#louis-gabriel suchet

[mai-von-weissenfels]

I drew all 26 of Napoleon's marshals

[joachimnapoleon]

Louis-Gabriel Suchet, future Marshal of the French Empire, as chef de bataillon of the 18th Demi-brigade, 1795. By Joseph Albrier.

[koda-friedrich]

Suchet✨

[impetuous-impulse]

A Brief Overview of Suchet’s Activities in Spain (Suchet’s Image, Part 1)

Hopefully it will still be March 2 somewhere in the world by the time I post this, because March 2 is Suchet’s birthday, and, because it is Suchet's birthday, I would like to examine his achievements in life (and caveats of said achievements). The time Suchet spent governing Spainish territories offers fertile grounds for exploration, so let us embark on an incomprehensive whistle-stop tour of what he did.

Because of limitations in time and space, I have lazily used a secondary source to reference Suchet’s administration in Spain. It is a 2008 paper titled "Conqueror and Administrator: Civil and Military Actions of Marshall Louis-Gabriel Suchet in the Spanish Province of Aragon 1808-1813” by Major Jean-Philippe Rollet in the (French) "Troupes de Marine”. The paper was submitted in partial fulfilment for a Military Studies Degree in the United States Marine Corps, which has possibly led to certain YouTube comments of how Suchet’s tactics are taught and imitated in the US Army. There is an obvious French bias that works towards Suchet’s favour here, particularly because Rollet relies on much of Suchet’s memoirs, though it is agreed that those memoirs were mostly accurate (in terms of facts, anyway). Rollet also countercites Suchet’s memoirs with British accounts that agree with Suchet’s method of administration, so there is some balance to the analysis.

Rollet gives an overview of the war in Spain. Then, he points out the enormity of Suchet’s problems: he is in deeply hostile territory with a wrecked economy and a destroyed agricultural system. On top of that, a letter dated 9 February 1810 informs him that he will not receive any supplies or help from France, but presumably he had little higher support even before this. What is the newly minted, foreign Governor of Aragon to do?

Apparently, assessing the economy and gathering local power was the answer. According to Rollet, the difference between Suchet and his colleagues was that he operated as a “military administrator” rather than a “pure military operational leader”, which Rollet links to Suchet's civilian background as the son of a silk manufacturer from Lyon. The regions under Suchet had no way of generating revenue (agriculture disrupted, more taxable/richer population moved to quieter areas, bankrupt central government etc.), so a long-term plan to generate economic growth was needed. To ensure this, Suchet needed cooperation from the political authorities.

The Politics

In his memoirs (chapter: Administration of Aragon), Suchet has a clear enough knowledge of regional rivalries to take advantage of them. Appealing to Aragonese regional pride, he kept local systems of administration in place and installed Aragonese agents instead of French ones to decrease the likelihood of dissent. Suchet then kept strict discipline with his officers and troops, punishing abuses, and ensured no one had reason to loot or destroy by paying the them on time.

To consolidate power, Suchet sought support from the local elites, especially religious authorities, who had huge influence in a largely Catholic population. From his memoirs:

Unwillingly compelled to embark in an attempt which he had at first considered wholly impractical, general Suchet drew around him the few men of talent who had remained in the province, and upon whose uprightness of conduct he could place some reliance. Foremost in the list was the titulary bishop of Saragossa [sic.]…, the truly venerable father Santander, whose persuasive eloquence instilled a peaceful and conciliatory disposition into his flock. This prelate pointed out the means to be adopted with the view of securing to the clergy a portion of their revenues, and the protection to which they were entitled.

Miguel de Santander was, at the time, auxiliary bishop of Zaragoza, and had significant influence as a preacher and speaker. Strong support achieved with bribery and compromise!

Suchet further showed his integrity by respecting the local Church of Notre Dame du Pilar and forbidding displacement of objects of worship, repairing war damage, and restoring Aragonese cultural sites. This excerpt from Rollet made me laugh:

He reestablished the "Academy of the Friends of the Province of Aragon", an institute in charge of promoting its culture, literature, and traditions. He naturally became the Director of the institute, thus indicating his admiration for the local culture. (p. 13)

(The amelioration of Suchet is real in this paper. If this actually happened, then he starts to seem like a nice and thoughtful guy for a conqueror.)

