Laurent Jean François Truguet
Encyclopedia
Laurent Truguet was a French
admiral.
, Laurent de Truguet entered the
gardes de la marine
in 1765. He navigated successively the Hirondelle, Provence, Atalante, Pléiade and Chimère. He won several prizes, awarded to the best gardes by Louis XV
. He became enseigne de vaisseau
in 1773 and had already been in eight campaigns by July 1778, when war was declared against England.
In the war in America
, he served on the frigate Atalante then on the vessel Hector under the comte d'Estaing
, and took part in the battle at Saint Lucia
. Lieutenant de vaisseau
from 1779, in the land attack on Savannah
, he saved the life of admiral d'Estaing despite being severely wounded himself, for which he was made a knight of Order of Saint Louis
.
On the Languedoc then the Citoyen, he took part in various battles as a member of Guichen
's then de Grasse
's fleet (battle of Chesapeake, Battle of St. Kitts
, Battle of the Saintes
).
Major de Vaisseau from 1784, he cooperated in the tasks assigned to M. Choiseuil-Gouffier, ambassador to Constantinople
, and was charged with instructing the Ottomans
in the arts of fortification, artillery, metallurgy, naval architecture, and so on. Truguet commanded a brig
, the Torleton, with which he re-mapped the hydrography
of the Dardanelles
in 1785 and 1786, and in 1787 published a "Traité de Marine" (Naval Treatise) at Constantinople.
on 1 January 1792, he was promoted as early as the following July to the rank of rear admiral, commanding the French naval forces in the Mediterranean from his flagship Tonnant. He bombarded Nice
, Villefranche
and Oneglia
, while general Montesquiou
seized the Duchy of Savoy
. That same year he and his fleet were instructed to cooperate in the conquest of the island of Sardinia
; he had moved to bombard Cagliari
, when an insurrection broke out among the disembarking troops which obliged him to sail to the beaches and reembark them.
Passing Corsica
, he was received by the Bonaparte family and began a romance with Elisa
, sister of the future Emperor and the close relations with the family which he would retain to his death. On his return to Toulon in March 1793, he went to Paris, where he got the government to adopt a maritime penal code, that would prevent many future insurrections and mutinies but still provoke much discontent in France's naval bases. He was discharged at the end of 31 May that year and imprisoned at the time of the publication of the law of suspects, but was liberated on 9 Thermidor
(27 July).
He was promoted vice admiral in 1795 and minister of the Navy by the French Directory
from November 1795 to July 1797. During his two years in this ministry, he reestablished discipline and order in France's harbours and arsenals, recalling former officers discharged due to the Revolution. Under pressure from general Hoche
, he presented a plan for the 1796 French invasion of Ireland to the Directory, with Morard de Galle commanding the naval forces. This operation proved to be a complete fiasco. He organized and sent a division of frigates into the Indian Ocean
under the command of Sercey
.
He strove to get the colonies to respect the 1794 decree of the abolition of the slavery
, and supported the creation of a collège intended for black and mixed-race children close to Paris; this collège latter had the sons of Toussaint Louverture among its pupils, but was closed by Decrès
in 1802.
Truguet also took the initiative in composing a new collection of naval tactics that would be adopted in year V of the French Republican Calendar
. He broke with the exclusively defensive conceptions of the collection of 1769. He officialised and systematised having a light attack squadron within each fleet. This collection was later completed by the collection of year IX, also inspired by Truguet.
At the time of the ministerial reshuffle in preparation for the coup of 18 Fructidor year V (4 September 1797), he was replaced by Georges-René Pléville De Pelley, but was instead made France's ambassador to Spain. He was removed from the political scene under the pretext of not having returned to France fast enough at the end of his duties, though in fact this removal was down to Talleyrand, the minister of the foreign affairs, in revenge for Truguet opposing Talleyrand's embezzlements in Spain. Exiled to Holland, he remained there nine months. On his return from Egypt, Napoléon Bonaparte offered him the navy ministry again, but Truguet refused this, and was instead named conseiller d'État
on 20 September 1801.
He composed four reports for the First Consul, proposing a reorganization of the navy and taking a strong position and courageous stand against the re-legalisation of slavery - Truguet's solid republican convictions made him consider equality as a fundamental right. He was probably the only official to dare oppose Bonaparte on this point, and was violently attacked and mocked by those favoring a return to the old order in the colonies and strongly reprimanded by the First Consul. Nevertheless, in 1802 he was given command of the naval combined army gathered at Cadiz, with the eminent title of amiral en chef. The squadrons of Linois
, Gantheaume
and Bedout had to gather at Truguet's HQ. The peace of Amiens brought the admiral back to Paris.
.
