Jean Baptiste Camille Canclaux
Encyclopedia
Jean Baptiste Camille de Canclaux (2 August 1740, Paris
- 27 December 1817, Paris) was a French general during the French Revolution
, a commander in chief, and a pair de France.
, he was involved in the Hanover campaign
, rising to captain in 1760 and was demobbed at the peace.
Immediately re-entering the régiment de Conti-dragons, he taught the theory of major cavalry manoeuvres at the École de Besançon and published a book on tactics : Instruction à l'usage du régiment de dragons Conti. He rose to major (1768), mestre de camp
(1773) with the rank of colonel, brigadier (1 January 1784) and was promoted to maréchal de camp on 10 March 1788, all the while remaining the commander of his regiment. He was made a knight of Saint Louis
in 1773.
in 1791 and 1792, to appease the insurrection movements that had just broken out there and to repress those which had not yet broken out, and brought himself to note by his moderation and conciliatory spirit, winning a brilliant success near Quimper on 8 July.
On 7 September 1792 he was made lieutenant général and commander of the 13e division militaire, and was put in charge of embarking at Brest
the troops intended for Saint-Domingue
.
Made lieutenant-général at the end of 1793, the National Convention put him in command of the armée de l'Ouest
. With scarcely 12,000 men, he successfully defended Nantes
on 29 June, after several fierce and deadly clashes repulsing an attack by a Vendéen army of 50,000 Vendéens under Jacques Cathelineau
. Victorious again at the battle of Montaigu
(against Charette
, who he would defeat again at Mortagne-sur-Sèvre
), he was defeated at the battle of Tiffauges
and suspended from his command. Despite a subsequent success at Saint-Symphorien
, he was then demobbed on 29 September. He then retired to one of his estates, at the Château du Saussay
(Essonne), but was recalled after the revolution of 9 thermidor year II (1794) and again made supreme commander of the armée de l'Ouest. He seconded Lazare Hoche
to this armée around the time of the counter-revolutionary invasion of France
in 1795, sending him for some of the reinforcements he needed. Hoche replaced him in command later in 1795, and Canclaux retired from the army.
), at the end of that year he was made ministre plénipotentiaire
to the court of Naples
, a role he held until 1797.
In 1799, he was recalled to state service as a member of the military committee established after the Directory
. After the coup of 18 brumaire
, he adhered to Napoleon
's party, and as during the Consulate
Napoleon put him in command of the 14e division militaire, at Caen
, where he and general Hédouville were charged with pacifying Normandy
.
In 1800, he became inspector-general of the cavalry of the 2e armée de réserve, and on 22 October 1804 (30 vendémiaire year XIII), he was appointed to the Sénat conservateur
.
En 1806 and 1807, he was commander of the gardes nationaux
of Seine-Inférieure and the Somme. In 1808 he was made a comte d'Empire.
In December 1813, he was extraordinary-commissioner in Ille-et-Vilaine
.
In 1814, he voted in the Senate in favour of deposing Napoleon.
, Napoleon kept him as such during the Hundred Days
but Canclaux refused to support him, though this did not prevent him being struck from the list of peers by the royal ordinance of 24 July 1815.
On 10 August 1815, he again became a pair de France and voted in favour of the death of Ney
.
His name is inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe
(west side)
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...
- 27 December 1817, Paris) was a French general during 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...
, a commander in chief, and a pair de France.
Ancien Régime
He entered the École de cavalerie de Besançon, then served as a volunteer in the régiment de Fumel-cavalerie (1756), in which he was promoted to cornette (1757). In the course of the Seven Years' WarSeven Years' War
The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines...
, he was involved in the Hanover campaign
Battle of Minden
The Battle of Minden—or Thonhausen—was fought on 1 August 1759, during the Seven Years' War. An army fielded by the Anglo-German alliance commanded by Field Marshal Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, defeated a French army commanded by Marshal of France Louis, Marquis de Contades...
, rising to captain in 1760 and was demobbed at the peace.
