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NEY, MICHEL

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 633 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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NEY, See also:MICHEL , See also:duke of See also:Elchingen, See also:prince of the Moskowa (1769-1815), See also:marshal of See also:France, was See also:born at See also:Saarlouis on the loth of See also:January 1769. His See also:father was a See also:cooper, and he received only a rudimentary See also:education. In 1788 he went to See also:Metz and enlisted in a See also:regiment of hussars; in 1792 he was elected See also:lieutenant; and in 1794 he became See also:captain and was placed by Kleber at the See also:head of a See also:special See also:corps of See also:light troops. He was soon promoted chef de See also:brigade, and in 1796, after repeatedly distinguishing himself in See also:action, See also:general of brigade. He then commanded the right wing of See also:Hoche's See also:army up to the See also:peace of Carnpo Formic). On the resumption of hostilities he again took the See also:field, and for his surprise of See also:Mannheim in 1799 received the grade of general of See also:division. He distinguished himself and received three wounds in the Swiss See also:campaign of See also:Massena, and when Massena turned against the Russians, who were approaching from See also:Italy, Ney was See also:left in command of the holding detachment opposite the Austrians. He displayed See also:great vigour and skill in this See also:work, and was completely successful, although his opponent was the famous See also:Archduke See also:Charles. In 'Soo he was See also:present at Hohenlinden. In May 1802 he married Mademoiselle Auguie, whom See also:Josephine had chosen for him at See also:Bonaparte's See also:request. This event marks a, See also:change in Ney's See also:political opinions which can only be explained by reference to See also:Napoleon's See also:power of captivating men. He was henceforward as ardent and sincere an admirer of Napoleon as hitherto he had been of revolutionary principles, and was one of the very few See also:officers of the Army of the See also:Rhine who became a trusted lieutenant of the See also:emperor.

He soon afterwards carried out an important See also:

diplomatic See also:mission in See also:Switzerland, and in 2803 he was placed in command of the See also:camp of See also:Montreuil. It was while there that, in the name of the army, he .begged Napoleon to declare himself emperor, and on the See also:establishment of the See also:empire he was made marshal of France, and received the See also:grand See also:eagle of the See also:Legion of See also:Honour. In 1805 he'commanded the VI. corps of the Grand Army, and his great victory at Elchingen (for which in 18o8 he was made duke of Elchingen) practically secured the surrender of the Austrians at See also:Ulm. He was then ordered to the upper See also:Adige, and missed the See also:battle of See also:Austerlitz, but was present at See also:Jena and See also:Eylau and led the decisive attack at See also:Friedland. His reputation for See also:personal heroism was by now at its height, and after Friedland Napoleon gave him the See also:title by which he is still known, " the bravest of the brave." In 18o8, after the first disaster to the See also:French arms in See also:Spain, Ney accompanied Napoleon thither as-See also:commander of the VI. corps. He took See also:part in the See also:Peninsular See also:War from 18o8 to 1811, commanding his corps in Napoleon's own operations of 1808-09, in the irregular operations in See also:Galicia 18o9-to, and under Massena in the invasion of See also:Portugal in 1810-1r. In the last, however, he quarrelled bitterly with his former See also:chief, and although he distinguished himself very greatly in command of the rearguard during the See also:retreat from Torres Vedras—notably at Redinhahe was recalled to France by Napoleon and censured for his indiscipline. Almost immediately, however, he was re-employed with the Grande Armee in central See also:Europe under Napoleon himself. In the 1812 expedition to See also:Russia Ney commanded the centre at See also:Borodino, and was created prince of the Moskowa on the evening of the victory. In the retreat he was a See also:tower of strength, animating the rearguard with his own See also:sublime courage, keeping the harassed and famished soldiers together under the See also:colours and personally See also:standing in the ranks with See also:musket and See also:bayonet. He himself was the last to recross the frontier, and threw the remaining muskets into the Niemen. In 1813 he commanded a corps in the See also:German campaign, fought at Liitzen, See also:Bautzen, See also:Dennewitz and See also:Leipzig, and in 1814 he shared in the victories and defeats of the campaign in France.

At the fall of the Empire Ney was neither the first nor the last of the marshals to give up the struggle, but that he acted in the negotiations in See also:

concert with See also:Macdonald and See also:Caulaincourt is sufficient See also:proof of his See also:desire to avert the unreserved See also:abdication that was forced upon Napoleon by other circumstances. Less satisfactory than his conduct See also:atthis crisis was his loud protestation of devotion to the Bourbons, when the Restoration was a fait accompli. But he was soon mortified by the disdain of the returned emigres, and retired to his See also:country seat. While on his way thence to take up a command at See also:Besancon, he learned of the return of Napoleon. He hurried at once to pay his respects to See also:Louis XVIII. and to assure him of his fidelity. With the famous remark that the usurper ought to be brought to See also:Paris in an See also:iron cage, he proceeded to Lons-le-Saulnier to See also:bar Napoleon's progress. But instead of doing so, he deserted with his troops, and Napoleon's See also:march became a triumphal progress. Ney's See also:act was undeniably See also:treason to his See also:sovereign, but it was hardly the calculated treason that his emigre detractors saw See also:fit to imagine. The first violence of his See also:language,' his ineffective efforts to make constitutional guarantees the See also:price of his See also:adhesion to Napoleon, and his final surrender to the dominant See also:personality of his old See also:leader, all show him to have been " out of his See also:depth " in this political crisis. Napoleon received him kindly, but did not give him a command at first. But when the See also:Waterloo campaign was about to begin he summoned Ney to the See also:northern frontier. The marshal gladly obeyed and took up the command of the left wing on See also:June 13.

The next See also:

day the army moved into See also:Belgium. Ney took part in the campaign successively in the roles of strategist, tactician and soldier (see WATERLOO CAMPAIGN). Much controversy has raged over his actions of the 15th and 16th of June. At Waterloo he was of course subordinated to the personal command of Napoleon, but his See also:advice as to the conduct of the battle was often offered and sometimes accepted, and he personally led several charges of the French up to the See also:British squares. But when all was lost, his courage, instead of burning brightly as in the See also:Moscow retreat, was extinguished. He made no See also:attempt to second See also:Davout and See also:Grouchy in the last days of Napoleon's reign, and in despair advocated the restoration of the Bourbons. Finding that Louis XVIII. and his See also:allies ignored his advances, he resolved to See also:escape from France, but afterwards, believing himself protected by the terms of the See also:convention concluded on the 3rd of June, he gave up the See also:idea. Soon a fresh See also:order was issued denouncing him by name, and after a See also:half-hearted attempt to conceal himself he was arrested on the 5th of See also:August. See also:King Louis and his See also:minister See also:Decazes realized to the full the lasting unpopularity that would fall on the See also:monarchy in consequence; they had done their best to facilitate the escape of the " traitors "; and when Louis heard of Ney's See also:arrest he exclaimed, "By letting himself be caught he has done us more harm than he did on the 13th of March!" But neither king nor ministers were in a position to resist the clamour of the ultra-royalists for See also:blood. Every fresh delay in the See also:process of Ney's trial raised a new outcry at the See also:court, in the salons and in the Chamber of Deputies; and fiercest of all in demanding immediate See also:execution was the king's niece, the unhappy duchess of See also:Angouleme, who lived to confess that had she known the See also:record of Ney's services to France she would never have consented to his See also:death. The king was powerless against this all but unanimous See also:voice of royalist See also:opinion, backed as it was by that of the See also:powers to whom he owed his See also:crown. Ney was placed on trial before a court-See also:martial composed chiefly of his former See also:brothers-in-arms, whose participation in the tragedy, slight as it was, was probably never forgiven them by their countrymen.

Others of the marshal's old comrades refused to serve, and were disgraced in consequence, until public opinion forced'their reinstatement. The court, once assembled, was only too glad to take See also:

advantage of the plea of Ney's counsel that he was entitled to be tried by his equals in the Chamber of Peers. In spite of the courageous and eloquent See also:appeal of the See also:young due de See also:Broglie, the result of the trial before the latter See also:body was a foregone conclusion; as to Ney's treason there could be no doubt, and de Broglie was alone in voting for his acquittal In the See also:early See also:morning of the 7th of See also:December 1815 Ney was shot in the Luxembourg gardens, near the See also:Observatory. He met his death quietly and with a perfect soldierly dignity that effaced the memory of his political extravagances, and made him, next to Napoleon himself, the most heroic figure of the See also:time. Much has been said as to the See also:share of the duke of See also:Wellington in the trial and execution, and, rightly or wrongly, he has been blamed for allowing the Bourbons, when restored by the See also:foreign bayonets that he See also:con-trolled, to proscribe the soldiers who as soldiers had been included in the military See also:capitulation to the Allies. Ney left materials for See also:memoirs, but in an incomplete See also:state. The Mimoires du marechal Ney, published in 1833, were collected from these papers by his See also:brother-in-See also:law Gamot and by General See also:Foy. They See also:cover only the earlier part of his career, and end with the battle of Elchingen (See also:October 1805). An edition in See also:English was published the same See also:year. See Rouval, See also:Vie du marechal Ney (Paris, 1833); See also:Dumoulin, Ilistoire du proces du marechal Ney (Paris, 1815, Eng. trans. 1816); See also:Nollet-See also:Fabert, Eloge du marechal Ney (See also:Nancy, 1852); Welschinger, Le marechal Ney, 1815 (Paris, 1893); A. Delmas, Mzmoire sur la revision du prates du marechal Ney (1832) ; and Military Studies by Marshal Ney (Eng. trans.

See also:

London, 1833) ; Vol. I. of General Bonnal's See also:Life of Ney appeared in 1910.

End of Article: NEY, MICHEL

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