Of course, Suchet did not use the carrot without the stick. Clerics who were anti-French were arrested and sent to a French prison north of the Pyrenees Mountains. Nor did Suchet neglect the military aspect of his administration either. To combat the guerillas, Suchet used rapid-deploying, “police-type” formations that capitalised on officer initiative, and he constructed intelligence networks. Goodwill was increased when troops billeted with civilians and kept their hands to themselves. Suchet also used what Rollet calls an “oil spot”, framing guerilla forces as destabilisers of peace by highlighting every one of their atrocities, such as looting or retaliation against the population. Thanks to juxtapositional propaganda, Suchet's troops looked like saints of self-restraint. Suchet then ordered civilians collaborating with the guerillas to be punished with utmost severity. That way, the path of least resistance for a civilian to take was to resign themselves to Suchet’s regime, and even collaborate with him by serving as auxiliary troops against the guerillas.

The Economics

Next up: fixing the economy. Suchet collected a tidy sum of taxes regularly with his Aragonese collaborators. Two French administrators were in charge of centralising the sums, but Suchet kept the existing, people-trusted “Contadoria” system of accounts. Rollet comments:

He kept the money going to the province's account and ensured its transparent utilization. Suchet made it clear that the part taken by the French was devoted to the support of the III Corps and that the rest of the money was used to improve the economy of Aragon or contributed to the central government. In summary, Suchet had taxes collected by Spaniards to the benefit of both the French occupying forces and the local government. This prudent arrangement, which was the hallmark of Suchet, allowed him to acquire enough contributions not only to sustain his own corps, but also to provide 18 1"', the new Spanish government under King Joseph with 10 million Francs. He also supported the adjacent armies of the Valencia and Catalonia regions. (pp. 18-19)

Transparency? Unheard-of behaviour! It is likely that Suchet had ulterior motives for how he used the money. A list of Suchet’s improvement projects that “coincidentally” served military purposes included:

Reopening the Imperial Canal (irrigation provider, major logistics line of communication)

Ordering the construction of a road between Jaca in Aragon and Oloron in France (infrastructure improvements; communications aid)

Reestablishing manufactures based on local production of wool and fabrics (production means taxes means the soldiers get paid!)

With all that said, and even with awareness that Suchet fixed Aragon in order to ensure the stability of his government, Suchet seemed like he genuinely cared about the inhabitants of the province he governed. Then, I remember that the only way he could secure his power was to leave as little a cause as possible for people to riot, and I end up in an ouroboros of thought. Was Suchet truly a compassionate administrator who preferred a more pacifist approach to conquered peoples? No, the brutal repression of the guerillas speak against that. But was there not a shred of humanity that he exhibited in overseeing all the reconstruction projects in Aragon?

[northernmariette]

Marshals' Save-the-Date Calendar: the first March birthday boy

I managed to delete my Marshals' birthday calendar just as a slew of our military bigwigs are about to celebrate birthdays; so many were born in March, April and May. I do know that the first one on the list is Marshal Suchet, born March 2.

[impetuous-impulse]

This may not be a very useful response (mainly because it is more opinion- than source-based), but I think looking at the Penisular Theatre in which Suchet operated and analysing the detail in the above quote might be prudent here. Sure, Suchet in (European) popular memory may have behaved in a "decent" or "admirable" way, but the subjectivity of such descriptors means they likely apply to him in comparison to his fellow generals in Spain and Portugal. In other words, the bar was rather low, considering the rampant pillage and destruction the generals and Marshals, French or British, wrought upon the countryside and the cities.

Suchet still used force in combination with his "hearts-and-minds" policy, even if it is not explicitly mentioned by him in his memoirs. David A. Bell relates the following in his 2007 book The First Total War: Napoleon's Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It.