In 1809, the Emperor recalled him to command the squadron gathered at Rochefort
, after the disastrous attack by English fireships in the raid on the île d'Aix. The following year, Napoleon put him at the head of the Kingdom of Holland
's naval high command. Repulsed by foreign invasion, Truguet was one of the first to leave his post in the last years of the Empire.
brought him back into the navy at the head of the naval corps, and made him a knight grand-cross of the Légion d'honneur. During the Hundred Days
, he received neither a command nor any favours from Napoleon. On the second restoration
, he was given overall command of the Brest fleet, and received orders to keep the town's arsenal safe from the approaching foreign occupation troops. Succeeding in doing so, he was rewarded by the King by being made knight grand-cross of the order of Saint Louis
, a comte
, and a peer of France
(5 May 1819).
At the end of the July Monarchy
, Truguet was elevated to the highest naval honour, that of Grand Amiral, naval equivalent to Marshal of France
. He died aged 87 in 1839 in Toulon.
.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
admiral.
Youth up to the Revolution
Of arisocratic origins, and the son of a chef d'escadreChef d'escadre
In the ancien Régime French Navy, the rank of chef d'escadre was equivalent to the present-day rank of rear admiral. It was replaced in 1791 by the rank of "contre-amiral" ....
, Laurent de Truguet entered the
gardes de la marine
Gardes de la Marine
In France, under the Ancien Régime, the Gardes de la Marine , or Gardes-Marine were young gentlemen picked and maintained by the king in his harbours to learn the navy service, and to train to be officers. They were organized in companies, divided up between the harbors of Brest, Toulon, and...
in 1765. He navigated successively the Hirondelle, Provence, Atalante, Pléiade and Chimère. He won several prizes, awarded to the best gardes by Louis XV
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
. He became enseigne de vaisseau
Ensign (rank)
Ensign is a junior rank of a commissioned officer in the armed forces of some countries, normally in the infantry or navy. As the junior officer in an infantry regiment was traditionally the carrier of the ensign flag, the rank itself acquired the name....
in 1773 and had already been in eight campaigns by July 1778, when war was declared against England.
In the war in America
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
, he served on the frigate Atalante then on the vessel Hector under the comte d'Estaing
Charles Hector, comte d'Estaing
Jean Baptiste Charles Henri Hector, comte d'Estaing was a French general, and admiral. He began his service as a soldier in the War of the Austrian Succession, briefly spending time as a prisoner of war of the British during the Seven Years' War...
, and took part in the battle at Saint Lucia
Saint Lucia
Saint Lucia is an island country in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. It covers a land area of 620 km2 and has an...
. Lieutenant de vaisseau
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
from 1779, in the land attack on Savannah
Savannah
Savannah or savanna is a type of grassland.It can also mean:-People:* Savannah King, a Canadian freestyle swimmer* Savannah Outen, a singer who gained popularity on You Tube...
, he saved the life of admiral d'Estaing despite being severely wounded himself, for which he was made a knight of Order 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...
.
On the Languedoc then the Citoyen, he took part in various battles as a member of Guichen
Guichen
Guichen is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department of the region of Brittany in north-western France.-Demographics:Inhabitants of Guichen are called Guichenais.-See also:*Luc Urbain de Bouexic, comte de Guichen...
's then de Grasse
François Joseph Paul de Grasse
Lieutenant Général des Armées Navales François-Joseph Paul, marquis de Grasse Tilly, comte de Grasse was a French admiral. He is best known for his command of the French fleet at the Battle of the Chesapeake, which led directly to the British surrender at Yorktown...
's fleet (battle of Chesapeake, Battle of St. Kitts
Battle of St. Kitts
The Battle of Saint Kitts, also known as the Battle of Frigate Bay, was a naval battle that took place on 25 and 26 January 1782 during the American Revolutionary War between a British fleet under Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood and a larger French fleet under the Comte de Grasse.-Background:When Hood...
, Battle of the Saintes
Battle of the Saintes
The Battle of the Saintes took place over 4 days, 9 April 1782 – 12 April 1782, during the American War of Independence, and was a victory of a British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney over a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse forcing the French and Spanish to abandon a planned...
).
Major de Vaisseau from 1784, he cooperated in the tasks assigned to M. Choiseuil-Gouffier, ambassador to Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
, and was charged with instructing the Ottomans
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
in the arts of fortification, artillery, metallurgy, naval architecture, and so on. Truguet commanded a brig
Brig
A brig is a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and manoeuvrable and were used as both naval warships and merchant vessels. They were especially popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries...
, the Torleton, with which he re-mapped the hydrography
Hydrography
Hydrography is the measurement of the depths, the tides and currents of a body of water and establishment of the sea, river or lake bed topography and morphology. Normally and historically for the purpose of charting a body of water for the safe navigation of shipping...
of the Dardanelles
Dardanelles
The Dardanelles , formerly known as the Hellespont, is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with its counterpart the Bosphorus. It is located at approximately...
in 1785 and 1786, and in 1787 published a "Traité de Marine" (Naval Treatise) at Constantinople.
