Jacques Leroy de Saint-Arnaud: Difference between revisions

Marshal of France

Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud
Marshal of France; Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud
	Saint-Arnaud, by Pierre-Louis Pierson c. 1850s
Born	20 August 1798; Paris, France
Died	29 September 1854 (aged 56); Black Sea
Buried	Les Invalides
Allegiance	Bourbon Restoration; July Monarchy; French Second Republic; Second French Empire
Service/branch	French Army
Years of service	1821–1854
Rank	Maréchal de France
Battles/wars	Conquest of Algeria; Crimean War
Awards	Legion of Honour (Grand Croix)
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Armand-Jacques Leroy de Saint-Arnaud (20 August 1798^[1] – 29 September 1854) was a French soldier and Marshal of France. He served as French Minister of War until the Crimean War when he became Commander-in-chief of the army of the East.

Biography

Born in Paris, he entered the army in 1817, but after ten years of garrison service he still held only the lowest commissioned grade. He then resigned, led a life of adventure in several lands and returned to the army at the age of thirty as a sub-lieutenant. He took part in the suppression of the Vendée émeute [fr] (1832), and served for a time on the staff of General (Marshal) Bugeaud. However, his debts and the scandals of his private life compelled him to go to Algeria as a captain in the French Foreign Legion. There he distinguished himself on numerous occasions, and after twelve years had risen to the rank of maréchal de camp (major general).^[2]

Following the example of Marshal Aimable Pélissier, Saint Arnaud suffocated 500 Arab tribesmen (8 August 1845), in a cave between Tenes and Mostaganem, in the Sbeah area. Three days later he wrote "I hermetically sealed all exits and made a vast cemetery. The earth will cover the corpses of these fanatics for ever. No one went down to the caverns; no one but me knows that there are 500 brigands under here who will not cut the throats of the French any more. A confidential report related everything to the Marshal simply, without terrible poetry and without images. Brother, no one is good by taste and by nature like me. From the 8th to the 12th, I was sick, but my conscience does not blame me for anything. I did my duty" [1]. These massacres were regarded with absolute horror in the French press, as an article in The Times relates.^[3]

He also burnt 200 villages in 1846, including rich arable fields."I left in my wake a vast conflagration. All the villages, some 200 in number, were burned down, all the gardens destroyed, all the olive trees cut down."^[4]

In 1848 Saint Arnaud commanded a brigade during the revolution in Paris. On his return to Africa, possibly because Louis Napoleon considered him a suitable military head of a potential coup d'état, an expedition took place into Little Kabylie in northern Algeria, in which Saint Arnaud showed his prowess as a commander-in-chief and provided his superiors with the pretext for bringing him home as a general of division (July 1851).

Maréchal Leroy de Saint-Arnaud, by Charles-Philippe Larivière, c. 1854

Statue of Saint-Arnaud in the Australian town of St Arnaud

He succeeded Marshal Magnan as minister of war and superintended the military operations of the coup d'état of 2 December 1851, which placed Louis Napoleon on the throne as Emperor Napoleon III. A year later he became a Marshal of France and a senator, remaining at the head of the war office until 1854, when he set out to command the French forces in the Crimean War, alongside his British colleague Lord Raglan. Ill with stomach cancer, he died on board ship just over a week after commanding troops at the Battle of the Alma on 20 September 1854. His body was returned to France, and lies buried in Les Invalides.^[2]

After his death Saint Arnaud was regarded as a military hero, by both the French state and army. However, in Victor Hugo's long poem "Saint Arnaud",^[5] he is described as a criminal ‘jackal’ who had orchestrated the bloody massacres that followed Louis-Napoleon’s coup d’état. Algernon Charles Swinburne later described the poem of Saint Arnaud as an example of Hugo's 'poetic genius'. Swinburne said 'Then... came the great and terrible poem on the life and death of the miscreant marshal who gave the watchword of massacre in the streets of Paris'.^[6]

Legacy

The town of St Arnaud, Victoria, Australia was named after Jacques and has a commemorative statue of him in the town's botanical gardens on Napier Street. Another town, located in Algeria, was called Saint Arnaud under French rule; currently, its name is El Eulma. The Saint Arnaud Range and the nearby locality of Saint Arnaud in New Zealand both derive their name from him.