Immediately re-entering the régiment de Conti-dragons, he taught the theory of major cavalry manoeuvres at the École de Besançon and published a book on tactics : Instruction à l'usage du régiment de dragons Conti. He rose to major (1768), mestre de camp
Mestre de camp
Mestre de camp was a military rank in the Ancien Régime of France, equivalent to colonel. A mestre de camp commanded a regiment and was under the authority of a Colonel General, who commanded all the regiments in one "arme"...
(1773) with the rank of colonel, brigadier (1 January 1784) and was promoted to maréchal de camp on 10 March 1788, all the while remaining the commander of his regiment. He was made a knight of Saint Louis
Order of Saint Louis
The Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis was a military Order of Chivalry founded on 5 April 1693 by Louis XIV and named after Saint Louis . It was intended as a reward for exceptional officers, and is notable as the first decoration that could be granted to non-nobles...
in 1773.
French Revolution
In 1790, he was one of the generals charged with verifying the regimental accounts and gathering their grievances. Sent into BrittanyBrittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
in 1791 and 1792, to appease the insurrection movements that had just broken out there and to repress those which had not yet broken out, and brought himself to note by his moderation and conciliatory spirit, winning a brilliant success near Quimper on 8 July.
On 7 September 1792 he was made lieutenant général and commander of the 13e division militaire, and was put in charge of embarking at Brest
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
the troops intended for Saint-Domingue
Saint-Domingue
The labour for these plantations was provided by an estimated 790,000 African slaves . Between 1764 and 1771, the average annual importation of slaves varied between 10,000-15,000; by 1786 it was about 28,000, and from 1787 onward, the colony received more than 40,000 slaves a year...
.
Made lieutenant-général at the end of 1793, the National Convention put him in command of the armée de l'Ouest
Armée de l'Ouest
The Army of the West was one of the French Revolutionary Armies. It was created on 1 August 1793 by merging the armée des côtes de Brest, the armée des côtes de La Rochelle, and the armée de Mayence, and was sent to fight the revolt in the Vendee.- Reorganisation :Visiting Republican soldiers of...
. With scarcely 12,000 men, he successfully defended Nantes
Battle of Nantes
The Battle of Nantes was a battle between Royalist and Republican French forces at Nantes on 29 June 1793 during the War in the Vendée. It consisted of the siege of that town, and was a Republican victory...
on 29 June, after several fierce and deadly clashes repulsing an attack by a Vendéen army of 50,000 Vendéens under Jacques Cathelineau
Jacques Cathelineau
Jacques Cathelineau , nicknamed le Saint d'Anjou , was a French Vendéan insurrection leader during the French Revolution...
. Victorious again at the battle of Montaigu
Battle of Montaigu
The Battle of Montaigu was a battle on 21 September 1793 during the War in the Vendée, in which the Vendéens attacked general Jean-Michel Beysser's French Republican division. Taken by surprise, this division fought back but lost 400 men, including many captured...
(against Charette
François de Charette
François Athanase de Charette de la Contrie was a French soldier and politician, one of the leaders of the bloody events termed the "Revolt in the Vendée"...
, who he would defeat again at Mortagne-sur-Sèvre
Mortagne-sur-Sèvre
Mortagne-sur-Sèvre is a commune in the Vendée department in the Pays de la Loire region in western France.-References:*...
), he was defeated at the battle of Tiffauges
Battle of Tiffauges
The battle of Torfou-Tiffauges was a battle on 19 September 1793 during the War in the Vendée. It pitted many Royalist military leaders against Republican troops under Jean-Baptiste Kléber and Canclaux.- Course :...
and suspended from his command. Despite a subsequent success at Saint-Symphorien
Saint-Symphorien
Saint-Symphorien may refer to the following places:* in France**Saint-Symphorien, Cher, in the Cher département**Saint-Symphorien, Eure, in the Eure département**Saint-Symphorien, Gironde, in the Gironde département...
, he was then demobbed on 29 September. He then retired to one of his estates, at the Château du Saussay
Château du Saussay
The château du Saussay is a French château that forms part of the commune of Ballancourt-sur-Essonne in the department of Essonne. It is situated in the valley of the river Essonne between Corbeil and La Ferté-Alais, on the territory of an old Templar commandery...
