Auguste de Marmont

Auguste de Marmont was one of Napoleon's oldest companions and the marshal whose defection ended the empire. Born at Châtillon-sur-Seine in 1774 to a minor noble family, he trained as an artillery officer and met Bonaparte at Toulon in 1793, becoming his aide-de-camp. He was with him in Italy and in Egypt, and commanded the artillery at Marengo in 1800, where his guns were decisive in the counter-attack. He was made governor of Dalmatia in 1806 and administered it with real energy, building roads and schools, and was created Duke of Ragusa in 1808. He was passed over in the first creation of marshals in 1804, which he resented for years, and received the baton only in 1809 after Wagram. He took over in Spain from Masséna in 1811 and reorganised the army of Portugal effectively. At Salamanca in July 1812 he over-extended his left wing on the march and Wellington attacked the gap; Marmont was badly wounded by a shell early on, and the army lost some fourteen thousand men. He commanded a corps in the German and French campaigns of 1813 and 1814, fighting well at Lützen and Bautzen. At the end of March 1814, with the allies in Paris and Napoleon at Fontainebleau preparing to fight on, Marmont negotiated separately with Schwarzenberg and marched his corps of some twelve thousand men into the allied lines. The defection removed the last force between the allies and the emperor and made abdication unavoidable. The French coined raguser, to betray, from his title. He served the Bourbons, fled in 1830, and died in exile in Venice in 1852.

• Lived: 1774 CE – 1852 CE
• Nationality: French
• Roles: military_leader