Suchet [...] managed for a time to impose something close to peace and order in areas of the north. He did so in part through co-opting nobles and other large landowners and in part through terror. His mobile columns shot captured guerrillas and priests found with weapons out of hand. They virtually wiped the town of Saliente off the map, much as Marshal Masséna had destroyed Lauria in Calabria. Suchet took hostages and tried to recruit local auxiliaries. But as the historian of his campaign in Aragon [Alexander 1985, Rod of Iron, p. 232] concludes: “Suchet’s success was deceptive and fleeting. He had not eliminated resistance, only stunned it.” It did not help that the French commanders squabbled mightily with each other and that, increasingly, they had to rely on inexperienced conscripts newly arrived from France. Above all, they simply did not have the manpower to make their tactics work—particularly as the guerrillas were killing or capturing an average of twenty-five French soldiers a day. By 1812, the laboriously achieved control simply crumbled in Suchet’s hands.

To Conquer and to Keep: Suchet and the War for Eastern Spain, 1809-1814 by Yuhan Kim seems to agree with the above assessment (I say "seems" because the book is to be released in the spring of 2023. It sounds like an interesting study on Suchet's policies, with the caveat of the author being an undergraduate of Yale University....) The book blurb notes:

[...] despite initial triumphs in 1809-1811 against the ‘traditional guerrilla’, Suchet’s counter-guerrilla policies were less successful than is often popularly perceived. As the war went on, French resources became thinly stretched, while conversely, the guerrilla war was increasingly spearheaded by Spanish regular forces to great efficiency, which contributed to the eventual collapse of French control in Eastern Spain.

If guerrilla forces never vanished, Suchet's policy was, though perhaps admirable, never totally successful in winning over the population. He ultimately came to Spain and governed his designated provinces as a conqueror, and he refers to the French as such in his memoirs (vainqueur). It makes sense that his policies would exhort the conquered, especially when he was losing ground in the quote in the previous post. He probably prioritised the contentment of the Spanish population less now that he was pulling out of the country.

On the note of the quote, I would be interested to know who exactly was doing the bayonet-point collection, and whether there was material evidence of Suchet ordering it, or whether it was an unauthorised initiative by his troops.

Finally, I think Suchet was not a moralist—after all, he won his Marshal's baton after besieging and sacking Tarragona. Historian Jonathan North describes in his article "Suchet at Tarragona" that "Although many civilians had been evacuated, a good number were now robbed and killed (some 5,000 corpses [likely not all civilians] were to be found in the city, and some 736 houses were badly damaged or destroyed)." I assume this is taken from Suchet's memoirs; see the English translation (p. 102).

The majority of the population of Tarragona, having quitted the town before or during the siege, in great part by sea, thus escaped the disasters which the governor and garrison brought upon the place by defying the last assault, which the laws of honour excused them from awaiting, and with which the conqueror would rather have dispensed.

That is tacit admission that slaughter did take place in Tarragona in amongst the remaining populace. Suchet also publishes a supplementary note (No. 18) in the same memoir, which is a defence of conduct by his opponent Contreras. Suchet does not censor the following (perhaps because it highlights his officers' and his attempts to restore discipline) (p. 424).

In proportion as our troops gave way the enemy advanced, occupying the walls of the old and new enclosure, and entering the streets, where men, women, and children were killed, wounded, or at least pillaged, without distinction. The tragedy was less sanguinary, because the French officers, full of generosity, rescued all whom they could, exposing themselves to the danger of being sacrificed by their own soldiers, who athirst for pillage, thought of nothing but robbery and murder. [Italics original.]

Of course, the following note (No. 19) then tries to obfuscate Contreras' defense by pointing out it was "at variance with the facts". Suchet also blames Contreras for refusing to capitulate, which led to the atrocities at Tarragona; he had to make an example of undue resistance. If he was "decent" and "admirable" in administration, it was motivated by military policy, not humanitarianism.

Suchet in Spain?

By accident - as usual - I came across a remark about Suchet’s behaviour in Spain. The Book is called “Wellington, kritische Historie” by Karl Bleibtreu.

