Guillaume Brune

Marshal of the Empire Guillaume Brune Count of the Empire
Portrait by Eugène Bataille after an original by Marie-Guillemine Benoist. The original, commissioned by Napoleon and executed between 1805–1810, was lost in a fire in the Tuileries Palace in 1871
Born	13 March 1764 (1764-03-13) Brive-la-Gaillarde, France
Died	2 August 1815 (1815-08-03) (aged 52) Avignon, France
Allegiance	French First Republic First French Empire
Service/branch	Army
Years of service	1791–1815
Rank	Marshal of the Empire
Awards	Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour

Guillaume Marie-Anne Brune, 1st Count Brune (13 March 1764 – 2 August 1815) was a French military commander, Marshal of the Empire, and political figure who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.

Overlooked during the First Empire because of his republicanism, he nevertheless commanded the armies of the Boulogne camp in 1805, and was made governor of the Hanseatic cities in 1806, then peer of France and Count in 1815.

Biography

Early life

Brune was born in Brives (now called Brive-la-Gaillarde) in the province of Limousin, the son of Étienne Brune, lawyer at the Presidial court, and Jeanne Vielbains, who descended from the lower nobility. He moved to Paris in 1785, studied law at the Collège de France and became a political journalist. A frequent customer of gambling houses, he loses a lot of money.

He then became a typographer to survive. Always short of money, Guillaume returns to Brive in 1787, a stay which is for him a total disappointment. He then decides to enter the Republic of Letters. He writes in the following year a Voyage pittoresque et sentimental dans plusieurs provinces occidentales de France ("Picturesque and Sentimental Journey in Several Western Provinces of France"), which was to open to him a literary career.

French Revolution

Guillaume Marie-Anne Brune, capitaine adjoint aux adjudants-généraux en 1792 (1763-1815), by Auguste Vinchon (1835)

Brune embraced the ideas of the French Revolution, and soon after its outbreak he met Marat, Fréron, Fabre d'Églantine and became friends with Camille Desmoulins and Danton. In 1791, he joined the Cordeliers Club.

To defend and popularize his ideas, he bought in 1791 a small printing house and became editor-in-chief of a periodical, Le Journal Général de la Cour et de la Ville, better known under his pseudonym Le Petit Gauthier. Ready to defend his ideals with arms, the future Marshal joined the Parisian National Guard and then the 2nd battalion of volunteers of Seine-et-Oise. In October, he was elected adjutant-major.

After a stay in the staff of General Dumouriez in the Army of the North, he became, the following year, assistant to the adjutants-general; adjutant-general and colonel in 1793.

After being appointed commissioner of the Army of Belgium, he became Sepher's chief of staff. Brune was charged with suppressing the Federalist revolt. Commanding the vanguard against General Wimpfen, he triumphed over him at Pacy-sur-Eure, which enabled him to disperse the Federalists of Normandy. On August 18, 1793, he returned to the Army of the North and was appointed Brigadier general, taking part in the Battle of Hondschoote.

Brune as commander of the Armée de Batavie in the Batavian Republic, by Charles Howard Hodges (c. 1799)

But in December 1793, denounced by Tallien and Ysabeau, he was proscribed by the Committee of Public Safety under the pretext of having defended the King during the days of September 5 and 6. Back in grace, during the autumn of 1795, he was in charge of pacifying Southern France by restoring order in the Gard, Drôme and Vaucluse, troubled by the Companions of Jehu. Under the orders of representative Boursault, he imposed a state of siege at Avignon in early October.

In 1795, after having commanded the place of Bordeaux, he participated in the repression of the royalist insurrection of 13 Vendémiaire, alongside Barras and General Bonaparte. Called by the Directory to the Army of Italy, he participated in the Battle of Arcole. Then Brune, at the head of the vanguard of the Masséna division, distinguished himself at the Battle of Rivoli, before distinguishing himself at Saint-Michel (where he was wounded), at Feltre, at Belluno, etc., and being named Divisional general on the battlefield on April 17, 1797.

Switzerland and Holland's victorious campaign

Guillaume Brune in the uniform of a general of the Revolution

A year later, the newly promoted Brune was entrusted with an intervention during the invasion of the Swiss Confederacy to support the Vaudois in revolt against the Canton of Bern. As commander of the Helvetia army, he took Fribourg, whose looting he forbade, and seized the "Trésor de Berne" which was to finance the Egyptian expedition. On March 17, 1798, he sent a letter to the Directory informing it of the submission of the Confederation. With relief, in the face of the organized looting that splashed him, Brune received the command in chief of the army of Italy in replacement of Berthier and Masséna.

In January 1799, Brune was sent to defend the coasts of the Batavian Republic at the head of the Army of Holland. On September 19, 1799, at the head of the French forces in Batavia (approximately 23,000 men), Brune repulsed a Russian-British army that had landed at Den Helder during the Battle of Bergen, inflicting losses of 4,500 men and 20 cannons. He repeated this success at Castricum on October 6, 1799. He forced Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, general-in-chief of the allied army, to capitulate and made him sign the Convention of Alkmaar.