Honours

Second French Empire: Baton of Maréchal de France
Second French Empire: Grand Croix of the Legion of Honour
Second French Empire: Médaille militaire
Kingdom of Sardinia: Grand Croix of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus
Two Sicilies: Grand Croix of the Order of Saint George and Reunion
Papal States: Grand Croix of the Order of Pope Pius IX
Papal States: Grand Croix of the Order of St. Gregory the Great
Belgium: Commander of the Order of Leopold
Ottoman Empire: First Class of the Order of the Medjidie
Tunisia: First Class of the Order of Glory

References

^ Encyclopædia Britannica Encyclopædia Britannica
^ ^a ^b ^c One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Saint Arnaud, Jacques Leroy de". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 1016.
^ "French Atrocities in Algeria", The Times, 14 July 1845
^ Bennoune, Mahfoud (29 July 1988). The Making of Contemporary Algeria, 1830-1987. Cambridge University Press. pp. 40–41. ISBN 978-0521301503. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
^ Hugo, Victor (17 October 1854). "Saint Arnaud". Les Châtiments (in French).
^ Godfrey, Sima (2 February 2016). "La Guerre de Crimée n'aura pas lieu" (PDF). French Cultural Studies. Sage Journals.

Preceded by Jacques Louis Randon	Minister of War, 26 October 1851 – 11 March 1854	Succeeded by Jean-Baptiste Philibert Vaillant

[1] Encyclopædia Britannica Encyclopædia Britannica

[EB1911-2] One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Saint Arnaud, Jacques Leroy de". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 1016.

[3] "French Atrocities in Algeria", The Times, 14 July 1845

[reference-4] Bennoune, Mahfoud (29 July 1988). The Making of Contemporary Algeria, 1830-1987. Cambridge University Press. pp. 40–41. ISBN 978-0521301503. Retrieved 14 June 2020.

[reference_3-5] Hugo, Victor (17 October 1854). "Saint Arnaud". Les Châtiments (in French).