From page 27:

Soldiers grew increasingly savage in what had become a desolate people’s war, resulting in conditions and scenes similar to those of the Thirty Years’ War. Suchet maintained strict discipline and punished every crime by fusillade. But even he was unscrupulous enough, when he later had to leave his conquests, to hastily have four annual rents of his “duchy” collected at bayonet point.

So far I was under the impression that Suchet was the only marshal in Spain to have behaved in a decent, even admirable way. Does anybody know more about this?

[yaggy031910]

A fun little ask: the Marshalate is informed there is cake in the break room. How do each of them react?

Who ever you are, thank you for this sweet little question and I apologise for my late response. 🙈💕

I have ideas for some of them, however I am **not** aware of the maréchals eating habits so any input is welcome here. Also, I don't know all of the marshals well enough but I will try to include as many as possible. Don’t expect any historical accuracy in this.

See this post as a very big headcanon and as one ongoing story where I am going to try to mimic the marshals characters and miserably fail.

Shall we begin? :D

Les Maréchals and cake

Berthier would hear about it and quietly get excited by the idea of having a nice little piece of cake, just for him to be too busy with everything so that he isn't able to leave his desk. Either this or someone (probably one of his adcs) would be nice enough to get for Berthier his piece of cake.

Murat: You bet he is one of the first ones to look at this cake. His reaction might depend on how the cake looks. If it's a huge cake with a lot of golden details, Murat will carry it around so everyone admires this phenomenal cake because it deserves to be looked at.

Augerau and Masséna wonder why there is such a fancy a cake in the break room in the first place and who might have put it there. Augerau asks Masséna with a low voice: “How much money do you want to bet on the cake being poisoned?” Before Masséna is able to answer, Lannes enters the scene.

Lannes runs after Murat with the cake knife demanding to finally get his damn piece of this cake while Murat can't make himself to cut it because this cake is “so damn beautiful that it would be a waste to eat it.” This little game goes on for a minute or two until the other marshals grow impatient, one of them being Ney.

Ney who is known for his hotheadedness tries to save this cake from a disaster aaaaand fails. :) The three of them dispute over who is the actual culprit of this mess.

L: Murat, what have you done? M: I have done nothing. You followed me with a knife. N: You let the cake fall. M: You intervened in my business with Lannes.

The cake has fallen to the ground as Davout, Suchet and Macdonald watched. “Aaand here goes the cake”, Macdonald says; “At least the floor was able to taste it.” Suchet asks: “What do you think was its flavour?” ”Chocolate vanilla.” Davout answers. After a moment of silence, he adds. “Soult has a good recipe.” Mortier walks in, seeing how Lannes, Murat and Ney are loudly disputing while Masséna and Augerau get themselves black coffee and Davout, Suchet and Macdonald talking. Lefebvre who was walking right behind Mortier gestures him to move away from the door so he can get into the break room: “What is going on?”

Suchet: “We found a cake-“ Davout interrupts him: “We found a chocolate vanilla cake which we don’t know how it got here or if it was poisoned and now it’s inedible because his royal highness, the King of Naples, made it fall.”

Murat shouts from the back: “I didn’t let it fall.” Lannes: “Oh, you did.”

Lefebvre offers a solution like the good fatherly figure he is: “Do you still want cake? We could bake a new cake, messieurs.” Davout replies: “This sounds like a smart idea, Monsieur. Maréchal Soult knows an excellent recipe.”

Lefebvre: “Ahh, excellent. Where is our maréchal?”

Mortier: “He is in his office.”

“Then this where our journey goes next.” Lefebvre slams the door open and accidentally hits Oudinot. “Ah, Monsieur, my apologies. If I had known you were there, I wouldn’t have slammed the door as hard as I did. Are you alright? Yes? Until the next time then.”

Davout walks up to his friend to make sure how Oudinot is doing and explains to him in the meanwhile what is going on and also promises Oudinot to bring him a piece of the cake they are going to bake.

