François Joseph Lefebvre
Encyclopedia
François Joseph Lefebvre, First Duc de Dantzig
(25 October 1755 – 14 September 1820) was a French military commander during the Revolutionary
and Napoleonic Wars
and one of the original eighteen Marshals of the Empire created by Napoleon.
, Alsace
, the son of a Hussar
. He enlisted in French army
at the age of 18 and like his close friend, Michel Ordener
, he embraced the French Revolution
. In 1783 he married Cathérine Hübscher
with whom he had 14 children, although none living to survive him (his last son died in 1812 in battle).
in the Gardes Françaises
, and like most of the regiment, he joined the revolution. Promoted to Brigadier General
in 1793, he took part in the Battle of Fleurus
(24 June 1794). After General Louis Lazare Hoche's death he commanded the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse
(September 1797). He then commanded the vanguard of the Army of the Danube
under Jourdan
in March 1799, although for the first week of the campaign he was incapacitated with ringworm and Dominique Vandamme
replaced him temporarily. He was later injured at the Battle of Ostrach
where the Advance Guard bore the brunt of the early fighting. In November 1799, Lefebvre commanded the Paris
troops and reluctantly agreed to support Napoleon Bonaparte in his coup d'état
. In the year 1800, Bonaparte appointed him senator.
in the German campaign of 1805. At the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt
, on 14 October 1806, Lefebvre commanded the infantry of the Imperial Guard
. He besieged
and took Danzig
in 1807
, which won him the title of Duc de Danzig (Duke of Danzig).
In 1808 Lefebvre took part in the Peninsula War. In 1809 he commanded the Bavarian army at the battles of Eckmühl
and Wagram
. Defeated by Tyrol
ean patriot Andreas Hofer
in the same year, he was replaced. He commanded the Old Guard in the French invasion of Russia
(1812) and in the German (1813) and French campaigns (1814) of the War of the Sixth Coalition
.
He voted for the Emperor's deposition at the Senate and during the First Restoration
he was made Peer of France by Louis XVIII
(4 June 1814), but rallied to Napoleon during the Hundred Days
.
at the Père-Lachaise Cemetery, Paris
.
He never forgot the hard work that brought him rank and wealth. When a friend expressed envy of his estate, Lefebvre said "Come down in the courtyard, and I'll have ten shots at you with a musket at 30 paces. If I miss, the whole estate is yours." The friend naturally declined this offer, and Lefebvre then added, "I had a thousand bullets shot at me from much closer range before I got all this."
Dantzig
- People :* Tobias Dantzig , mathematician from Latvia, father of George Dantzig* George Dantzig , American mathematician who introduced the simplex algorithm* David van Dantzig , Dutch mathematician...
(25 October 1755 – 14 September 1820) was a French military commander during the Revolutionary
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
and Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
and one of the original eighteen Marshals of the Empire created by Napoleon.
Early life
Lefebvre was from RouffachRouffach
Rouffach is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.Rouffach lies along the Alsatian wine route ....
, Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
, the son of a Hussar
Hussar
Hussar refers to a number of types of light cavalry which originated in Hungary in the 14th century, tracing its roots from Serbian medieval cavalry tradition, brought to Hungary in the course of the Serb migrations, which began in the late 14th century....
. He enlisted in French army
French Army
The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...
at the age of 18 and like his close friend, Michel Ordener
Michel Ordener
Michel Ordener was a general of division and a commander in Napoleon's elite Imperial Guard. Of plebeian origins, he was born 2 September 1755 in L'Hôpital and enlisted as private at the age of 18 years in the Prince Conde's Legion. He was promoted through the ranks; as warrant officer of a...
, he embraced the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. In 1783 he married Cathérine Hübscher
Cathérine Hübscher
Catherine Hubscher was a First French Empire noblewoman, maréchale Lefebvre and duchesse de Dantzig by her marriage to François Joseph Lefebvre....
with whom he had 14 children, although none living to survive him (his last son died in 1812 in battle).
Revolutionary Wars
In 1789 he was a SergeantSergeant
Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
in the Gardes Françaises
Gardes Françaises
The Gardes Françaises was one of the two non-ceremonial infantry regiments in the "Maison du Roi" of the French Army under the Ancien Régime. The other regiment was the Gardes Suisses, which made the Gardes Françaises the only one recruited from France.-History:The regiment was created in 1563 by...
, and like most of the regiment, he joined the revolution. Promoted to Brigadier General
Brigadier General
Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...
in 1793, he took part in the Battle of Fleurus
Battle of Fleurus (1794)
In the Battle of Fleurus on 26 June 1794, the army of the First French Republic under General Jean-Baptiste Jourdan faced the Coalition Army commanded by Prince Josias of Coburg in the most decisive battle of the Flanders Campaign in the Low Countries during the French Revolutionary Wars...
(24 June 1794). After General Louis Lazare Hoche's death he commanded the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse
Army of Sambre-et-Meuse
The Army of Sambre-et-Meuse is the best known of the armies of the French Revolution. It was formed on 29 June 1794 by combining three forces: the Army of the Ardennes, the left wing of the Army of Moselle, and the right wing of the Army of the North. It had a brief but celebrated existence...