But on December 4, 1799, the Batavian government, convinced that General Brune wanted to overthrow him, deprived him of his command. He was then appointed commander-in-chief of the Army of the West with the mission of putting an end to the Vendean insurrection. Shortly afterwards, the Chouan leaders surrendered.

The Consulate

Portrait of First Consul Bonaparte, by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

After the 18 Brumaire, on December 25, 1799, Guillaume Brune, who was one of the First Consul's main collaborators, joined the Council of State. In this capacity, he presided over the war section between 1801 and 1802. A year later, following the victory at Marengo, Napoleon Bonaparte appointed him commander-in-chief of the Army of Italy, replacing Masséna. In August 1800, he seized Verona and Vicenza and signed the armistice of Treviso. Finally, in December, General Brune won the "victory of Monzambano" (Battle of Pozzolo) over the Austrians.

But his feats of arms did not necessarily enchant Bonaparte who had just been named consul for life. This general, who remained a fervent republican, made him uncomfortable. In September 1802, he removed Brune by appointing him ambassador to Constantinople. Before his departure, Brune agreed to be the godfather of General Dumas' son, the writer Alexandre Dumas.

Republican Marshal

On May 18, 1804, the Senate of the French Republic decided to confer the imperial dignity to Napoleon Bonaparte. The next day, Napoleon I, emperor of the French, appointed his first Marshals. Brune was among them, 9th in the order of precedence. The new Marshal of the Empire was also made Grand Eagle of the Legion of Honour on 13 Pluviôse XIII. He left Constantinople and returned to France.

On September 2, 1805, the Emperor appointed Brune General-in-Chief of the army of the Boulogne camp and of the Army of the Coasts of the Ocean, then in 1806, Governor of the Hanseatic cities.

Brune, having reached the peak of his military career, continued to worry Napoleon with his political opinions. Being a republican under the Empire was no longer appropriate. The Emperor took the first pretext to make him fall in disgrace. This disgrace lasted from 1807 to the Hundred Days. In 1807, Brune, commander of the observation corps of The Great Army operating against Prussia, was charged with conquering Pomerania. The Marshal took Stralsund on July 15, then the island of Rügen.

On September 7, during an interview with the King of Sweden, the act of capitulation drawn up by the Marshal himself did not mentioned "the army of His Imperial and Royal Majesty", but "the French army". This republicanism so displeased Napoleon that Brune was placed on leave until 1814. Throughout this disgrace, his name was no longer mentioned at the Imperial Court.

On April 1, 1814, Brune rallied to the Bourbons, who were reluctant to accept his services, even though Louis XVIII awarded him the Order of Saint Louis.

Hundred Days

Marshal Brune came back into favor upon Napoleon return from the island of Elba. On April 16, 1815, Marshal Davout, Minister of War, entrusted him with the command of the 8th military division based in Marseille and of an observation corps on the Var, in charge of protecting the border with Piedmont. The marshal had under his command the 17th infantry division, commanded by Verdier, the 14th mounted chasseurs, the artillery and the engineers, a total of 5,544 men. Brune "accepted the thankless and difficult task of stopping the civil war in Provence, whose violent passions had been unleashed by the factions, and of defending this country against the invasion of the English and the Austrians".

On June 2, to ensure the loyalty of the man who had always been more a general of the Revolution than a Marshal of the Empire, Napoleon named him a peer of France, making Brune ipso facto a count of the Empire.

Marshal Brune arrived in Marseille on April 21 and established a state of siege. Brune received the news of the defeat at Waterloo on June 24. In a communiqué dated July 4, he informed his troops of Napoleon's abdication and concluded his order of the day by proclaiming: "Long live Emperor Napoleon II, long live French liberty!" Upon learning of Louis XVIII's return to Paris on July 14, Brune continued to fly the Tricolour flag over Toulon until July 31, 1815. He pledged his allegiance to his fellow citizen of Brive, the future Admiral Grivel, who was assigned to work with the Marquis de Rivière.

Death at Avignon

Released from his military command in Toulon, he was called to Paris to report to the King on the mission entrusted to him by Bonaparte.

It was planned that Marshal Brune would embark on a schooner, prepared by Duperré and Grivel, to return to Paris via Le Havre. But Brune, judging this idea unworthy of a Marshal of France, chose to leave by road and decided to reach the capital by way of the Rhone valley. He left his post on August 1, after having given his command to General Partouneaux and Admiral Ganteaume.

On July 31, 1815, the tricolour flag that Brune had flown in Toulon was lowered and removed by order of Partouneaux and Ganteaume. On this subject, there is an anonymous report in the official archives of July 1815: "Order to seize Marshal Brune who persists in maintaining the cockade and the tricolor flag in Toulon".

Before his departure from Toulon, around two o'clock in the morning, Brune received from the Marquis de Rivière a pass allowing him to reach Paris. The Marshal left under escort. The first stage of his journey was Avignon. While crossing Aix-en-Provence, he was recognized by a royalist group, threatened and insulted. Ignoring this first alert, at the stage station of Saint-Andiol, Brune dismissed his escort of the 14th chasseurs whose horses were exhausted. Arriving at Cavaillon, he is informed that his soldiers had received orders to return towards Toulon.

