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'Claude Victor-Perrin, duc de Belluno' (
7 December 1764 –
1 March 1841) was a
Marshal of
France during the
French Revolutionary and
Napoleonic Wars.
He was born at La Marche in the
Vosges. In
1781 he entered the army as a private soldier, and after ten years' service he received his discharge and settled at
Valence. Soon afterwards he joined the local volunteers, and distinguishing himself in the war on the Alpine frontier, in less than a year he had risen to the command of a
battalion. For his bravery at the
siege of Toulon in 1793 he was raised to the rank of general of brigade. He afterwards served for some time with the army of the Eastern
Pyrenees, and in the Italian campaign of 1796–1799 he so acquitted himself at
Mondovi,
Rovereto and
Mantua that he, was promoted to be general of division.
After commanding for some time the forces in the department of
Vendée, he was again employed in
Italy, where he did good service against the papal troops, and he took a very important part in the
battle of Marengo. In 1802 he was governor of the
colony of Louisiana for a short time, in 1803 he commanded the
Batavian army, and afterwards he acted for eighteen months (1805–1806) as French plenipotentiary at
Copenhagen.
On the outbreak of hostilities with
Prussia (the War of the
Fourth Coalition) he joined the V army corps under Marshal
Jean Lannes) as chief of the general staff. He distinguished himself at the battles of
Saalfeld and
Jena, and at
Friedland he commanded the I Corps in such a manner that
Napoleon made him
marshal.
After the
peace of Tilsit he became governor of
Berlin, and in 1808 he was created duke of Belluno. In the same year he was sent to
Spain, where he took a prominent part in the
Peninsular War (especially against
Blake at
Espinosa, and later at
Talavera,
Barrosa and
Cádiz), until his appointment in
1812 to a corps command in the
invasion of Russia. Here his most important service was in protecting the retreating army at the
crossing of the Berezina River.
He took an active part in the wars of 1813–1814, until in February of the latter year he had the misfortune to arrive too late at Montereau-sur-Yonne. The result was a scene of violent recrimination and his supersession by the emperor, who transferred his command to
Gérard. Thus wounded in his amour-propre, Victor now transferred his allegiance to the
Bourbon dynasty, and in December 1814 received from
Louis XVIII the command of the second military division. In 1815 on the return of Napoleon from exile in
Elba Victor accompanied the king to
Ghent, and on the second restoration following
Waterloo he was made a peer of France. He was also president of a commission which inquired into the conduct of the officers during the
Hundred Days, and dismissed Napoleon's sympathizers. In 1821 he was appointed war minister and held this office for two years. In 1830 he was major-general of the royal guard, and after the
July Revolution of that year he retired altogether into private life. His death took place at Paris on
1 March 1841. His papers for the period 1793–1800 have been published (Paris, 1846).
References
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