Lefebvre takes the lead and walks straight to Soult’s office while Davout and Mortier follow him. Suchet decides to stay behind while Macdonald thinks about it. Lefebvre knocks on Soult’s office door: “Monsieur, le maréchal? Are you here?” *Lefebvre knocks again with his energetic manner.* “Monsieur, le maréchal, it’s me, Lefebvre. Open the door!*

Soult opens the door with his usual unimpressed demeaner: Hm? Lefebvre: “Excusez-moi, mon maréchal, I heard you have a recipe for a delicious cake?” Soult: Cake? What cake? Davout: The chocolate vanilla one… the one you baked for your daughter Hortense’s birthday. The delicious one. Soult: Ah, yeah. That one. What of it? Mortier: We would like to bake this cake, which is why we want to ask if you mind us borrowing the recipe? Soult stares at his co-maréchals for a second, he shuts the door, opens it again with a piece of paper in his hand which he gives to Lefebvre. “Here. Is there anything else you need?” Macdonald who decided to join the baking group walks up to them and asks Soult: “Would you mind to lend us your baking equipment?” - “No. Have a nice day.” Soult shuts his door while Lefebvre shouts: “Thank you for your help, Monsieur Soult.” Macdonald asks: “What are we going to do now?” “We are going to bake the cake now, my good friend”, Davout answers. Mac: “Where? Where do you want us to bake the cake? Do we have the right ingredients?” D: In the kitchen and I don’t see why we shouldn’t have the ingredients. Macdonald looks at Davout with suspicious eyes about the matter if they are going to manage to bake this cake… The group of maréchals appear in the imperial kitchen where they start to gather the right ingredients. While the group is busy with the preparations, les maréchals Pérignon and Sérurier appear, wondering what is going on. As Lefebvre is explaining these two their baking journey up until now, Pérignon and Sérurier decide to join them: “A cake made by maréchals for maréchals.”

What could possibly go wrong with two additional heads in the kitchen? As it turns out: Everything. Pérignon and Sérurier manage to overdo the cake by confusing salt with sugar. The cake tastes salty, the icing itself is fine because it was made by Davout who religiously followed Soult’s directions. In addition to that, monsieur Lefebvre manages to mix up usual paper with baking sheets.

Bernadotte walks into the kitchen as he sees his fellow maréchals working on their baking project. He comments on the scenery: “This is just pure chaos without any discipline, a chaos which can’t possibly create something edible.” Davout replies “Well, have you ever baked anything in your miserable existence which you so call your life?”; to which Bernadotte says: “wELL, no, BUT-“ Davout continues: “Then get out of this room and give me my peace back or shut up.” Bernadotte decides to leave.

As Bernadotte is leaving, Jourdan walks right into the scene with an apple in his hand. A fire starts to break out in the oven and Jourdan, like the team player he is, turns and leaves this mess to his co-maréchals without saying one word.

Nothing is going as Davout had it planned. He sits in a corner, mourning this beautiful chocolate vanilla cake he had in mind. Macdonald sits right next to him with a spoon, telling him: “Well, at least the frosting you made yourself is delicious.” Davout, completely shattered by the fact that he wasn’t able to make his desired chocolate vanilla cake, puts his face into his palms until a surprise visits the kitchen: It’s maréchal Soult. With a cake. A chocolate vanilla cake. A chocolate vanilla cake which is neither burnt nor oversalted. A chocolate vanilla cake according to the recipe. Next to Soult is Oudinot who cuts two pieces of the cake: one for himself and one for his good old friend, Louis Nicolas Davout.

After Soult, Ney and Lannes enter the kitchen. Ney silently takes a piece of Soult’s cake, saying nothing except a simple “thank you”. So do Macdonald and Mortier. Soult tolerates Ney’s presence. Lannes on the other hand goes straight to the oversalted and burnt cake which the older maréchals made and are also eating. Kellermann and Grouchy, as late to the party as ever, also go for Lefebvre’s bad cake while Soult’s good cake is still sitting there. Soult can’t hide his look of disgust.

