Editing François Certain de Canrobert (section)

=== General of the Second Empire ===
[[File:François Certain de Canrobert Versailles.png|thumb|right|[[Maréchal de camp]] François Certain de Canrobert in the [[Palace of Versailles]].]]

Recalled to France by the Prince-President [[Napoleon III| Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte]], he was designated as [[maréchal de camp]] ([[général de brigade]]) starting 12 January 1850. He was nominated as commandant of the infantry brigade of the 1st Division of Paris, on 8 March 1850, then to the command of the 3rd Brigade on 9 February 1851; he contributed to the success in [[Paris]] of the [[French coup d'état of 1851]]. In the afternoon of 4 December 1851, on the Boulevards Montmarte and Poissonnière, the soldiers of the Division commanded by Canrobert came into contact with a crowd formed of the curious and protestors.<ref name="Milza260">Pierre Milza, ''Napoléon III'', Perrin, 2006, p.260</ref><ref name="Gira_153">Louis Girard, ''Napoléon III'', Fayard, 1986. Re-edition : 2002. p.153</ref> In a certain confusion, the soldiers opened fire, causing 100–300 deaths and hundreds of wounded.<ref name="Milza260"/> On the night of 4 December the Parisian resistance to the coup collapsed, with 300 to 400 civilians killed.<ref name="Milza261">Pierre Milza, ''Napoléon III'', Perrin, 2006, p.261</ref> While two-thirds of the protestors comprised workers, amongst them also featured the innocent and curious, victims of the division of Canrobert on the grand boulevards.<ref name="Milza261"/> In all France, 26,884 people were arrested, essentially in the South-East, the South-West and a couple of departments in the Center. Almost 21,000 people were condemned by mixed commissions (composed in each department by prefects, a general, and a magistrate) out of which 9,530 ended in transportation to [[Algeria]] and 239 were sent to Cayenne in [[French Guiana| Guiana]]. On the other hand and quite quickly, all pronounced repression measures declared by the 82 mixed commissions worried President [[Napoleon III| Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte]],<ref>Pierre Milza, ''Napoléon III', Perrin, 2006, p.268</ref> who delegated in extraordinary mission, generals Canrobert, [[Charles-Marie-Esprit Espinasse| Espinasse]], and State Council Quentin Bauchart, in order to revise the arrest decisions taken and to prepare acts of ''grâce'' (forgiving the condemned by mercy). Espinasse and Canrobert, placed in charge of the South-West and Languedoc, showed little indulgence towards the condemned, they both accorded a little more than a thousand acts of forgiveness, while State Counselor Quentin-Bauchart, charged with the South-East, accorded alone 3,400 forgiveness sentences, while Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte in his own right forgave numerous condemnations.<ref>[[Maurice Agulhon]] in ''1848 ou l'apprentissage de la République 1848–1852'', Paris, Le Seuil, 1973 p.235-236</ref>

Following these events Canrobert gained the function of [[aide de camp]] to the Prince-President, and later to the Emperor. Promoted [[Général de division]] on 14 January 1853, he commanded the infantry division at camp Helfaut-Saint Omer, as of 27 April. In May he became the inspector general of the 5th Infantry Arrondissement for the year 1853 before being designated to the infantry division of the [[Armée d'Orient (disambiguation) | Orient Army]] on 23 February 1854.