Home > Jean Lannes

He was the son of a livery stables keeper, and was apprenticed to a dyer. He had had little education, but his great strength and proficiency in all manly sports caused him in 1792 to be elected sergeant-major of the battalion of volunteers of Gers, which he had joined on the breaking out of war between Spain and the French republic. He served through the campaigns in the Pyrenees in 1793 and 1794, and rose by distinguished conduct to the rank of chef de brigade. However, in 1795, on the reform of the army introduced by the Thermidorians, he was dismissed from his rank.

He re-enlisted as a simple volunteer in the army of Italy, and in the famous campaign of 1796 he again fought his way up to high rank, being eventually made a general of brigade by Bonaparte. He was distinguished in every battle, and was wounded at Arcola. He was chosen by Bonaparte to accompany him to Egypt as commander of one of Kléber's brigades, in which capacity he greatly distinguished himself, especially on the retreat from Syria. He went with Bonaparte to France, assisted at the 18th Brumaire, and was appointed general of division, and commandant of the consular guard. He commanded the advanced guard in the crossing of the Alps in 1800, was instrumental in winning the battle of Montebello , from which he afterwards took his title, and bore the brunt of the battle of Marengo.

In 1801Events January 1 Legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland completed under the Act of Union 1800, bringing about the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. January 1 Giuseppe Piazzi discovers the first (and largest) asteroid Ceres. January 20 J Napoleon sent him as ambassador to PortugalRepublica Portuguesa ( In Detail) National motto: None Official language Portuguese 3 Capital Lisbon President Jorge Sampaio Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes Area Total % water World ranking: 109th 92,391 km²0. 5 % Population Total ( 2004) Density World. Opinions differ as to his merits in this capacity; Napoleon never made such use of him again. On the establishment of the empire he was created a marshal of France, and commanded once more the advanced guard of a great French army in the campaign of Austerlitz. At Austerlitz he had the left of the Grand Armée. In the 1806-07 campaign he was at his best, commanding his corps with the greatest credit in the march through the ThuringiaState Service Flag Civil Flag Statistics Capital: Erfurt Area:16,171 km² Inhabitants:2 392 000 2003 pop. density:148 people/km² Homepage: ISO 3166-2:DE-TH Politics Minister-President: Dieter Althaus ( CDU) Ruling party: CDU Map The Free State of Thuringian Forest, the action of SaalfeldThe Battle of Saafeld took place on October 10 1806, between 7,000 Prussians under Prince Louis of Prussia and a division of Lannes' corps under the Marshal himself. The Prussian infantry was broken and driven under the walls of Saalfeld, whereupon the Pr (which is studied as a model to-day at the French Staff College) and the battle of JenaThe Battle of Jena was part of the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt fought on October 14, 1806, in Jena, in today's Germany, and resulted in a French victory under Napoleon Bonaparte against the Prussians under General Hohenlohe. Hegel, who was then a professor a. His leadership of the advanced guard at FriedlandThe Battle of Friedland was fought on June 14, 1807 and resulted in a French victory under Napoleon Bonaparte against the Russians under General Benigssen. The Russians had on the 13th driven the French cavalry outposts from Friedland to the westward, and was even more conspicuous.

He was now to be tried as a commander-in-chief, for Napoleon took him to Spain in 1808Events January 1 Importation of slaves into the United States is banned February 11 Anthracite coal first burned as fuel, experimentally. February Russia issues an ultimatum to Sweden, to join France, Denmark and Russia and attacks Finland. March 26 Charl, and gave him a detached wing of the army, with which he won a victory over Castaños at Tudela on November 22November 22 is the 326th day (327th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 39 days remaining. Events 1718 Off the coast of Virginia, English pirate Edward Teach (best known as " Blackbeard") is killed in battle when a British boar. In January 1809 he was sent to attempt the capture of Saragossa, and by February 2i, after one of the most stubborn defences in history, was in possession of the place. Napoleon then created him duc de Montebello, and in 1809, for the last time, gave him command of the advanced guard. He took part in the engagements around Eckmtihl and the advance on Vienna. With his corps he led the French army across the Danube, and bore the brunt, with Masséna, of the terrible battle of Aspern-Essling. On May 22 he had to retreat. During-the retreat Lannes exposed himself as usual to the hottest fire, and received a mortal wound, to which he succumbed at Vienna on May 31. As he was being carried from the field to Vienna he met the emperor hurrying to the front. It was reported that the dying man reproached Napoleon for his ambition, but this rests on little evidence save the fact that Lannes was the most blunt and outspoken of all Napoleon's marshals. He was one of the few men for whom the emperor felt a real and deep affection, and at this their last meeting Napoleon gave way to a passionate burst of grief, even in the midst of the battle. His eldest son was made a peer of France by Louis XVIII.

Lannes ranks with Davout and Masséna as the ablest of all Napoleon's marshals, and consciously or unconsciously was the best exponent of the emperor's method of making war. Hence his constant employment in tasks requiring the utmost resolution and daring, and more especially when the emperor's combinations depended upon the vigour and self-sacrifice of a detachment or fraction of the army. It was thus with Lannes at Friedland and at Aspern as it was with Davout at Austerlitz and Auerstadt, and Napoleon's estimate of his subordinates' capacities can almost exactly be judged by the frequency with which he used them to prepare the way for his own shattering blow. Routine generals with the usual military virtue, or careful and exact troop leaders like Soult and Macdonald, Napoleon kept under his own hand for the final assault which he himself launched, but the long hours of preparatory fighting against odds of two to one, which alone made the final blow possible, he entrusted only to men of extraordinary courage and high capacity for command. In his own words, he found Lannes a pygmy, and lost him a giant. Lannes's place in his affections was never filled.

See R Penn, Vie militaire de Jean Lannes (Paris, 1809).

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. 1911 Britannica