French Revolutionary Wars
On his return to France in 1789, he was sent to Brest in 1790 to take the command of a frigate there intended for a mission that was, in the end, rendered unnecessary by the course of events. He then made a trip in England for there to complete his naval education. Made capitaine de vaisseauCaptain (naval)
Captain is the name most often given in English-speaking navies to the rank corresponding to command of the largest ships. The NATO rank code is OF-5, equivalent to an army full colonel....
on 1 January 1792, he was promoted as early as the following July to the rank of rear admiral, commanding the French naval forces in the Mediterranean from his flagship Tonnant. He bombarded Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
, Villefranche
Villefranche-sur-Mer
Villefranche-sur-Mer is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera.-Geography:...
and Oneglia
Oneglia
Oneglia was a town in northern Italy on the Ligurian coast that was joined to Porto Maurizio to form the Comune of Imperia in 1923....
, while general Montesquiou
Anne-Pierre, marquis de Montesquiou-Fézensac
Anne-Pierre, marquis de Montesquiou-Fézensac was a French general and writer.He was born in Paris, of an ancient family of Armagnac. He was brought up with the children of the king of France, and showed some taste for letters...
seized the Duchy of Savoy
Duchy of Savoy
From 1416 to 1847, the House of Savoy ruled the eponymous Duchy of Savoy . The Duchy was a state in the northern part of the Italian Peninsula, with some territories that are now in France. It was a continuation of the County of Savoy...
. That same year he and his fleet were instructed to cooperate in the conquest of the island of Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
; he had moved to bombard Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
, when an insurrection broke out among the disembarking troops which obliged him to sail to the beaches and reembark them.
Passing Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
, he was received by the Bonaparte family and began a romance with Elisa
Elisa Bonaparte
Maria Anna Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi Levoy, Princesse Française, Duchess of Lucca and Princess of Piombino, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Countess of Compignano was the fourth surviving child and eldest surviving daughter of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino, making her the younger sister of...
, sister of the future Emperor and the close relations with the family which he would retain to his death. On his return to Toulon in March 1793, he went to Paris, where he got the government to adopt a maritime penal code, that would prevent many future insurrections and mutinies but still provoke much discontent in France's naval bases. He was discharged at the end of 31 May that year and imprisoned at the time of the publication of the law of suspects, but was liberated on 9 Thermidor
Thermidor
Thermidor was the eleventh month in the French Republican Calendar. The month was named after the French word thermal which comes from the Greek word "thermos" which means heat....
(27 July).
He was promoted vice admiral in 1795 and minister of the Navy by the French Directory
French Directory
The Directory was a body of five Directors that held executive power in France following the Convention and preceding the Consulate...
from November 1795 to July 1797. During his two years in this ministry, he reestablished discipline and order in France's harbours and arsenals, recalling former officers discharged due to the Revolution. Under pressure from general 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...
, he presented a plan for the 1796 French invasion of Ireland to the Directory, with Morard de Galle commanding the naval forces. This operation proved to be a complete fiasco. He organized and sent a division of frigates into the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
under the command of Sercey
Pierre César Charles de Sercey
Pierre César Charles de Sercey was a French admiral, most notable for commanding French naval forces in the Indian Ocean from 1796 to 1800. His name is engraved on the Arc de triomphe.-Early life:...
.
He strove to get the colonies to respect the 1794 decree of the abolition of the slavery
Abolitionism
Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...
, and supported the creation of a collège intended for black and mixed-race children close to Paris; this collège latter had the sons of Toussaint Louverture among its pupils, but was closed by Decrès
Denis Decrès
Denis Decrès, , was an officer of the French Navy and count, later duke of the First Empire.-Early career:...
in 1802.
Truguet also took the initiative in composing a new collection of naval tactics that would be adopted in year V of the French Republican Calendar
French Republican Calendar
The French Republican Calendar or French Revolutionary Calendar was a calendar created and implemented during the French Revolution, and used by the French government for about 12 years from late 1793 to 1805, and for 18 days by the Paris Commune in 1871...
. He broke with the exclusively defensive conceptions of the collection of 1769. He officialised and systematised having a light attack squadron within each fleet. This collection was later completed by the collection of year IX, also inspired by Truguet.
