(Redirected from Marshal Soult)
'Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult, duc de Dalmatie' (
March 29,
1769 –
November 26,
1851), ''the Hand of Iron''
[1], was a
French general and statesman, named
Marshal of
France in
1804. He was one of only six officers in French history to be promoted to the rank of
Marshal General of France. He also served as
Prime Minister of France three times.
Biography
Soult was born at
Saint-Arnans-la-Bastide (now
Saint-Amans-Soult near
Castres in the
Tarn ''
département''), the son of a country notary of that city.
Early military career
He was fairly well-educated, and intended for the bar, but his father's death when he was still a boy made it necessary for him to seek his fortune, and he enlisted as a private in the French infantry in 1785. His superior education ensured his promotion to the rank of sergeant after six years' service, and in July 1791 he became instructor to the first battalion of volunteers of the
Bas-Rhin. He served with his battalion in 1792. By 1794 he was adjutant-general (with the rank of ''chef de brigade''). After the
Battle of Fleurus (1794), in which he greatly distinguished himself for coolness, he was promoted to general of brigade by the representatives on mission.
For the next five years he was constantly employed in
Germany under
Jourdan,
Moreau,
Kléber and
Lefebvre, and in 1799 he was promoted general of division and ordered to proceed to
Switzerland. It was at this time that he laid the foundations of his military fame, and he particularly distinguished himself in
Masséna's great Swiss campaign, and especially at the
Second Battle of Zurich. He accompanied Masséna to
Genoa, and acted as his principal lieutenant throughout the protracted siege of that city, during which he operated with a detached force without the walls, and after many successful actions he was wounded and taken prisoner at Monte Cretto on
April 13 1800.
Marshal of France
Nicolas Soult.
The victory of
Marengo restored his freedom, and Soult received the command of the southern part of the kingdom of
Naples, and in 1802 he was appointed one of the four generals commanding the consular guard. Though he was one of those generals who had served under Moreau, and who therefore, as a rule, disliked and despised
Napoleon Bonaparte, Soult had the wisdom to show his devotion to the ruling
power; in consequence he was in August 1803 appointed to the command-in-chief of the camp of
Boulogne, and in May 1804 he was made one of the first marshals of France. He commanded a corps in the advance on
Ulm, and at
Austerlitz he led the decisive attack on the allied centre.
He played a great part in all the famous battles of the ''Grande Armée'', except the
Battle of Friedland (on the day of which he forced his way into
Königsberg), and after the conclusion of the
Peace of Tilsit he returned to France and was created (1808) duke of
Dalmatia. The award of this title greatly displeased him, for he felt that his proper title would be duke of Austerlitz, a title Napoleon had reserved for himself. In the following year he was appointed to the command of the II corps of the army with which
Napoleon intended to conquer
Spain, and after winning the
Battle of Gamonal he was detailed by the emperor to pursue
Sir John Moore, with whom he only caught up at
Corunna.
For the next four years Soult remained in Spain, and his military history is that of the
Peninsular War. In 1809, after being stalemated by Sir John Moore, he invaded
Portugal and took
Oporto, but was isolated by General
Silveira's strategy of contention. Busying himself with the political settlement of his conquests in the 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
dislodged from Oporto by
Arthur Wellesley, making a painful and almost disastrous retreat over the mountains, pursued by
Beresford and Silveira. After the
Battle of Talavera (1809) he was made chief of staff of the French troops in Spain with extended powers, and on
November 19 1809 won the great victory of
Ocana.
In
1810 he invaded
Andalusia, which he speedily reduced, with the exception of
Cádiz. In 1811 he marched north into
Extremadura, and took
Badajoz, and when the Anglo-Portuguese army laid siege to it he marched to its rescue, and fought and nearly won the famous
Battle of Albuera (
May 16). In 1812, however, he was obliged, after the
Duke of Wellington's great victory of
Salamanca, to evacuate Andalusia, and was soon after recalled from Spain at the request of
Joseph Bonaparte, with whom, as with the other marshals, he had always disagreed.
