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'Édouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier, duc de Trévise' (February 13, 1768 – July 28, 1835) was a French general and, Marshal of France under Napoléon I.

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Biography

Sources and references

Biography

Mortier was born at Le Cateau-Cambrésis, and entered the army as a sub-lieutenant in 1791.
He served in the French Revolutionary Wars in the campaigns of 1792 and 1793 on the north-eastern frontier and in the Netherlands, and subsequently on the Meuse and the Rhine. In the war against the Second Coalition in 1799, he was promoted successively general of brigade and ''général de division''. His conduct of the French occupation of Hanover led Napoleon to include Mortier in the first list of marshals created in 1804.
He commanded a corps of the ''Grande Armée'' in the Ulm campaign in which he distinguished himself particularly by his brilliant action of Dürrenstein; in 1806 he was again in Hanover and north-western Germany, and in 1807 he served with the ''Grande Armée'' in the Friedland campaign.
In 1808, Napoleon created him duke of Treviso (''Trévise'' in French) a duché grand-fief (a rare, but nominal, hereditary honor, extinguished in 1912) in his own Kingdom of Italy, and shortly afterwards he commanded an army corps in Napoléon's campaign for the recapture of Madrid.
He remained in Spain for two campaigns, winning the victory of Ocaña in November 1809. In 1812 and 1813 he commanded the Young Guard, and in the defensive campaign of 1814 he rendered brilliant services in command of rearguards and covering detachments. In 1815, after the flight of Bourbon king Louis XVIII of France, he rejoined Napoléon during the ''Cent Jours'' and was given a high command, but at the opening of the Battle of Waterloo he was unable to continue, complaining of severe sciatica.
After the second Bourbon Restoration he was for a time in disgrace, but in 1819 he was readmitted to the Chamber of Peers and in 1825 received the Order of the Holy Spirit, the kingdom's highest. In 1830-1831 he was Ambassador of France at St Petersburg, and in 1834-1835 minister of war and president of the council of ministers.
In 1835, while accompanying Louis-Philippe to a review, marshal Mortier and eleven others were killed by the bomb aimed at the king by Fieschi. Louis Philippe bitterly mourned him, and wept openly at the marshal's funeral.

Sources and references

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★ Heraldica.org - Napoleonic heraldry