Pierre Riel

Marquis de Beurnonville
A portrait of the marquis sometime during the Revolution
Born10 May 1752
Champignol-lez-Mondeville, Champagne, Kingdom of France
Died23 April 1821(1821-04-23) (aged 69)
Paris, Kingdom of France
Allegiance Kingdom of France
 First French Republic
 First French Empire
Kingdom of France
Service/branchKingdom of France French Royal Army
France French Revolutionary Army
France French Imperial Army
French Royal Army
RankMarshal of France
Commands heldArmy of the Moselle
Battles/wars

Pierre de Ruel, marquis de Beurnonville (10 May 1752 – 23 April 1821) was a French general during the French Revolutionary Wars and later a marshal of France[1] and Deputy Grand Master of Grand Orient de France.[2][3]

Biography

Bournonville was born at Champignol-lez-Mondeville, Aube.[citation needed]

After service in the colonies, he married a wealthy Creole, Geneviève Gillot L'Étang. After his return to France, he purchased the post of lieutenant of the Swiss Guard of the count of Provence.[1]

During the French Revolution he was named lieutenant-general, and took an active part in the battles of Valmy and Jemmapes.[4] Minister of War in February 1793, he denounced his old commander, Charles François Dumouriez, to the Convention, and was one of the four deputies sent to watch him.[1]

Handed over by Dumouriez to the Austrians on 3 April 1793, Beurnonville was not exchanged until November 1795. He entered the service again, commanded the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse and Army of the North, and was appointed inspector of infantry of the Army of England in 1798. He was sent as ambassador to Berlin in 1800, and to Madrid in 1802.[1]

Napoleon made him a senator and count of the empire. In 1814 he was a member of the provisional government organized after the abdication of Napoleon. He followed Louis XVIII to exile in Ghent, and after the second restoration was made marquis and marshal of France (1816).[1]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Chisholm 1911, p. 834.
  2. ^ Jean-Claude Rochigneux, Maçons d'hier, maçonnerie d'aujourd'hui, Humanisme, Conform éditions, 2003, p. 39.
  3. ^ Dictionnaire de la Franc-maçonnerie, page 138 (Daniel Ligou, Presses universitaires de France, 2006)
  4. ^ Smith 1998, p. 30.
Dumouriez arresting the Commissioners in 1793

References

Attribution
Political offices Preceded byJean-Nicolas Pache French Minister of War 4 February 1793 – 1 April 1793 Succeeded byPierre Henri Hélène Marie Lebrun-Tondu
Military offices Preceded byÉtienne Deprez-Crassier Commander-in-chief of the Army of the Moselle 15 November 1792 – 23 January 1793 Succeeded byRené Charles de Ligniville Preceded byJoseph Souham Commander-in-chief of the Army of the North 4 April – 15 September 1796 Succeeded byJean François Aimé Dejean Preceded byJean-Baptiste Jourdan Commander-in-chief of the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse 23 September 1796 – 23 January 1797 Succeeded byJean Étienne Championnet Preceded byJean François Aimé Dejean Commander-in-chief of the Army of the North 25 September 1797 – 2 January 1798 Succeeded byJacques MacDonald

Source: Clerget, Charles (1905). Tableaux des Armées Françaises pendant les Guerres de la Révolution. Paris: Librarie Militaire R. Chapelot et Cie. Retrieved 3 July 2015.

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