At the time of the ministerial reshuffle in preparation for the coup of 18 Fructidor year V (4 September 1797), he was replaced by Georges-René Pléville De Pelley, but was instead made France's ambassador to Spain. He was removed from the political scene under the pretext of not having returned to France fast enough at the end of his duties, though in fact this removal was down to Talleyrand, the minister of the foreign affairs, in revenge for Truguet opposing Talleyrand's embezzlements in Spain. Exiled to Holland, he remained there nine months. On his return from Egypt, Napoléon Bonaparte offered him the navy ministry again, but Truguet refused this, and was instead named conseiller d'État
Conseiller d'État
A French Councillor of State is a high-level government official of administrative law in the Council of State of France.-Under the Old Regime:...
on 20 September 1801.
He composed four reports for the First Consul, proposing a reorganization of the navy and taking a strong position and courageous stand against the re-legalisation of slavery - Truguet's solid republican convictions made him consider equality as a fundamental right. He was probably the only official to dare oppose Bonaparte on this point, and was violently attacked and mocked by those favoring a return to the old order in the colonies and strongly reprimanded by the First Consul. Nevertheless, in 1802 he was given command of the naval combined army gathered at Cadiz, with the eminent title of amiral en chef. The squadrons of Linois
Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois
Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand, Comte de Linois was a French admiral during the time of Napoleon Bonaparte. He won a victory over the British at the Battle of Algeciras in 1801 and was reasonably successful in a campaign against British trade in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea in...
, Gantheaume
Honoré Joseph Antoine Ganteaume
Count Honoré Joseph Antoine Ganteaume was a French admiral.Ganteaume was born to a family of merchant sailors, and sailed on a dozen commercial cruises in his youth...
and Bedout had to gather at Truguet's HQ. The peace of Amiens brought the admiral back to Paris.
First French Empire
When war broke out again, Bonaparte entrusted to Truguet the organisation and command of the fleet at Brest, with his flagship being the Alexandre, then the Vengeur. In 1804, while all were conscientiously signing a "spontaneous" petition amidst his whole fleet to demand an imperial crown for Bonaparte, in the same way as was being done in the army, Truguet publicly took a stand against the establishment of the Empire in a letter that became historic. This consigned him to 5 years of severe disgrace, and the loss of all his titles and his membership of the légion d'honneurLégion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
.
In 1809, the Emperor recalled him to command the squadron gathered at Rochefort
Rochefort, Charente-Maritime
Rochefort is a commune in southwestern France, a port on the Charente estuary. It is a sub-prefecture of the Charente-Maritime department.-History:...
, after the disastrous attack by English fireships in the raid on the île d'Aix. The following year, Napoleon put him at the head of the Kingdom of Holland
Kingdom of Holland
The Kingdom of Holland 1806–1810 was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte as a puppet kingdom for his third brother, Louis Bonaparte, in order to better control the Netherlands. The name of the leading province, Holland, was now taken for the whole country...
's naval high command. Repulsed by foreign invasion, Truguet was one of the first to leave his post in the last years of the Empire.
Bourbon Restoration
Admiral Truguet returned to Paris where Louis XVIIILouis 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...
brought him back into the navy at the head of the naval corps, and made him a knight grand-cross of the Légion d'honneur. 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...
, he received neither a command nor any favours from Napoleon. On the second 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 given overall command of the Brest fleet, and received orders to keep the town's arsenal safe from the approaching foreign occupation troops. Succeeding in doing so, he was rewarded by the King by being made knight grand-cross of the order 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...
, a comte
Comte
Comte is a title of Catalan, Occitan and French nobility. In the English language, the title is equivalent to count, a rank in several European nobilities. The corresponding rank in England is earl...
, and a peer of France
Peerage of France
The Peerage of France was a distinction within the French nobility which appeared in the Middle Ages. It was abolished in 1789 during the French Revolution, but it reappeared in 1814 at the time of the Bourbon Restoration which followed the fall of the First French Empire...
(5 May 1819).
At the end of the July Monarchy
July Monarchy
The July Monarchy , officially the Kingdom of France , was a period of liberal constitutional monarchy in France under King Louis-Philippe starting with the July Revolution of 1830 and ending with the Revolution of 1848...
, Truguet was elevated to the highest naval honour, that of Grand Amiral, naval equivalent to Marshal of France
Marshal of France
The Marshal of France is a military distinction in contemporary France, not a military rank. It is granted to generals for exceptional achievements...
. He died aged 87 in 1839 in Toulon.
Analysis
Certainly one of the most competent French sailors of his generation, Truguet was a convinced republican despite his aristocratic origins. He was an effective minister and reestablished a little order in the navy after the excesses of the Terror. On the other hand, he bears some of the responsibility for the fiasco of the expedition to Ireland. Few men like him with important responsibilities dared to oppose Napoleon's re-legalisation of slavery in the colonies or establishment of the Empire, and though his courageous stands made his relations with Napoleon complex and often stormy, Napoleon still considered him one of his better admirals and in difficult circumstances called upon him for confidential missions. He appears on the Arc de TriompheArc 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...
.