[reference_4-6] Godfrey, Sima (2 February 2016). "La Guerre de Crimée n'aura pas lieu" (PDF). French Cultural Studies. Sage Journals.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{short description|Marshal of France and Minister of War (1798–1854)}}
 {{One source|date=February 2012}}
+{{Infobox military person
-[[File:Armand Jacques Leroy de Saint-Arnaud.jpg|thumb|19th century lithographic portrait of Saint Arnaud.]]
+| honorific_prefix = [[Marshal of France]]
-[[Image:de saint arnaud.jpg|thumb|Statue and plaque in botanical gardens of [[St Arnaud, Victoria]], Australia.]]
+| name          = Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud
+| image         = Leroy de Saint-Arnaud - photo Pierson.jpg
-'''Armand-Jacques Leroy de Saint-Arnaud''' (20 August 1801 &ndash; 29 September 1854) was a French soldier and [[Marshal of France]]. He served as French Minister of War until the [[Crimean War]] when he became Commander-in-chief of the army of the East.
+| image_size    =
+| caption       = Saint-Arnaud, by [[Pierre-Louis Pierson]] {{circa|1850s}}
+| nickname      =
+| birth_date    = {{Birth date|1798|08|20|df=y}}
+| birth_place   = [[Paris]], [[French First Republic|France]]
+| death_date    = {{Death date and age|1854|09|29|1798|08|20|df=y}}
+| death_place   = [[Black Sea]]
+| placeofburial = [[Les Invalides]]
+| allegiance    = {{flag|Bourbon Restoration}}<br />{{flag|July Monarchy}}<br />{{flag|French Second Republic}}<br />{{flag|Second French Empire}}
+| branch        = [[French Army]]
+| serviceyears  = 1821–1854
+| rank          = [[Marshal of France|Maréchal de France]]
+| unit          =
+| commands      =
+| battles       = [[French conquest of Algeria|Conquest of Algeria]]<br />[[Crimean War]]
+| awards        = [[Legion of Honour]] (Grand Croix)
+| relations     =
+| laterwork     =
+| signature     = Signatur Armand-Jacques-Achille Leroy de Saint-Arnaud.PNG
+}}
+'''Armand-Jacques Leroy de Saint-Arnaud''' (20 August 1798<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica [http://www.britannica.com/biography/Armand-Jacques-Leroy-de-Saint-Arnaud Encyclopædia Britannica]</ref> &ndash; 29 September 1854) was a French soldier and [[Marshal of France]]. He served as French Minister of War until the [[Crimean War]] when he became Commander-in-chief of the army of the East.
 ==Biography==
-Born in [[Paris, France|Paris]], he entered the army in 1817, but after ten years of garrison service, he still held only the lowest commissioned grade. He then resigned, led a life of adventure in several lands and returned to the army at the age of thirty as a sub-lieutenant. He took part in the suppression of the ''Vendée émeute'', and was for a time on the staff of [[Thomas Robert Bugeaud de la Piconnerie|General (Marshal) Bugeaud]]. However, his debts and the scandals of his private life compelled him to go to [[Algeria]] as a captain in the [[French Foreign Legion]]. There he distinguished himself on numerous occasions, and after twelve years had risen to the rank of ''maréchal de camp'' (major general).
+Born in [[Paris, France|Paris]], he entered the army in 1817, but after ten years of garrison service he still held only the lowest commissioned grade. He then resigned, led a life of adventure in several lands and returned to the army at the age of thirty as a sub-lieutenant. He took part in the suppression of the {{ill|Vendée émeute|fr|Guerre de Vendée et Chouannerie de 1832}} (1832), and served for a time on the staff of [[Thomas Robert Bugeaud de la Piconnerie|General (Marshal) Bugeaud]]. However, his debts and the scandals of his private life compelled him to go to [[Algeria]] as a captain in the [[French Foreign Legion]]. There he distinguished himself on numerous occasions, and after twelve years had risen to the rank of {{lang|fr|maréchal de camp}} (major general).<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Saint Arnaud, Jacques Leroy de|volume=23|page=1016}}</ref>
+Following the example of Marshal [[Aimable Pélissier]], Saint Arnaud suffocated 500 Arab tribesmen (8 August 1845), in a cave between Tenes and Mostaganem, in the Sbeah area. Three days later he wrote "I hermetically sealed all exits and made a vast cemetery. The earth will cover the corpses of these fanatics for ever. No one went down to the caverns; no one but me knows that there are 500 brigands under here who will not cut the throats of the French any more. A confidential report related everything to the Marshal simply, without terrible poetry and without images. Brother, no one is good by taste and by nature like me. From the 8th to the 12th, I was sick, but my conscience does not blame me for anything. I did my duty" [https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enfumades_d%27Alg%C3%A9rie#%C2%AB_Emmurades_%C2%BB_des_Sbehas_(Ouled_Sbih)_de_A%C3%AFn_Merane_(du_8_au_12_ao%C3%BBt_1845)]. These massacres were regarded with absolute horror in the French press, as an article in The Times relates.<ref>[https://www.thetimes.co.uk/archive/article/1845-07-14/7/9.html "French Atrocities in Algeria"], ''The Times'', 14 July 1845</ref>
-In 1848 Saint Arnaud commanded a brigade during the [[The Revolutions of 1848 in France|revolution]] in Paris. On his return to Africa, possibly because [[Louis Napoleon]] considered him a suitable  military head of a potential ''coup d'état'', an expedition took place into Little [[Kabylie]], in which Saint Arnaud showed his prowess as a commander-in-chief and provided his superiors with the pretext for bringing him home as a general of division (July 1851).
+He also burnt 200 villages in 1846, including rich arable fields."I left in my wake a vast conflagration. All the villages, some 200 in number, were burned down, all the gardens destroyed, all the olive trees cut down."<ref name="reference">{{cite book |last1=Bennoune |first1=Mahfoud |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4nXl7h8i5scC&q=arnaud |title=The Making of Contemporary Algeria, 1830-1987 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=29 July 1988 |pages=40–41 |isbn=978-0521301503 |access-date=2020-06-14 }}</ref>
-He succeeded Marshal [[Bernard Pierre Magnan|Magnan]] as minister of war and superintended the military operations of the ''[[French coup of 1851|coup d'état]]'' of 2 December 1851, which placed Louis Napoleon on the throne as [[Napoleon III]]. A year later he became a [[Marshal of France]] and a senator, remaining at the head of the war office till 1854, when he set out to command the French forces in the [[Crimean War]], alongside his British colleague [[Fitzroy Somerset, 1st Lord Raglan|Lord Raglan]]. He died on board ship, shortly after commanding at the [[Battle of Alma|Battle of the Alma]] (20 September 1854). His body, returned to France, lies buried in [[Les Invalides]].