(September 1797). He then commanded the vanguard of the Army of the Danube
Army of the Danube
The Army of the Danube was a field army of the French Directory in the 1799 southwestern campaign in the Upper Danube valley. It was formed on 2 March 1799 by the simple expedient of renaming the Army of Observation, which had been observing Austrian movements on the border between First...
under Jourdan
Jean-Baptiste Jourdan
Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, 1st Comte Jourdan , enlisted as a private in the French royal army and rose to command armies during the French Revolutionary Wars. Emperor Napoleon I of France named him a Marshal of France in 1804 and he also fought in the Napoleonic Wars. After 1815, he became reconciled...
in March 1799, although for the first week of the campaign he was incapacitated with ringworm and Dominique Vandamme
Dominique Vandamme
General Dominique-Joseph René Vandamme, Count of Unseburg was a French military officer, who fought in the Napoleonic Wars....
replaced him temporarily. He was later injured at the Battle of Ostrach
Battle of Ostrach
The Battle of Ostrach, also called the Battle by Ostrach, occurred on 20–21 March 1799. It was the first battle of the War of the Second Coalition. The battle resulted in the victory of the Austrian forces, under the command of Archduke Charles, over the French forces, commanded by Jean...
where the Advance Guard bore the brunt of the early fighting. In November 1799, Lefebvre commanded the Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
troops and reluctantly agreed to support Napoleon Bonaparte in his coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
. In the year 1800, Bonaparte appointed him senator.
Napoleonic Wars
Napoleon made him a Marshal of the Empire in 1804. Lefebvre commanded a division of the Old GuardOld Guard
The Old Guard were the elite veteran elements of theEmperor Napoleon's Imperial Guard. As such it was the most prestigious formation in Napoleon's Grande Armée....
in the German campaign of 1805. At the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt
Battle of Jena-Auerstedt
The twin battles of Jena and Auerstedt were fought on 14 October 1806 on the plateau west of the river Saale in today's Germany, between the forces of Napoleon I of France and Frederick William III of Prussia...
, on 14 October 1806, Lefebvre commanded the infantry of the Imperial Guard
Imperial Guard
The Imperial Guard was originally a small group of elite soldiers of the French Army under the direct command of Napoleon I, but grew considerably over time. It acted as his bodyguard and tactical reserve, and he was careful of its use in battle...
. He besieged
Siege of Danzig (1807)
The Siege of Danzig was the French encirclement and capture of Danzig during the War of the Fourth Coalition. On 19 March, 1807, around 27,000 French troops under Marshall Lefebvre besieged around 11,000 Prussian and Russian troops under Marshall Kalckreuth garrisoning the city of...
and took Danzig
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
in 1807
Siege of Danzig (1807)
The Siege of Danzig was the French encirclement and capture of Danzig during the War of the Fourth Coalition. On 19 March, 1807, around 27,000 French troops under Marshall Lefebvre besieged around 11,000 Prussian and Russian troops under Marshall Kalckreuth garrisoning the city of...
, which won him the title of Duc de Danzig (Duke of Danzig).
In 1808 Lefebvre took part in the Peninsula War. In 1809 he commanded the Bavarian army at the battles of Eckmühl
Battle of Eckmühl
The Battle of Eckmühl fought on 21 April – 22 April 1809, was the turning point of the 1809 Campaign, also known as the War of the Fifth Coalition...
and Wagram
Battle of Wagram
The Battle of Wagram was the decisive military engagement of the War of the Fifth Coalition. It took place on the Marchfeld plain, on the north bank of the Danube. An important site of the battle was the village of Deutsch-Wagram, 10 kilometres northeast of Vienna, which would give its name to the...
. Defeated by Tyrol
County of Tyrol
The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...
ean patriot Andreas Hofer
Andreas Hofer
Andreas Hofer was a Tirolean innkeeper and patriot. He was the leader of a rebellion against Napoleon's forces....
in the same year, he was replaced. He commanded the Old Guard in the French invasion of Russia
French invasion of Russia
The French invasion of Russia of 1812 was a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars. It reduced the French and allied invasion forces to a tiny fraction of their initial strength and triggered a major shift in European politics as it dramatically weakened French hegemony in Europe...
(1812) and in the German (1813) and French campaigns (1814) of the War of the Sixth Coalition
War of the Sixth Coalition
In the War of the Sixth Coalition , a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and a number of German States finally defeated France and drove Napoleon Bonaparte into exile on Elba. After Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia, the continental powers...
.
He voted for the Emperor's deposition at the Senate and during the First Restoration
Bourbon Restoration
The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...
he was made Peer of France by Louis XVIII
Louis XVIII of France
Louis XVIII , known as "the Unavoidable", was King of France and of Navarre from 1814 to 1824, omitting the Hundred Days in 1815...
(4 June 1814), but rallied to Napoleon during the Hundred Days
Hundred Days
The Hundred Days, sometimes known as the Hundred Days of Napoleon or Napoleon's Hundred Days for specificity, marked the period between Emperor Napoleon I of France's return from exile on Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815...
.
After the war
He was excluded from the House of Peers during the Second Restoration. However, he retained his rank of marshal. Louis XVIII restored his peerage on 5 March 1819. He died in 1820 and was buried near André MassénaAndré Masséna
André Masséna 1st Duc de Rivoli, 1st Prince d'Essling was a French military commander during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars....
at the Père-Lachaise Cemetery, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
He never forgot the hard work that brought him rank and wealth. When a friend expressed envy of his estate, Lefebvre said "Come down in the courtyard, and I'll have ten shots at you with a musket at 30 paces. If I miss, the whole estate is yours." The friend naturally declined this offer, and Lefebvre then added, "I had a thousand bullets shot at me from much closer range before I got all this."