Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult, duc de Dalmatie (March 29, 1769 – November 26, 1851), the Hand of
Iron [1], was a
French general and statesman, named Marshal of
France in 1804. He was one of only six officers in French history
to be promoted to the rank of Marshal General of France. He also served as
Prime Minister of France three times.
Biography
Soult was born at Saint-Arnans-la-Bastide (now Saint-Amans-Soult near Castres in the Tarn
département), the son of a country notary of that city.
Early military career
He was fairly well-educated, and intended for the bar, but his father's death when he was still a boy made it necessary for
him to seek his fortune, and he enlisted as a private in the French infantry in 1785. His superior education ensured his
promotion to the rank of sergeant after six years' service, and in July 1791 he became instructor to the first battalion of
volunteers of the Bas-Rhin. He served with his battalion in 1792. By 1794 he was
adjutant-general (with the rank of chef de brigade). After the Battle of
Fleurus (1794), in which he greatly distinguished himself for coolness, he was promoted to general of brigade by the
representatives on mission.
For the next five years he was constantly employed in Germany under Jourdan, Moreau, Kléber and Lefebvre, and in 1799 he was promoted
general of division and ordered to proceed to Switzerland. It was at this time that he laid
the foundations of his military fame, and he particularly distinguished himself in Masséna's great Swiss campaign, and especially at the Second
Battle of Zurich. He accompanied Masséna to Genoa, and acted as his principal lieutenant
throughout the protracted siege of that city, during which he operated with a detached force without the walls, and after many
successful actions he was wounded and taken prisoner at Monte Cretto on April 13
1800.
Marshal of France
The victory of Marengo restored his freedom, and Soult received the command of the
southern part of the kingdom of Naples, and in 1802 he was appointed one of the four generals
commanding the consular guard. Though he was one of those generals who had served under Moreau, and who therefore, as a rule,
disliked and despised Napoleon Bonaparte, Soult had the wisdom to show his devotion
to the ruling power; in consequence he was in August 1803 appointed to the
command-in-chief of the camp of Boulogne, and in May 1804 he was made one of the first
marshals of France. He commanded a corps in the advance on Ulm, and at Austerlitz he led the decisive attack on the allied centre.
He played a great part in all the famous battles of the Grande Armée, except the Battle of Friedland (on the day of which he forced his way into Königsberg), and after the conclusion of the Peace of Tilsit he
returned to France and was created (1808) duke of Dalmatia. The award of this title greatly
displeased him, for he felt that his proper title would be duke of Austerlitz, a title Napoleon had reserved for himself. In the
following year he was appointed to the command of the II corps of the army with which Napoleon intended to conquer Spain, and after winning the
Battle of Gamonal he was detailed by the emperor to pursue Sir John Moore, with whom he only caught up at Corunna.
For the next four years Soult remained in Spain, and his military history is that of the Peninsular War. In 1809, after being stalemated by Sir John Moore, he invaded Portugal and took Oporto, but was isolated by General
Silveira's strategy of contention. Busying himself with the political settlement of his
conquests in the French interests and, as he hoped, for his own ultimate benefit as a possible candidate for the Portuguese
throne, he attracted the hatred of Republican officers in his Army. Unable to move, he was eventually dislodged from Oporto by Arthur Wellesley, making a
painful and almost disastrous retreat over the mountains, pursued by Beresford and Silveira.
After the Battle of Talavera (1809) he was made chief of staff of the French troops
in Spain with extended powers, and on November 19 1809 won the
great victory of Ocana.
In 1810 he invaded Andalusia, which he speedily reduced, with
the exception of Cádiz. In 1811 he marched north into Extremadura, and took Badajoz, and when the Anglo-Portuguese army laid
siege to it he marched to its rescue, and fought and nearly won the famous Battle of
Albuera (May 16). In 1812, however, he was obliged, after the Duke of Wellington's great victory of Salamanca, to evacuate Andalusia, and was soon after recalled from Spain at the request of
Joseph Bonaparte, with whom, as with the other marshals, he had always disagreed.