In March
1813 he assumed the command of IV corps of the ''Grande Armée'' and commanded the centre at
Lützen and
Bautzen, but he was soon sent, with unlimited powers, to the South of France to repair the damage done by the great defeat of
Vitoria. His campaign there is the finest proof of his talents as a general, although he was repeatedly defeated by the Allies under Wellington, for his soldiers were but raw conscripts, while the Allies were the veterans of many campaigns. His last offensives into Spain were turned back by Wellington in the
Battle of the Pyrenees (
Sorauren) and by
Freire's Spaniards at
San Marcial. Pursued onto French soil, Soult was maneuvered out of several positions at
Nivelle,
Nive, and
Orthez, before dealing Wellington a final bloody blow at
Toulouse.
Political career
Such was the military career of Marshal Soult. His political career was by no means as creditable, and it has been said of him that he had character only in the face of the enemy. After the first abdication of Napoleon (1814) he declared himself a
Royalist, received the order of St. Louis, and acted as minister of war from
December 3,
1814 to
March 11, 1815. When Napoleon returned from
Elba, Soult at once declared himself a Bonapartist, was made a
peer of France and acted as major-general (chief of staff) to the emperor in the
campaign of Waterloo, in which role he distinguished himself far less than he had done as commander of an over-matched army.
At the Second Restoration (1815) he was exiled, but not for long, for in 1819 he was recalled and in 1820 again made a marshal of France. He once more tried to show himself a fervent Royalist and was made a peer in 1827. After the
revolution of 1830 he made out that he was a partisan of
Louis Philippe, who welcomed his support and revived for him the title of marshal-general (previously only held by
Turenne,
Villars and
Maurice de Saxe). He served as minister of war from 1830 to 1834, as Prime Minister from 1832 to 1834, as ambassador extraordinary to
London for the coronation of Queen
Victoria in 1838 - where the Duke of Wellington reputedly caught him by the arm and exclaimed 'I have you at last!', again as Prime Minister from 1839 to 1840 and 1840 to 1847, and again as minister of war from 1840 to 1844. In 1848, when Louis Philippe was overthrown, Soult again declared himself a republican.
He died at his castle of Soultberg, near his birthplace.
Works
Soult, himself, wrote but little. He published a memoir justifying his adherence to Napoleon during the
Hundred Days, and his notes and journals were arranged by his son Napoleon Hector (1801-1857), who published the first part (''Mémoires du maréchal-général Soult'') in 1854. Le Noble's ''Mémoires sur les operations des Français en Galicie'' are supposed to have been written from Soult's papers.
References
★ That article, in turn, references:
★
★ A. Salle, ''Vie politique du maréchal Soult'' (Paris, 1834)
★
★ A. de Grozelier, ''Le Maréchal Soult'' (Castres, 1851)
★
★ A. Combes, ''Histoire anecdotique du maréchal Soult'' (Castres, 1869).
External links
★
The bloody battle of Heilsberg, 1807. Napoleon and Soult vs Bennigsen.
Suggested Reading
★ Bukhari, Emir ''Napoleon's Marshals'' Osprey Publishing, 1979, ISBN 0850453054.
★ Chandler, David ''Napoleon's Marshals'' Macmillan Pub Co, 1987, ISBN 0029059305.
★ Connelly, Owen , ''Blundering to Glory: Napoleon's Military Campaigns'' SR Books, 1999, ISBN 0842027807.
★ Elting, John R. S''words Around a Throne: Napoleon's Grande Armee'' Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1997, ISBN 0029095018.
★ Hayman, Peter ''Soult: Napoleon's Maligned Marshall'' Sterling Pub, 1990, ISBN 0853689318.
★ Haythornthwaite, Philip ''Napoleon's Commanders (2): c.1809-15'' Osprey Publishing, 2002, ISBN 1841763454.
★ Humble, Richard ''Napoleon's Peninsular marshals;: A reassessment'' Taplinger Pub., 1975, 0800854659.
★ Linck, Tony ''Napoleon's Generals'' Combined Publishing, 1994, ISBN 0962665584.
★ Macdonell, A. G. ''Napoleon and His Marshals'' Prion, 1997, ISBN 1853752223.
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