Louis-Victor-Leon de Rochechouart

Louis-Victor-Leon de Rochechouart (Paris, 1788 - Jumilhac-the-Large, 1858), general French, was military Gouverneur of Paris. Its life, rich in adventures, is a testimony of the agitated and epic period which was the Révolution and the Empire for the men who crossed it.

Animated childhood

Wire of Jules de Rochechouart and Elisabeth-Armide Durey de Morsan, Louis-Victor-Leon de Rochechouart was born in Paris on September 14th, 1788, a few months only before the Revolution as marked by the destiny. Promised, from its row, to enter the orders, it indeed had to flee Paris in 1794, at the six years age, because of the activism of his mother to try to make escape the queen Marie-Antoinette. Continued by the gendarmes come to stop the counter-revolutionary, he managed to escape to them with his Louis brother and his mother. His/her Cornélie sister did not have this chance: driven out its pension by the authorities, young girl the 10 year old, delivered to it even, died of exhaustion after three days of wandering in the capital. Forced to leave the country, the countess of Rochechouart left her two young people wire in pension with Caen in a house of baths held by a couple which exploited the situation. Placed under terrible conditions, the two brothers, often deprived of food, became their servants. At the end of one year, they were found by a relationship and were released from this slavery. They went in 1796 to Freiburg, to Switzerland where the countess of Rochechouart was to join them. But this one, always in exile, was prevented by it. The two young brothers were collected by a citizen of the city which lodged them liberally. When the French troops entered Freiburg in 1798, they had to flee again. They found finally their mother with Antwerp which they accompanied throughout her peregrinations: Rotterdam, London, Hamburg… the countess, implied in plots aiming at restoring monarchy there lost its fortune and attracted itself many political troubles, obliging it to leave its host countries. Without a penny, the mother and her two children, taken refuge in Germany, had to make and sell bags to survive. “This way of life made me sad goods reflections, will entrust it. It is a terrible thing which misery. No one cannot have of it an idea right which did not suffer it. This evil can lead to all, to involve with all. ” 11 years old, Louis-Victor-Leon de Rochechouart then decided to embark in Hamburg to join the regiment of the emigrants ordered by his uncle, the Duc of Mortemart, in Portugal. After many adventures, which carried out it in Holland, in England, in Spain, it arrived finally at Lisbon in December 1800.

Within the emigrated army

At 12 years, Louis-Victor-Leon de Rochechouart integrated the regiment of Mortemart, one of the emigrated regiments assembled after the rout of the army of Condé in 1799. Gradually, their initial mission - to release France of the revolution - was lost in the needs for the English policy. The regiment of Mortemart had been directed towards Portugal to support a manifestation of the Portuguese army on its borders vis-a-vis advanced French troops. Louis-Victor-Leon took part in 1801 in the countryside of Alemtejo. After fifteen days of face-to-face discussion close to Abrantès, the regiment and the Portuguese army on a side, the Spanish and French armies of the other were withdrawn without a shot not being drawn. Peace was signed in Madrid under the aegis of Lucien Bonaparte. Entered like sign, the count de Rochechouart was second lieutenant when the regiment was dissolved in 1802. 14 years old, it returned to Paris, where, during two years, it spent its pay in the pleasures of the capital. In 1804, he undertook to go to Russia, where he had found the trace of his mother and his brother. Without money, he travelled under rocambolesques conditions, partly financed his tour while gaining with the casino of Milan, miraculeusement met a relative with Vienna which helped it to join the Poland where he found his mother in 1805. From there, they joined the the Crimea, where lived the countess of Rochechouart and her son. The meeting again were of short duration: she died a few weeks. Louis-Victor-Leon was then collected by his uncle the Duc of Richelieu, governor of Odessa, of which he became the adoptive son with the passing of years.

