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BOULANGER, GEORGE ERNEST JEAN MARIE (...
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See also:BOULANGER, See also:GEORGE ERNEST See also:JEAN See also:MARIE (1837-1891) , See also:French.See also:general, was See also:born at See also:Rennes on the 29th of See also:April 1837. He entered the See also:army in 1856, and served in See also:Algeria, See also:Italy, See also:Cochin-See also:China and the Franco-See also:German See also:War, earning the reputar tion of being a See also:smart soldier. He was made a brigadier-general in ,88o, on the recommendation of the duc d'See also:Aumale, then commanding the VII. army See also:corps, and Boulanger's expressions of gratitude and devotion on this occasion were remembered against him afterwards when, as war See also:minister in M. See also:Freycinet's See also:cabinet, he erased the name of the duc d'Aumale from the army See also:list, as See also:part of the republican See also:campaign against the Orleanist and Bonapartist princes. In 1882 his See also:appointment as director of See also:infantry at the war See also:office enabled him to make himself conspicuous as a military reformer; and in 1884 he was appointed to command the army occupying See also:Tunis, but was recalled owing to his See also:differences of See also:opinion with M. See also:Cambon, the See also:political See also:resident. He returned to See also:Paris, and began to take part in politics under the See also:aegis of M. See also:Clemenceau and the See also:Radical party; and in See also:January 1886, when M. Freycinet was brought into See also:power by the support of the Radical See also:leader, Boulanger was given the See also:post of war minister. By introducing genuine reforms for the benefit of See also:officers and See also:common soldiers alike, and by laying himself out for popularity in the most pronounced fashion—notably by his See also:fire-eating attitude towards See also:Germany in April 1887 in connexion with the Schnaebele frontier incident—Boulanger came to be accepted by the See also:mob as the See also:man destined to give See also:France her revenge for the disasters of 1870, and to be used simultaneously as a See also:tool by all the See also:anti-Republican intriguers. His See also:action with regard to the royal princes has already been referred to, but it should be added that Boulanger was taunted in the See also:Senate with his ingratitude to the duc d'Aumale, and denied that he had ever used the words alleged. His letters containing them were, however, published, and the See also:charge was proved. Boulanger fought a bloodless See also:duel with the See also:baron de Lareinty over this affair, but it had no effect at the moment in dimming his popularity, and on M. Freycinet's defeat in See also:December 1886 he was retained by M. See also:Goblet at the war office. M. Clemenceau, however, had by this See also:time abandoned his patronage of Boulanger, who was becoming so inconveniently prominent that, in May 1887, M. Goblet was not sorry to get rid of him by resigning. The mob clamoured for their " See also:bray' general," but M. See also:Rouvier, who next formed a cabinet, declined to take him as a colleague, and Boulanger was sent to Clermont-See also:Ferrand to command an army corps. A Boulangist " See also:movement " was now in full See also:swing. The Bonapartists had attached them-selves to the general, and even the See also:comte de Paris encouraged his followers to support him, to the dismay of those old-fashioned Royalists who resented Boulanger's treatment of the duc d'Aumale. His name was the theme of the popular See also:song of the moment—" C'est Boulanger qu'il nous faut "; the general and his See also:black See also:horse became the idol of the Parisian populace; and he was urged to See also:play the part of a plebiscitary See also:candidate for the See also:presidency. The general's vanity See also:lent itself to what was asked of it; after various symptoms of insubordination had shown themselves, he was deprived of his command in 1888 for twice coming to Paris without leave, and finally on the recommendation of a See also:council of inquiry composed of five generals, his name was removed from the army list. He was, however, almost at once elected to the chamber for the See also:Nord, his political See also:programme being a demand for a revision of the constitution. In the chamber he was in a minority, since genuine Republicans of all varieties began to see what his success would mean, and his actions were accordingly directed to keeping the public gaze upon himself. A popular See also:hero survives many deficiencies, and neither his failure as an orator nor the humiliation of a discomfiture in a duel with M. See also:Floquet, then an elderly civilian, sufficed to check the See also:enthusiasm of his following. During 1888 his See also:personality was the dominating feature of French politics, and, when he resigned his seat as a protest against the reception given by the chamber to his revisionist proposals, constituencies vied with one another in selecting him as their representative. At last, in January 1889, he was returned for Paris by an overwhelming See also:majority. He had now become an open menace to the See also:parliamentary See also:Republic. Had Boulanger immediately placed himself at the See also:head of a revolt he might at this moment have effected the coup d' eta' which the intriguers had worked for, and might not improbably have made himself See also:master of France; but the favourable opportunity passed. The See also:government, with M. See also:Constans as minister of the interior, had been quietly taking its See also:measures for bringing a See also:prosecution against him, and within two months a See also:warrant was signed for his See also:arrest. To the astonishment of his See also:friends, on the 1st of April he fled from Paris before it could be executed, going first to See also:Brussels and then to See also:London. It was the end of the political danger, though Boulangist echoes continued for a little while to reverberate at the polls during 1889 and 189o. Boulanger himself, having been tried and condemned in absentia for See also:treason, in See also:October 1889 went to live in See also:Jersey, but nobody now paid much See also:attention to his doings. The See also:world was startled, however, on the 3oth of See also:September 1891 by See also:hearing that he had committed See also:suicide in a See also:cemetery at Brussels by blowing out his brains on the See also:grave of his See also:mistress, Madame de Bonnemains (nee See also:Marguerite Crouzet), who had died in the preceding See also:July. See also the See also:article FRANCE: See also:History; and Verly, Le General Boulanger et la conspiration monarchique (Paris, 1893). (H. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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