(Essonne), but was recalled after the revolution of 9 thermidor year II (1794) and again made supreme commander of the armée de l'Ouest. He seconded Lazare Hoche
Lazare Hoche
Louis Lazare Hoche was a French soldier who rose to be general of the Revolutionary army.Born of poor parents near Versailles, he enlisted at sixteen as a private soldier in the Gardes Françaises...
to this armée around the time of the counter-revolutionary invasion of France
Invasion of France (1795)
The invasion of France in 1795 or the Battle of Quiberon was a major landing on the Quiberon peninsula by émigré, counter-revolutionary troops in support of the Chouannerie and Vendée Revolt, beginning on 23 June and finally definitively repulsed on 21 July...
in 1795, sending him for some of the reinforcements he needed. Hoche replaced him in command later in 1795, and Canclaux retired from the army.
Administrative career
Sent to the Midi in 1796 to organise the army intended for Italy (what would become the Army of ItalyArmy of Italy (France)
The Army of Italy was a Field army of the French Army stationed on the Italian border and used for operations in Italy itself. Though it existed in some form in the 16th century through to the present, it is best known for its role during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic...
), at the end of that year he was made ministre plénipotentiaire
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
to the court of Naples
Kingdom of Naples
The Kingdom of Naples, comprising the southern part of the Italian peninsula, was the remainder of the old Kingdom of Sicily after secession of the island of Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. Known to contemporaries as the Kingdom of Sicily, it is dubbed Kingdom of...
, a role he held until 1797.
In 1799, he was recalled to state service as a member of the military committee established after the Directory
French Directory
The Directory was a body of five Directors that held executive power in France following the Convention and preceding the Consulate...
. After the coup of 18 brumaire
18 Brumaire
The coup of 18 Brumaire was the coup d'état by which General Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the French Directory, replacing it with the French Consulate...
, he adhered to Napoleon
Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
's party, and as during the Consulate
French Consulate
The Consulate was the government of France between the fall of the Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire in 1799 until the start of the Napoleonic Empire in 1804...
Napoleon put him in command of the 14e division militaire, at Caen
Caen
Caen is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the Calvados department and the capital of the Basse-Normandie region. It is located inland from the English Channel....
, where he and general Hédouville were charged with pacifying Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
.
In 1800, he became inspector-general of the cavalry of the 2e armée de réserve, and on 22 October 1804 (30 vendémiaire year XIII), he was appointed to the Sénat conservateur
Sénat conservateur
The Sénat conservateur was a body set up in France during the Consulate by the Constitution of the Year VIII. With the Tribunat and the Corps législatif, it formed one of the three legislative assemblies of the Consulate...
.
En 1806 and 1807, he was commander of the gardes nationaux
National Guard (France)
The National Guard was the name given at the time of the French Revolution to the militias formed in each city, in imitation of the National Guard created in Paris. It was a military force separate from the regular army...
of Seine-Inférieure and the Somme. In 1808 he was made a comte d'Empire.
In December 1813, he was extraordinary-commissioner in Ille-et-Vilaine
Ille-et-Vilaine
Ille-et-Vilaine is a department of France, located in the region of Brittany in the northwest of the country.- History :Ille-et-Vilaine is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
.
In 1814, he voted in the Senate in favour of deposing Napoleon.
Restoration and the Hundred Days
Made a pair de France on the RestorationBourbon 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...
, Napoleon kept him as such 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...
but Canclaux refused to support him, though this did not prevent him being struck from the list of peers by the royal ordinance of 24 July 1815.
On 10 August 1815, he again became a pair de France and voted in favour of the death of Ney
Michel Ney
Michel Ney , 1st Duc d'Elchingen, 1st Prince de la Moskowa was a French soldier and military commander during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was one of the original 18 Marshals of France created by Napoleon I...
.
His name is inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe
Arc de Triomphe
-The design:The astylar design is by Jean Chalgrin , in the Neoclassical version of ancient Roman architecture . Major academic sculptors of France are represented in the sculpture of the Arc de Triomphe: Jean-Pierre Cortot; François Rude; Antoine Étex; James Pradier and Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire...
(west side)
Source
- "Jean Baptiste Camille Canclaux", in Charles Mullié, Biographie des célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 à 1850, 1852