+In 1848 Saint Arnaud commanded a brigade during the [[The Revolutions of 1848 in France|revolution]] in Paris. On his return to Africa, possibly because [[Louis Napoleon]] considered him a suitable  military head of a potential ''coup d'état'', an expedition took place into Little [[Kabylie]] in northern Algeria, in which Saint Arnaud showed his prowess as a commander-in-chief and provided his superiors with the pretext for bringing him home as a general of division (July 1851).
+[[File: Maréchal Leroy de Saint-Arnaud.jpg|thumb|right|[[Marshal of France|Maréchal]] Leroy de Saint-Arnaud, by [[Charles-Philippe Larivière]], {{circa|1854}}]]
+[[File:Statue of Marshal Leroy de Saint-Arnaud.jpg|thumb|Statue of Saint-Arnaud in the Australian town of [[St Arnaud, Victoria|St Arnaud]]]]
+He succeeded Marshal [[Bernard Pierre Magnan|Magnan]] as minister of war and superintended the military operations of the ''[[French coup of 1851|coup d'état]]'' of 2 December 1851, which placed Louis Napoleon on the throne as Emperor [[Napoleon III]]. A year later he became a [[Marshal of France]] and a senator, remaining at the head of the war office until 1854, when he set out to command the French forces in the [[Crimean War]], alongside his British colleague [[Fitzroy Somerset, 1st Lord Raglan|Lord Raglan]]. Ill with stomach cancer, he died on board ship just over a week after commanding troops at the [[Battle of Alma|Battle of the Alma]] on 20 September 1854. His body was returned to France, and lies buried in [[Les Invalides]].<ref name="EB1911"/>
+After his death Saint Arnaud was regarded as a military hero, by both the French state and army. However, in [[Victor Hugo]]'s long poem "Saint Arnaud",<ref name="reference 3">{{cite news |last=Hugo |first=Victor |author-link=Victor Hugo |url=http://www.unjourunpoeme.fr/poeme/saint-arnaud |title=Saint Arnaud |language=fr |work=Les Châtiments |date=1854-10-17 }}</ref> he is described as a criminal ‘jackal’ who had orchestrated the bloody massacres that followed Louis-Napoleon’s coup d’état. [[Algernon Charles Swinburne]] later described the poem of Saint Arnaud as an example of Hugo's 'poetic genius'. Swinburne said 'Then... came the great and terrible poem on the life and death of the miscreant marshal who gave the watchword of massacre in the streets of Paris'.<ref name="reference 4">{{cite news |last=Godfrey |first=Sima |url=https://fhis2015.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2016/05/CrimeeGodfreyArticle.pdf|title=La Guerre de Crimée n'aura pas lieu |work=French Cultural Studies |publisher=Sage Journals |date=2016-02-02 }}</ref>
 ==Legacy==
-The town of [[St Arnaud, Victoria]], Australia  was named after Jaques and has a commemorative statue of him in the towns botanical gardens on Napier Street. Another town located in Algeria, was called Saint Arnaud under [[French rule in Algeria|French rule]], currently, its name is [[El Eulma]]. The [[Saint Arnaud Range]] and the nearby locality of [[Saint Arnaud, New Zealand|Saint Arnaud]] in [[New Zealand]] both derive their name from him.
+The town of [[St Arnaud, Victoria]], Australia  was named after Jacques and has a commemorative statue of him in the town's botanical gardens on Napier Street. Another town, located in Algeria, was called Saint Arnaud under [[French rule in Algeria|French rule]]; currently, its name is [[El Eulma]]. The [[Saint Arnaud Range]] and the nearby locality of [[Saint Arnaud, New Zealand|Saint Arnaud]] in [[New Zealand]] both derive their name from him.
+== Honours ==
+* {{flag|Second French Empire}}: Baton of [[Marshal of France|Maréchal de France]]
+* {{flag|Second French Empire}}: Grand Croix of the [[Legion of Honour]]
+* {{flag|Second French Empire}}: [[Médaille militaire]]
+* {{flag|Kingdom of Sardinia}}: Grand Croix of the [[Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus]]
+* {{flag|Two Sicilies}}: Grand Croix of the [[Order of Saint George and Reunion]]
+* {{flag|Papal States}}: Grand Croix of the [[Order of Pope Pius IX]]
+* {{flag|Papal States}}: Grand Croix of the [[Order of St. Gregory the Great]]
+* {{flag|Belgium}}: Commander of the [[Order of Leopold (Belgium)|Order of Leopold]]
+* {{flag|Ottoman Empire}}: First Class of the [[Order of the Medjidie]]
+* {{flag|Tunisia}}: First Class of the [[Order of Glory (Tunisia)|Order of Glory]]
 ==Further reading==
-*''Lettres du Maréchal de Saint Arnaud'' (Paris, 1855; 2nd edition with [[memoire]] by [[Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve|Sainte-Beuve]], 1858).
+*''Lettres du Maréchal de Saint Arnaud'' (Paris, 1855; 2nd edition with [[memoire]] by [[Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve|Sainte-Beuve]], 1858).<ref name="EB1911"/>
 ==References==
+{{reflist}}
-<references/>
-*{{EB1911|wstitle=Saint Arnaud, Jacques Leroy de}}
 {{s-start}}
@@ Line 32: / Line 72: @@
 {{Third Cabinet of Napoleon III}}
+{{Authority control}}
-{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. -->
+{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}
-| NAME              = Saint Arnaud, Jacques Leroy de
-| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
-| SHORT DESCRIPTION = Marshal of France
-| DATE OF BIRTH     = 20 August 1801
-| PLACE OF BIRTH    = [[Paris, France|Paris]]
-| DATE OF DEATH     = 29 September 1854
-| PLACE OF DEATH    = Died at sea
-}}
 {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Arnaud, Jacques Leroy De}}
-[[Category:French military personnel of the Crimean War]]
+[[Category:1798 births]]
-[[Category:1801 births]]
 [[Category:1854 deaths]]
-[[Category:Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur]]
+[[Category:Politicians from Paris]]
+[[Category:Bonapartists]]
+[[Category:French Ministers of War]]
+[[Category:People of the French Second Republic]]
+[[Category:French mass murderers]]
+[[Category:French military personnel of the Crimean War]]
+[[Category:French senators of the Second Empire]]
+[[Category:French war criminals]]
 [[Category:Marshals of France]]
+[[Category:Perpetrators of Indigenous genocides]]
+[[Category:Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour]]
 [[Category:Officers of the French Foreign Legion]]
+[[Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus]]
+[[Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Gregory the Great]]
+[[Category:People who died at sea]]

