Philippe Paul, comte de Ségur
Encyclopedia
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...
- 25 February 1873), French
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...
general
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
and historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, son of Louis Philippe, comte de Ségur
Louis Philippe, comte de Ségur
Louis Philippe, comte de Ségur was a French diplomat and historian.-Life:He was born in Paris, the son of Philippe Henri, marquis de Ségur and Louise Anne Madeleine de Vernon....
, was born in 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...
.
Career
He enlisted in the cavalry in 1800, and forthwith obtained a commission. He served with General MacdonaldÉtienne-Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre MacDonald
Étienne Jacques Joseph Alexandre MacDonald, 1st duke of Taranto was a Marshal of France and military leader during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.-Family background:...
in the Grisons in 1800-1801, and published an account of the campaign in 1802. By the influence of Colonel Duroc (afterwards duc de Frioul)
Geraud Duroc
Géraud Christophe Michel Duroc, 1st Duc de Frioul was a French general noted for his association with Napoleon.-Life and work:...
he was attached to the personal staff of Napoleon. He served through most of the important campaigns of the first empire, and was frequently employed on diplomatic missions. During the campaign in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
in 1807 he was taken prisoner by the Russians, but was exchanged at the peace of Tilsit.
His brilliant conduct in the cavalry charge at Somosierra
Battle of Somosierra
The Battle of Somosierra occurred November 30, 1808 in the Peninsular War, when a French army under Napoleon I forced a passage through the Sierra de Guadarrama shielding Madrid....
on 30 November 1808 won him the grade of colonel, but his wounds compelled him to return to France. As general of brigade he took part in the Russian campaign of 1812, and in the campaigns of 1813 and 1814 he repeatedly distinguished himself, notably at Hanau
Battle of Hanau
The Battle of Hanau was fought on between Karl Philipp von Wrede’s Austro-Bavarian corps and Napoleon's retreating French during the War of the Sixth Coalition....
(October 1813), and in a brilliant affair at Reims
Reims
Reims , a city in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France, lies east-northeast of Paris. Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire....
(March 1814). He remained in the army at the Restoration, but, having accepted a command from 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...
, he was retired until 1818, and took no further active part in affairs until the July Revolution
July Revolution
The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution or in French, saw the overthrow of King Charles X of France, the French Bourbon monarch, and the ascent of his cousin Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans, who himself, after 18 precarious years on the throne, would in turn be overthrown...
of 1830.
During his retirement he wrote his Histoire de Napoléon et de la grande armée pendant l'année 1812 (Paris, 2 vols., 1824), which ran through numerous editions, and was translated into several languages. The unfavourable portrait of Napoleon given in this book provoked representations from General Gourgaud
Gaspar, baron Gourgaud
Gaspard, Baron Gourgaud , also known simply as Gaspard Gourgaud, was a French soldier, prominent in the Napoleonic wars....
, and eventually a duel
Duel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...
, in which Ségur was wounded. On the establishment of the July monarchy he received, in 1831, the grade of lieutenant-general and a peerage. In 1830 he was admitted to the Académie française
Académie française
L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...
, and he became grand cross of the Legion of Honour in 1847. After the Revolution of 1848 he lived in retirement, dying in Paris.
His works include: Histoire de Russie et de Pierre le Grand (1829); Histoire de Charles VIII. (2 vols., 1834?1842), in continuation of the history of France begun by his father; and the posthumous Histoire et mémoires (8 vols., 1873).
See Un Aide-de-camp de Napoléon (1800–1812), mémoires du général comte de Ségur, new edition by his grandson Louis de Ségur (3 vols., 1894–1895), of which an abridged English version was published in 1895.
Marriages and issue
He married firstly on 25 September 1806 Antoinette Charlotte le Gendre de Luçay (16 April 1787 - 25 January 1813), daughter of Jean Baptiste Charles le Gendre de Luçay and Jeanne Charlotte Félicité Papillon d' Auterroche, and had three children:- Paul Charles Louis, comte de Ségur (23 April 1809 - Paris, 24 February 1886), married on 25 May 1833 his stepsister Jeanne Josephine Amélie Greffulhe (1812 - Paris, 8 March 1902), and had two children:
- Juliette de Ségur (Paris, 19 August 1835 - 27 September 1905), married Roger de La Rochefoucauld, duc d' Estissac (17 May 1826 - 6 November 1889), and had six children
- Louis Philippe de Ségur (Paris, 22 December 1838 - 9 February 1924), married Marie-Thérèse Périer (Paris, 16 July 1844 - Paris, 10 November 1916), without issue
- Marie Charlotte Antoinette de Ségur (13 June 1810 - 8 January 1883), married on 27 April 1830 Guy Charles Oscar du Val, marquis de Bonneval (1798 - 1873), son of Charles Henri du Val, marquis de Bonneval and Aglaë Françoise de La Rivière Pré d' Auge (20 May 1772 - 9 April 1849), and had one son
- Napoléon Louis Octave de Ségur (Paris, 6 July 1811 - Saint-CyrSaint-CyrThe toponym Saint-Cyr refers to the popular child-saint Saint Quiricus , whose following was strong in France because relics were brought back from Antioch by the 4th-century Bishop Saint Amator of Auxerre...
, 1832), unmarried and without issue
He married secondly in Paris in 1826 as her second husband Marie Françoise Louise Célestine de Vintimille de Luc (Paris, 26 June 1787 - Paris, 2 January 1862), married firstly in Paris on 23 April 1811 Jean, 1er comte Greffulhe (Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, 21 May 1774 - Paris, 23 February 1820), son of Louis Greffulhe (1 July 1741 - 7 April 1810) and first wife Judith Dumoulin (- 9 October 1782), by whom she had three children, a great-granddaughter of Louis XV, and had two daughters:
- Célestine de Ségur (8 January 1830 - 7 December 1918), married on 17 March 1851 Louis de La Forest d' Armaillé (1822 - 1882), son of Louis Germain René, comte de La Forest d' Armaillé and Charlotte de Macklot, and had one daughter
- Marie-Louise de Ségur (16 March 1832 - 8 October 1867), married Louis François Hector, comte de Galard de Saldebru (GirondeGirondeFor the Revolutionary party, see Girondists.Gironde is a common name for the Gironde estuary, where the mouths of the Garonne and Dordogne rivers merge, and for a department in the Aquitaine region situated in southwest France.-History:...
, BordeauxBordeauxBordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
, 28 July 1828 - RiomRiomRiom is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne in central France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.-History:Until the French Revolution, Riom was the capital of the province of Auvergne, and the seat of the dukes of Auvergne. The city was of Gaulish origin, the Roman Ricomagus...
, 25 November 1904), and had two sons