At some point, Bessières and Murat join or rejoin retrospectively the scene, walking up to Soult’s cake. Bessières, as well mannered as he is, takes one piece of a cake to which Murat comments: “I know how much you like this lovely type of cake, Bessières, take a second piece.” - “No”, Soult replies: “That’s not your cake. Take your piece and leave.” Murat adds: “For whom are the other pieces then? I don’t see anybody who would possibly want to eat this gorgeous baked good. We want to eat your delicious creation of a fabulous cake.” - “One piece each. You can give him your piece if you like to.” Bessières interrupts the two: “I am content with my piece.” Murat doesn’t listen to what Bessières says and continues his conversation with Soult: “My fellow maréchal, I don’t understand, why do you struggle so much with allowing somebody to have one additional piece of cake than the other ones?”

While Murat and Soult continue their dispute which leads to nowhere, one adc enters slowly the kitchen. He looks at Soult who recognises this man as one of Berthier’s adcs. He came to get a piece of cake for his marshal. Soult lets him take one of the few pieces left. All of a sudden, Kellermann seems to be chocking on his salty cake piece. All the maréchals are gathering around him and in the chaos, the last few pieces of Soult’s cake fall to the ground. Soult looks at his cake or what’s left of it. One could argue that everyone who wanted to eat it was able to eat it. One could argue that these fallen pieces can be ignored and Soult could go on with his day never ever thinking about the pieces again. However, we are talking about maréchal Soult here who sees the art in baking. The love, the accuracy of it. Today he didn’t just bring cake to his fellow maréchals. Today he witnessed how some of them have no sense of dignity for what it means to be able to eat good food. Good cake. Soult is leaving the room, not bothered about Kellermann as he wouldn’t be able to help anyway. He is going to his wife, his Louise Berg, who asks him about his day. He tells her the whole of it. How he was surprised by his fellow mar��chals who wanted to bake a cake. How he knew that they are going to mess up his recipe. How he baked that cake properly and how a part of it went to waste. “Some of them ate oversalted and burnt cake. Who eats bad cake? Who likes bad cake???”

Davout on the other hand was thankful for Soult. With a smile on his face, Davout enjoyed his so desired chocolate vanilla cake, unbothered by the event surrounding him. The end. :)

[hoppityhopster23]

Happy birthday Suchet! (March 2)

[flowwochair]

List of Napoleonic figures I think could've been ND

I remember a long time ago I mentioned the idea of making a list of napoleonic figures I thought could be neurodivergent, well, here's the list!!! This list is based on my opinions (as a neurodivergent person with schizophrenia) and my dad's opinions (as someone who studied psychology and has ASD), please take this with like a planet-sized meteor of salt because although my dad is quite knowledgeable on this subject, he got the profiles of these figures from my own perspective in a casual conversation. I'm just some 18 year old who hasn't even started university yet, and although I am quite invested in the Napoleonic era I know that I don't know everything </3, so with all that being said, here's the list.

*I can't emphasize enough that none of these diagnosis are concrete, they're mostly conclusions from a casual conversation </3, this list is also not meant to offend any one in any manner!!!*

*names highlighted in green means we weren't sure about our conclusions*

ASD - Louis Nicolas Davout, Napoleon Bonaparte I, Louis Alexandre Berthier;

ADHD - Jean Lannes, Joachim Murat, Michel Ney;

OCD - Louis Gabriel Suchet, Jean-de-Dieu Soult;

Schizophrenia - Jean Andoche Junot, Jean Baptiste Bessières;

Could've had something else but we couldn't quite pinpoint what exactly - Joachim Murat, Jean-de-Dieu Soult, Tsar Alexander I;

If you have any questions/thoughts about any of these opinions feel free to reply or reblog! But like I said, this is just what me and my dad thought

[legallyschrodingers]

Real suchet appreciation 💥🔥Was gonna make a post about him(maybe I'll do it)

[joachimnapoleon]

[koda-friedrich]

Old doodle☀️

[hoppityhopster23]

I Use all the ones that both @yaggy031910 and almost all the ones @snowv88 use (the only exception is oudinot). but here are my additions: The Marshals:

Ney: Neyling prime

Lefebvre: The GILF

Berthier: Depression incarnate or the workaholic.