v t e Last cabinet of the French Second Republic (26 October 1851 – 2 December 1851)
Under the Presidency of Louis Napoleon
Justice	Eugène Corbin Alfred Daviel
Foreign Affairs	Louis Félix Étienne, marquis de Turgot
Interior and Beaux-Arts	René de Thorigny Charles de Morny, Duke of Morny
Finance	Antoine Blondel François-Xavier Joseph de Casabianca
War	Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud
Navy and Colonies	Hippolyte Fortoul
Public Works	Théobald de Lacrosse
Agriculture and Commerce	François-Xavier Joseph de Casabianca Noël Lefebvre-Duruflé
Education and Religious Affairs	Charles Giraud

v t e First and Second Cabinets of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (3 December 1851 – 2 December 1852)
Minister of State	François-Xavier Joseph de Casabianca (1852) Achille Fould
Justice	Eugène Rouher Jacques Pierre Abbatucci
Foreign Affairs	Louis Félix Étienne, marquis de Turgot Édouard Drouyn de Lhuys
Interior and Beaux-Arts	Charles de Morny Victor de Persigny
Police	Charlemagne de Maupas (1852)
Defense	Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud
Navy and Colonies	Théodore Ducos
Public Education and Religious Affairs	Hippolyte Fortoul
Public Works	Pierre Magne Noël Lefebvre-Duruflé Pierre Magne
Agriculture and Commerce	Noël Lefebvre-Duruflé Victor de Persigny