In March 1813 he assumed the command of IV Corps of the
Grande Armée and commanded the centre at Lützen and Bautzen, but he was soon sent, with
unlimited powers, to the South of France to repair the damage done by the great defeat of Vitoria. His campaign there is the finest proof of his talents as a general, although he was
repeatedly defeated by the Allies under Wellington, for his soldiers were but raw conscripts, while the Allies were the veterans
of many campaigns. His last offensives into Spain were turned back by Wellington in the Battle of the Pyrenees (Sorauren) and by
Freire's Spaniards at San
Marcial. Pursued onto French soil, Soult was maneuvered out of several positions at Nivelle, Nive, and Orthez, before dealing Wellington a final bloody blow at Toulouse.
Political career
Such was the military career of Marshal Soult. His political career was by no means as creditable, and it has been said of him
that he had character only in the face of the enemy. After the first abdication of Napoleon (1814) he declared himself a
Royalist, received the order of St. Louis, and acted as minister of war from December 3, 1814 to March 11, 1815. When
Napoleon returned from Elba, Soult at once declared himself a Bonapartist, was made a
peer of France and acted as major-general (chief of staff) to the emperor in the
campaign of Waterloo, in which role he distinguished himself far less than he had
done as commander of an over-matched army.
At the Second Restoration (1815) he was exiled, but not for long, for in 1819 he was recalled and in 1820 again made a marshal
of France. He once more tried to show himself a fervent Royalist and was made a peer in 1827. After the revolution of 1830 he made out that he was a partisan of Louis Philippe, who welcomed his support and revived for him the title of marshal-general
(previously only held by Turenne, Villars and Maurice de Saxe). He served as minister of war from 1830 to
1834, as Prime Minister from 1832 to 1834, as ambassador extraordinary to London for the
coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838 - where the Duke of Wellington
reputedly caught him by the arm and exclaimed 'I have you at last!', again as Prime Minister from 1839 to 1840 and 1840 to 1847,
and again as minister of war from 1840 to 1844. In 1848, when Louis Philippe was overthrown, Soult again declared himself a
republican.
He died at his castle of Soultberg, near his birthplace.
Works
Soult, himself, wrote but little. He published a memoir justifying his adherence to Napoleon during the Hundred Days, and his notes and journals were arranged by his son Napoleon Hector (1801-1857), who
published the first part (Mémoires du maréchal-général Soult) in 1854. Le Noble's Mémoires sur les operations des
Français en Galicie are supposed to have been written from Soult's papers.
References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia
Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
That article, in turn, references:
- A. Salle, Vie politique du maréchal Soult (Paris, 1834)
- A. de Grozelier, Le Maréchal Soult (Castres, 1851)
- A. Combes, Histoire anecdotique du maréchal Soult (Castres, 1869).
External links
Suggested Reading
- Bukhari, Emir Napoleon's Marshals Osprey Publishing, 1979, ISBN 0850453054.
- Chandler, David Napoleon's Marshals Macmillan Pub Co, 1987, ISBN 0029059305.
- Connelly, Owen , Blundering to Glory: Napoleon's Military Campaigns SR Books, 1999, ISBN 0842027807.
- Elting, John R. Swords Around a Throne: Napoleon's Grande Armee Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1997, ISBN
0029095018.
Gotteri, Nicole. Soult: Maréchal d’Empire et homme d’Etat. Besançon: La Manufacture, 1991.
- Hayman, Peter Soult: Napoleon's Maligned Marshall Sterling Pub, 1990, ISBN 0853689318.
- Haythornthwaite, Philip Napoleon's Commanders (2): c.1809-15 Osprey Publishing, 2002, ISBN 1841763454.
- Humble, Richard Napoleon's Peninsular marshals;: A reassessment Taplinger Pub., 1975, 0800854659.
- Linck, Tony Napoleon's Generals Combined Publishing, 1994, ISBN 0962665584.
- Macdonell, A. G. Napoleon and His Marshals Prion, 1997, ISBN 1853752223.
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