Murat: mr. Pornstache or Milo no. 2

Bernadotte: The swede or smooshed.

Marmont: Marmot or the Rodent

Non-Marshal mentions:

Bagration: Dear prince Pyotr (I am very fond of bagration, I will admit this.)

Miloradovich: Milo or Murat No. 2

Metternich: The Austrian Whore

Desaix: Desexy

Nelson: Horario (I misspelt his name once on some discord server and it stuck)

Wellington: Wellingthighs

Paul I: Sir Mommy Issues

Alexander I: Copy Paste man

Trobriand: Troiboi or MILF Lover

Marbot: Lisettes owner (who somehow didn't die by his horse)

These are just the ones i can think of. there are probably more that I've forgotten

The Nicknames of the Marshals

Davout : “The Iron Marshal” Massena : “The Darling Child of Victory” Lannes : “The French Achilles”; “Roland” Ney : “The Red Lion”; “The Bravest of the Braves” Soult : “The Duke of Damnation”, “King Nicholas” Murat : “King Franconi” Suchet : “El Hombre Justo” St-Cyr : “The Man of Ice", “The Owl” Marmont : “Marshal Judas”; “Proud-Ass” Bernadotte : “Fair-Legs” Augereau : “The Proud Bandit” MacDonald : “Alceste” (a Moliere character known for his blunt honesty) Victor : “The Drummer”; “Pretty-Sun” Mortier : “The Ram” Oudinot : “Thirty-five Wounds Marshal”;“The Colander” Moncey : “Phebus”; “The Model of All Virtues” Poniatowski : “The Polish Bayard”

-Credit to a Youtube comment I found

[josefavomjaaga]

Suchet and Soult, 1813

That Napoleon’s marshals in Spain most of the time were busy being at odds with each other is well-known. Marshals Soult and Suchet were no exception. Suchet in particular seems to have rather disliked Soult, if it is true that as early as 1805 he specifically wanted to leave Soult’s army corps and had himself be transferred to Lannes’ instead. Their relations probably did not get much better in Spain, considering the animosity between Joseph and Soult, and Suchet’s close family relations with Joseph.

Suchet seems to have had a bit of a reputation for being the jealous kind. In any case, if this scene from 1813 is to be believed, he was not ready to be under the command of Soult under any circumstances, not even for the sake of France. It’s from the "Mémoires anecdotiques" by general Armand Alexandre Hippolyte Marquis de Bonneval, whose author had become Soult’s aide de camp quite against his will, but apparently, by the time they reached Spain, despite himself was already fully included in his military family.

Context: After an insuccessful attempt to save Pamplona, Soult, rather belatedly charged by Napoleon to take full command in Spain in summer 1813, when Joseph had lost the battle of Vitoria, wanted to unite what was left of Joseph’s forces with those still under the command of Marshal Suchet, in order to defend France’s borders from Wellington’s approaching army. He thus needed to contact Suchet in Catalonia. Bonneval writes:

I was entrusted with this mission and went via Perpignan to Barcelona, where Marshall Suchet was. He listened to me with complacency; then, after having discussed at length the arrangements to be made to effect this junction, he declared it necessary to make a movement in the direction of Valencia to sweep away the Spanish armies and thus ensure the safety of the portion of his army he would leave in Catalonia. So we set off, and having achieved the goal Marshal Suchet had in mind, we returned to Barcelona.

And it was on the journey back that Soult’s idea was discussed once more.

While riding side by side with me, Marshal Suchet asked me: "What will my position be with regard to Marshal Soult, Monsieur de Bonneval?" - "But," I replied, "Monsieur le maréchal, it can only be, in any case, that of a marshal of the Empire; however, if Your Excellency asks me if Marshal Soult will be willing to give up his position of seniority and lieutenant of the Emperor, my mission does not go as far as that." The marshal turned very cold and stopped talking to me.

As a matter of fact, according to Bonneval, Suchet at this point had decided that Soult’s plan was "untimely and inconvenient". Bonneval tried to talk him out of that, but in vain.