With the service of the tsar

Louis-Victor-Leon de Rochechouart entered the Russian army with the rank of second lieutenant and became aide-de-camp of the Duke of Richelieu. He climbs the levels becoming successively lieutenant in the imperial Guard, then aide-de-camp of the emperor Alexandre Ier. From 1805 to 1812, it took part in the conquest of the Bessarabia and of the Circassie, fought in the the Caucasus and in Chetchnia. When in 1812, France invades Russia, it was mobilized in the army of the Tormassov general. It took part in the catch of Minsk, then with the Bataille of Bérézina, where it was pilot tragedy crossed of the river by the French Army. Thus it summarizes the countryside of Russia: “The plan of Napoleon was admirable and worthy of its genius. The success, according to all the human probabilities, was infallible. The decrees alone of Fortune, by putting at fault any precaution, could achieve this great disaster. ” Appointed colonel then major general, it took part in the countryside of Germany and the battles of Lutzen, Dresden, Kulm and Leipzig. In September, it was sent on mission near Bernadotte, king de Suède to convince it to line up side of the Allies. With the beginning of the year 1814, it crosses the the Rhine with the Russian army, thus putting the foot in this France which it had not seen for ten years. It contacted the futures Louis XVIII and Charles X and took part in the creation of a royalist party. His/her Louis brother, with whom it had shared many tests, was killed with the Bataille of Brienne. He then became the chief of weapons of the Maison of Rochechouart. Louis-Victor-Leon took part in the countryside of France and the battles of Arcis-on-Paddle and Fère-Champagne the. He also took share with the Bataille of Paris. Named ordering place of Paris, it seized the Town hall on March 31st. Vis-a-vis the rumors of counter-attack of Napoleon, it organized the defense of the city. Then vis-a-vis the disorders caused by the occupying troops, it brought back the order in the capital by setting up mixed troops between the Russian army and the national guard. On arrival of Louis XVIII, on April 20th, the count took leave of the Russian army to be put at its service.

Military governor of Paris

Louis-Victor-Leon de Rochechouart was named brigadier by Louis XVIII and was incorporated in the company of the black musketeers. August 29th, it was made knight of the Ordre of Saint-Louis. At the time of the Hundred Days, it accompanied the king with Ghent. Of return in France, it became, with the Second Restoration, chief of Staff of the Minister for the war, near the Duc of Feltre, then Maréchal of Gouvion-Saint-Cyr, and again of the Duke of Feltre when his/her adoptive father, the Duke of Richelieu, was appointed Prime Minister. October 16th, 1815, the count de Rochechouart was named military Gouverneur of Paris, a station which it occupied until 1821. He had in particular two great businesses to treat. In November 1815, it carried support for the general Daumesnil, besieged in the Fort of Vincennes by the occupying Prussian troops. Impressed, at the time of their meeting, by his courage and its determination, it intervened in its favor near the minister. As a commander of the Place of Paris, the general of Rochechouart was in charge of a mission much more painful: the organization of the execution of the marshal Ney, a decision which he disapproved. “Not only I was forced to witness his death, moreover my duties obliged me to make carry out the judgment of the Court of the Pars with regard to this unjust victim of our political reactions”. It placed at the head of the firing squad a Piémontais officer, avoiding with a French soldier carrying the weight of such a load. The general of Rochechouart thus accompanied the last hours by that which it called the “Brave man of the brave men”, its nickname in the army. He did one of them moving account in his Mémoires . “Here is a great lesson for learning how well to die” writes it. In 1821, Louis-Vitcor-Leon de Rochechouart was named gentleman of the room of the king and commander of the Légion of honor married the Elisabeth Ouvrard, wire of the banker and business man Gabriel-Julien Ouvrard, with the head of an immense fortune. The sumptuous ceremony proceeded on December 13rd, 1821 in presence in particular of the king Louis XVIII, the futures Charles X and Louis-Philippe Ier, and of the Prime Minister, the Duc of Richelieu. It was put of availability a few days later. In 1826, Louis-Victor-Leon de Rochechouart bought the castles of Jumilhac and Rochechouart. In 1830, it took part in the forwarding of Algiers. In 1855, the general of Rochechouart was named by Napoleon III mayor of Jumilhac, where it had been withdrawn. He died in 1858. He had four children: Madeleine-Elisabeth-Gabrielle, marchioness of the Guard (1822-1889); Valentine, countess of Montalembert (1825-1907); Aimery (1828-1897); Louis-Jules (1830-1915).

Works

Louis-Victor-Leon de Rochechouart is the author of his Memories, Souvenirs on the Revolution and the Empire (Plon, 1898 and 1933), a very interesting work over its time. The account, which wants to be objective and not partisan, is rich new anecdotes on the Revolution, the regiments emigrated, Russia of the beginning of the 19th century, and especially on the Napoleonean wars, the Hundred Days and the Restoration.
the general-count de Rochechouart is also the author of the Histoire of the House of Rochechouart (872 pages, Paris, 1859) a very rich and very complete work on its family, of which he had become the chief of weapons.

Sources

Georges Martin, History and genealogy of the House of Rochechouart (1992)
Pierre Ortega, Louis-Victor-Leon, Count de Rochechouart (2002)
Jacques Wolf, the financier Ouvrard (Taillandier, 1992)

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