#andre masssena

[northernmariette]

Marshal Ney’s trial: Superstar attorneys, reluctant judges (Part 1)

This section is a bit long, so I’m posting it in two parts. The original French text can be found here:

https://www.senat.fr/evenement/archives/D26/le_proces/lincompetence_du_conseil_de_guerre.html

In my previous post translating the Senat’s file about Marshal Ney (Marshal Ney’s Trial: “It will hurt us more than his treason in March”), authorities were not sure which instance ought to be assigned the responsibility of the prosecuting him. 

On August 14, 1815, the matter was settled. Marshal Gouvion-Saint-Cyr, Minister of War, decided to bring Marshal Ney before a court-martial, which he considered less unfavourable to Ney than the Royalist majority in the Chamber of Peers. 

The composition of the tribunal was difficult. Marshal Moncey refused to preside over it, which earned him three months in prison. In a letter addressed to the King, he wrote: "Placed in the cruel alternative of disobeying Your Majesty or of failing my conscience, I must explain myself. [...] Was it the Allies who demanded that France sacrifice its most illustrious citizens? [...] Who am I to judge the fate of Marshal Ney? Sire, allow me to ask Your Majesty where the accusers were while Ney was marching through the battlefields? Oh, while Russia and the Allies may not be able to forgive the Prince of Moskowa, can France forget the hero of the Beresina? [...] "

The court-martial was ultimately presided over by Marshal Jourdan, and composed of three other Marshals (Masséna, Augereau and Mortier) who had served the Emperor on his return from Elba, and three generals rather favorable to the Empire (Claparède, Villate and Gazan). A commissioner of the executive power was also present, including during the deliberations.

With regard to the selection of the attorneys, Ney's brother-in-law, Monsieur Gamot, asked Nicolas-François Bellart, then a lawyer, to defend Ney, which was refused indignantly because of Ney's defection. [...] However, he did counsel Ney to accept being brought before the court-martial, since it was made up of military personnel who would have been better able to understand his actions and their context, and the genuine difficulties he had faced in the fulfilment of his mission.

Finally, the attorneys selected were Pierre-Nicolas Berryer, 

(known as Berryer père), assisted by his son Pierre-Antoine, and André-Jean-Jacques Dupin (known as Dupin aîné). 

Berryer, chosen because his reputation and his Monarchist opinions were expected to please King Louis XVIII, was in charge of the pleading, while Dupin did the research and writing. They decided to accept Marshal Ney's decision to decline the jurisdiction of the court-martial, perhaps because they lacked the necessary objectivity and perseverance in light of the Marshal's personality.

Considering how things went for Ney in the Chamber of Peers, it seems that his counsel was perhaps naive, yes. Even the attorney who indignantly refused to represent Ney advised him to stick with the court-martial; but if Ney had planned to paint a bull’s eye on his chest, he could not have done better than to reject judgement in front of his fellow Marshals, as we shall see. But all six Marshals mentioned here had served in Spain, and Massena had actually dismissed Ney because of his insubordination; did this play a part in Ney’s decision? On the other hand, he had to be aware of Moncey’s stance.

I intend to post something about Moncey’s refusal to judge Ney in the future. Definitely gutsy. 

Ney’s attorneys were legal stars of their time. The Senat file provides short biographies of them, which I haven’t translated, to be found here 

https://www.senat.fr/fileadmin/Fichiers/Images/archives/D26/Le_proces/Acteur_Le_procureur_general_Bellart.pdf

https://www.senat.fr/fileadmin/Fichiers/Images/archives/D26/Le_proces/Acteur_L_avocat_Berryer.pdf

https://www.senat.fr/fileadmin/Fichiers/Images/archives/D26/Le_proces/Acteur_L_avocat_Dupin.pdf

Dupin was only 32 when he defended Ney. He went on to represent the Ney family for decades in its efforts to rehabilitate the Marshal. According to the Senat file, he and Berryer’s son (also part of the defense team) went on to become two of the pre-eminent lawyers of the nineteenth century.