremonies for returning the ashes of Napoleon in December 1840.[citation needed]
President of the Council for almost seven years, from 1840 to 1847, he left the effective management of the Cabinet to his minister of foreign affairs, François Guizot, who logically succeeded him when he left the government, for health reasons. For five years (1840–1845), he combined his function with that of minister of war. On 26 September 1847 Louis-Philippe restored for him the honorary dignity of Marshal General of the king's camps and armies, however modifying this title into the uniqueMarshal General of France.[citation needed]
During his term as Prime Minister and Minister for War he attempted to cover up the indiscriminate killings of Algerian civilians who died of suffocation following French troops lighting fires at the entrances to Caves in which they had fled, the story nonetheless leaked to the press.[6]
In 1848, Soult declared himself a republican. He died three years later in his castle in Soult-Berg, nearSaint-Amans-la-Bastide where he was born, a few days before thecoup of 1851. In his honor, the town was renamedSaint-Amans-Soult in December 1851. He is one of the eighteenMarshals of the Empire (out of twenty-six) who belonged toFreemasonry.[citation needed]
Soult published a memoir justifying his adherence toNapoleon during theHundred Days, and his notes and journals were arranged by his sonNapoleon Hector, who published the first partMémoires du maréchal-général Soult (Memories of Marshal-General Soult) in 1854. Le Noble'sMémoires sur les operations des Français en Galicie (Memories of the Operations of the French in Galicia) are supposed to have been written from Soult's papers.[citation needed]
Although often found wanting tactically – even some of his own aides questioned his inability to amend a plan to take into account altered circumstances on the battlefield – Soult's performance in the closing months of thePeninsular War is often regarded as proof of his fine talents as a general. Repeatedly defeated in these campaigns by the Allies under Wellington, it was the case that many of his soldiers were raw conscripts while the Allies could count greater numbers of veterans among their ranks. Soult was a skillful military strategist. An example was his drive to cut off Wellington's British army from Portugal after Talavera, which nearly succeeded. Though repeatedly defeated by Wellington in 1813–1814, he conducted a clever defence against him.[citation needed]
Soult's armies were usually well readied before going into battle. AfterVitoria, hereorganized the demoralized French forces ofJoseph Bonaparte into a formidable army in a remarkably short time. An exception to this good logistical record was launching theBattle of the Pyrenees offensive when his soldiers only had four days' rations.Tactically, Soult planned his battles well, but often left too much to his subordinates. Wellington said that"Soult never seemed to know how to handle troops after a battle had begun".[7] An example of this was at theBattle of Albuera, where he brilliantly turned Beresford's flank to open the battle, yet when he found himself facing unexpected opposition from British and Spanish troops, he allowed his generals to adopt a clumsy attack formation and was beaten.[8] Another example of his strengths and weaknesses can be seen at theBattle of the Nive. Soult recognized Wellington's strategic dilemma and took advantage by launching surprise attacks on both wings of the Anglo-Allied Army. But French tactical execution was poor and the British general managed to fend off Soult's blows. Sloppy staff work marred his tenure as Napoleon's chief of staff in the Waterloo campaign.[citation needed]
In the early twentieth century the British named theRoyal Navy monitorHMS Marshal Soult after him.
On 26 April 1796, Soult married Johanna Louise Elisabeth Berg (1771–1852), the daughter of Johann Abraham Berg (1730–1786) by his marriage to Wilhelmine Mumm inSolingen.[9] She died at theChâteau de Soult-Berg on 22 March 1852. The couple had three children:[citation needed]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Soult, Nicolas Jean de Dieu".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 436–437. That article, in turn, references:
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Prime Minister of France 11 October 1832 – 18 July 1834 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of France 12 May 1839 – 1 March 1840 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of France 29 October 1840 – 19 September 1847 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | French minister of War 26 November 1814 – 11 March 1815 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | French minister of War 17 November 1830 – 18 July 1834 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | French minister of War 29 October 1840 – 10 November 1845 | Succeeded by |
| French nobility | ||
| Preceded by Title created | Duke of Dalmatia 1808 – 1851 | Succeeded by Napoléon-Hector Soult |
Marshals of theFirst French Empire | |||
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Cabinet of Jacques Laffitte (2 November 1830 to 13 March 1831) | ||
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Head of state: KingLouis Philippe I | ||
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Cabinet of Casimir Périer (13 March 1831 to 16 May 1832) | ||
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Head of state: KingLouis Philippe I | ||
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First cabinet of Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult (11 October 1832 to 18 July 1834) | ||
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Head of state: KingLouis Philippe I | ||
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Second cabinet of Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult (12 May 1839 to 1 March 1840) | ||
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Head of state: KingLouis Philippe I | ||
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| Public Education | ||
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Third cabinet of Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult (29 October 1840 to 19 September 1847) | ||
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Head of state: KingLouis Philippe I | ||
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