Brune continued on his way with his three aides de camp Allard, Bourgoin and Degand, his secretary Le Guen, as well as the General Loverdo. Vaguely informed of the troubles in Avignon, they urged him to avoid this village. One could reach Orange by the road of Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, but the postmaster was opposed to it, declaring that it was necessary to pass by Avignon to remount his carriage.

Accompanied only by Bourgoin and Degand, the convoy, reduced to two cars, a carriage and a cabriolet, arrived at the foot of the ramparts of Avignon on August 2 and entered the city through the Porte de l'Oulle at ten in the morning. He stopped at the Place de la Comédie where the post office was located. The exact time is known thanks to the report of Captain Casimir Verger. The latter, caught up in an untimely zeal, decided to examine Brune papers with a magnifying glass, blocking the Marshal and his crew for long enough for Brune to be recognized.

The news went around the city. While the horses were being prepared, a crowd formed around the Marshal's car. These excited people — called verdets and trestaillons — were led by the merchant Soullier, a royalist known for his violence and irascibility. He accused Brune of having carried the head of the Princess of Lamballe on a pike.

At the same time, Major Lambot, chief of squadron of the gendarmerie, informed by the postmaster Verger, had the passports of the Marshal and his suite brought to him in order to check them and exame them. The departure was thus suspended while these lengthy formalities were carried out. This was enough for Brune's car to be surround it by a crowd that increased by the minute. It was blocked in front of the hotel of the Palais-Royal contiguous to the relay station.

The crowd became more and more numerous and agitated. The wife of the innkeeper of the Palais-Royal, lady Molin, fearing the worst, immediately let Brune in. She informed him that the new Prefect of Vaucluse, Baron Louis Marie Joseph de Saint-Chamans, who had arrived that morning at five o'clock, was in her apartment incognito and advised him to take refuge there. The Marshal obeyed.

Saint-Chamans, who came down to the square, tried in vain to calm the crowd. He then advised the Marshal to leave Avignon without delay, promising to send him his passport by a gendarme. In spite of the opposition of the people, and thanks to a new intervention of the Prefect, Brune was finally able to travel again. The convoy left town pursued by a screaming crowd. To get out of Avignon, they had to cut through the inside of the ramparts, allowing Soullier and his fellow rioters to block them again. The Marshal's carriage was pelted with stones. About fifteen armed men threw themselves at the head of the horses and tried to seize the carriage.

Warned, the Prefect arrived soon afterwards in the company of Boudard, his prefectural advisor, Bressy-Poutinçon, the police commissioner, and Captain Verger, who finally brought back the passports. They all tried to calm down the multitude, or at least to hold them back or make them listen to reason. It was a lost cause.

Keeping his composure, the Marshal followed the Prefect to the Place de la Comédie where, it is explained to him, he would be safer. The postillion, wounded in the head, was forced to pull his horses by the bridle. Verger, sword in hand, had difficultiy to clear a passage to the convoy. As the carriage arrived in front of the hotel, all rushed inside while the doors were promptly closed.

Brune took refuge again alongside Prefect Saint-Chamans, but the room of the latter was opposite to the courtyard, and Soullier's men saw the Marshal and immediately put him at gunpoint. The innkeeper Molin invited him to move to the second floor in a safer room. Degand and Bourgoin, who had entered the hotel through another door, were installed in a low room under the guard of armed men. Outside, the verdets and trestaillons, tried to break down the doors and piled up bundles of firewood to set the hotel on fire.

Informed late of the events occurring in the town, Guillaume Puy, the Mayor of Avignon, tried to calm the mob with his words, but to no avail. Threatened, Puy joined the Prefect whom he met for the first time.

Saint-Chamans warned the Mayor that he had just given an order to Major Lambot to assemble all the armed forces in town. Surprised, Guillaume Puy informs him that he cannot ignore that the national guards, the chasseurs of Angoulême, the Royal infantrymen are more disposed to support the riot than to repress it.

The gendarmerie was greeted with jeers. This diversion however allowed the Mayor to reach the Marshal. But Lambot makes his gendarmes move back under the guise of avoiding any provocation.

Death of Guillaume Brune

The National Guards arrived to replace the gendarmes. In front of the Palais-Royal hotel, they charged the crowd, which, barely retreating, immediately regained the lost ground. The Prefect Saint-Chamans and Mayor Puy then decided to place in front of the hotel about thirty people ready to defend the Marshal. Guillaume Puy, courageously, tried once more to calm the rioters. Poorly protected, he was jostled, knocked down and trampled over by the mob.

Meanwhile, ladders were erected, allowing several rioters to climb onto the roofs. Under the leadership of Soullier, they succeeded in breaking into the attic of the hotel and descend to the second floor. As about fifteen people managed to break into his room, Brune was shot dead as he attempted finally to flee.

External links

• Works by Guillaume Brune at Gallica