v t e Third cabinet of Napoleon III (2 December 1852 - 17 July 1869)
President of the Council of State	François-Xavier Joseph de Casabianca Jules Baroche Eugène Rouher Gustave Rouland Adolphe Vuitry
Justice	Jacques Pierre Abbatucci Ernest de Royer Claude Alphonse Delangle Jules Baroche
Foreign Affairs	Édouard Drouyn de Lhuys Alexandre Colonna-Walewski Jules Baroche Édouard Thouvenel Édouard Drouyn de Lhuys Charles de La Valette Lionel de Moustier Charles de La Valette
Interior	Victor de Persigny Adolphe Billault Charles-Marie-Esprit Espinasse Claude Alphonse Delangle Ernest Arrighi de Casanova Adolphe Billault Victor de Persigny Paul Boudet Charles de La Valette Ernest Pinard Adolphe de Forcade La Roquette
Police	Charlemagne de Maupas
Finance	Jean-Martial Bineau Pierre Magne Adolphe de Forcade La Roquette Achille Fould Eugène Rouher Pierre Magne
Defense	Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud Jean-Baptiste Philibert Vaillant Jacques Louis Randon Adolphe Niel
Marine, Colonies and Algeria	Théodore Ducos Jacques Pierre Abbatucci Ferdinand-Alphonse Hamelin, Prince Napoléon Bonaparte and Eugène Rouher Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat Charles Rigault de Genouilly
Education and Cults	Hippolyte Fortoul Jean-Baptiste Philibert Vaillant Gustave Rouland Victor Duruy and Jules Baroche
Public works	Pierre Magne Louis Henri Armand Behic Adolphe de Forcade La Roquette Edmond Valléry Gressier
Agriculture and Commerce	Victor de Persigny Pierre Magne Eugène Rouher Louis Henri Armand Behic Adolphe de Forcade La Roquette Edmond Valléry Gressier
Beaux-Arts	Victor de Persigny Achille Fould Alexandre Colonna-Walewski Jean-Baptiste Philibert Vaillant
Emperor's Household	Achille Fould Jean-Baptiste Philibert Vaillant
Ministers of State	Achille Fould Alexandre Colonna-Walewski Adolphe Billault Eugène Rouher
Ministers without portfolio	Pierre Magne Jules Baroche Adolphe Billault
Preceded by Second cabinet of Louis Napoleon • Followed by Fourth cabinet of Napoleon III

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