Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult
Jean-de-Dieu Soult was one of Napoleon's most capable marshals, fought Wellington for six years, and served the Bourbons afterwards. Born in 1769 to a village notary in Languedoc, he enlisted as a private at sixteen and rose through the revolutionary armies to general of division by 1799. He fought under Masséna in Switzerland and was wounded and captured at the siege of Genoa in 1800. He was made a marshal in the first creation of 1804 and commanded the IV Corps at Austerlitz in December 1805 — the formation that took the Pratzen Heights in the fog and split the allied army, which is the decisive movement of the battle. Napoleon called him the first manoeuvrer in Europe. He fought at Jena and Eylau, and was sent to Spain, where he stayed almost continuously from 1808 to 1814. He pursued Sir John Moore to Corunna, took Oporto and was driven out of it by Wellesley's river crossing, won at Ocaña, and governed Andalusia for over two years — where he accumulated a large collection of Spanish paintings by methods that have kept museums in litigation. He fought the whole retreat into France, and his defence in the Pyrenees and at Toulouse in 1814 is generally reckoned his best work. He rallied to Napoleon during the Hundred Days and served as chief of staff at Waterloo, a role he performed poorly. He was exiled and returned, and served three times as prime minister under Louis-Philippe, representing France at Victoria's coronation. He died in 1851.
- Lived: 1769 CE – 1851 CE
- Nationality: French
- Roles: field_marshal