He persisted; and I saw that there was nothing to do but to take leave of him and return to Marshal Soult. On arriving at Saint-Jean de Luz, at about 2 o'clock in the morning, I found my comrades at table over champagne and oysters. They all stood up and invited me to join in the feast.

Because apparently, even without the original line-up of Saint-Chamans, Lameth, Soult’s brother Pierre etc., the tradition of all-night parties was still kept alive.

"I shall return to you shortly," I told them, "but first I must go and make the Marshal swallow the biggest of all oysters." When I arrived at his place, Marshal Soult was awake; in fact, he never slept with more than one eye closed. "Ah! it's you, my dear Bonneval," he said to me. "Is Marshal Suchet on his way?"- "He is still in Barcelona, Monsieur le Maréchal, certainly sleeping better than you." And I gave him all the details of my failure. He then burst into a holy rage against the foolish pride and ineptitude of the Duke of Albufera, throwing his cap at the ceiling and hurling the foulest words in his vocabulary. Then, calmer again: "Go and rest, my dear friend," he said. I went straight to the oysters and champagne.

That last sentence is just 😂. Obviously, everybody had their priorities straight.

Interestingly enough, Bonneval later, like Saint-Chamans, would become a staunch royalist and have a fall-out with Soult for political reasons. Yet he apparently always held Soult in high esteem personally, and claims to always have hoped Soult would "see reason" and "return to the path of honour", i.e., to the cause of the older branch of Bourbons.

[northernmariette]

A quick biographical sketch of Suchet

This is my eighth and last post regarding the Marshals listed in an article about Napoleon’s ability to spot talent. The article is taken from the September 2019 issue of Historia magazine, bearing on its front page’s the title “Napoleon, les secrets d’un chef de guerre”. After Berthier, Davout, Lannes, Masséna, Murat, Ney, and Soult, Suchet is the next Marshal on the alphabetized list of the eight highlighted Marshals:

Suchet, the inconspicuous one

Although he is not the most talked about Marshal, the duke of Albufera was never defeated, like Davout. From the victorious siege of Toulon (1793) onwards, he was involved in all the campaigns of the Napoleonic era. In 1808, he was sent to Aragon in Spain. After a brilliant victory over the British at Saragossa, he administered the province with masterful skill, as well as achieving a string of military successes in this difficult war - even in 1814, when the French Empire was crumbling. In 1815 he commanded the Army of the Alps and was victorious in Savoy. He became a Peer of France during the Second Restoration.  He died in 1823 at the age of 55.

I believe Suchet in fact did suffer one bad defeat in Spain shortly after his arrival there, but that was the only one. Part of his success in his administration of Aragon was his applying the little-respected principle, in the context of Napoleonic conquest, of actually paying the locals for the goods they supplied. Suchet was also careful not to offend local sensibilities; his wife even dressed in the Spanish fashions, somewhat different from what was worn elsewhere on the Continent.

I wonder why Napoleon did not have Suchet with him at Waterloo, as I wonder why Davout was not there either, and why Soult was not on the battlefield instead of acting as a third-rate Berthier. It is true that by 1815 the Marshals’ ranks were thinner: Bernadotte in Sweden and fighting with the Allies; Augereau and Masséna sick and in disgrace; Murat in all kinds of other troubles; Lannes, Berthier, Poniatowski, and Bessieres dead; Mortier incapacitated; Jourdan a spent force; Marmont and Victor on the Royalist side; Gouvion Saint-Cyr, Macdonald, and Oudinot unwilling to engage in further Napoleonic adventures.

To review, briefly, how the eight Marshals featured in the article died, only Soult’s death is similar to what is most familiar to us in the 21st century: in his eighties, from natural causes. Three others died of natural causes, but still only in their fifties: Davout,  Masséna, and Suchet. The rest died violently: two by firing squad in their forties (Murat and Ney), one at 61 by probable suicide (Berthier), and finally a single one on the battlefield at only 40 (Lannes). The marshalate might have provided prestige, honours and fortune, but many did not enjoy these advantages for very long.