Editing Guillaume Brune

{{Short description|French Marshal}}
{{Redirect|Brune|the French Guianese politician|Paulin Bruné|other people|Brune (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{Infobox military person
| honorific_prefix = [[Marshal of the Empire]]
| name             = Guillaume Brune
| honorific_suffix = Count of the [[First French Empire|Empire]]
| image            = Guillaume Marie-Anne, comte de Brune, maréchal de France (1763-1815).jpg
| caption          = Portrait by Eugène Bataille after an original by [[Marie-Guillemine Benoist]]. The original, commissioned by Napoleon and executed in 1805, was lost in the fire that destroyed the [[Tuileries Palace]] in 1871.
| birth_date       = {{birth-date|13 March 1764}}
| death_date       = {{death-date and age|2 August 1815|13 March 1763}}
| birth_place      = [[Brive-la-Gaillarde]], [[Kingdom of France|France]]
| death_place      = [[Avignon]], [[Bourbon Restoration in France|France]]
| allegiance       = {{flag|French First Republic}}<br/>{{Flag|First French Empire}}
| branch           = [[French Army|Army]]
| rank             = [[Marshal of the Empire]]
| serviceyears     = 1791–1815
| awards           = Grand Cross of the [[Legion of Honour]]
| battles          = 
{{tree list}}
* [[French Revolutionary Wars]]
** [[War of the Second Coalition]]
*** [[French invasion of Switzerland]]
*** [[Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland]]
**** [[Battle of Krabbendam]]
**** [[Battle of Bergen (1799)|Battle of Bergen]]
**** [[Battle of Alkmaar (1799)|Battle of Alkmaar]]
**** [[Battle of Castricum]]
*** [[Battle of Pozzolo]]
* [[Napoleonic Wars]]
** [[Franco-Swedish War]]
*** [[Siege of Stralsund (1807)|Siege of Stralsund]]
{{Tree list/end}}
}}

'''Guillaume Brune''', 1st Count Brune ({{IPA|fr|ɡijom bʁyn}}, 13 March 1764 – 2 August 1815) was a French military commander, [[Marshal of the Empire]], and political figure who served during the [[French Revolutionary Wars]] and the [[Napoleonic Wars]].

== Early life ==
Brune was born in [[Brive-la-Gaillarde|Brives]] (now called Brive-la-Gaillarde) in the province of [[Limousin]], the son of Étienne Brune, a lawyer, and Jeanne Vielbains.<ref name=Vigier>{{Cite book |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k63674056 |language=fr |title=Précis historique de la campagne faite en 1807 dans la Poméranie suédoise |author=Vigier, Jacques de |year=1825 |location=[[Limoges]] |page=95}}</ref> He moved to Paris in 1785, studied law,<ref name=Vigier/> and became a political journalist. He embraced the ideas of the [[French Revolution]], and soon after its outbreak enlisted in the Parisian [[National Guard (France)|National Guard]] and joined the [[Cordeliers]],<ref name=Vigier/> eventually becoming a friend of [[Georges Danton]].

== Revolutionary Wars ==
[[File:Portret van Guillaume-Marie-Anne Brune, RP-P-1906-3374.jpg|thumb|left|Brune as commander of the ''[[Army of the North (France)|Armée de Batavie]]'' in the [[Batavian Republic]], by [[Charles Howard Hodges]] (c. 1799)]]

Brune fought in [[Bordeaux]] during the [[Federalist revolts]] at [[Battle of Hondschoote|Hondschoote]] and [[Battle of Fleurus (1794)|Fleurus]]. In 1793, Brune was appointed [[brigadier general]] and took part in the [[13 Vendémiaire|fighting of the 13 Vendémiaire]] (5 October 1795) against royalist insurgents in Paris.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=681}}

In 1796, he served under [[Napoleon|Napoleon Bonaparte]] in the [[Campaigns of 1796 in the French Revolutionary Wars|Italian campaign]] and was promoted to ''[[Divisional general|général de division]]'' allegedly so as to avoid Napoleon having to concede the post to [[Charles XIV John|Bernadotte]], who was at this time a political rival to Napoleon. Brune was noted as having been particularly incompetent; one anecdote has him attempting to march three divisions down the same road, leading to confusion among the army of Italy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Macdonell |first=Archibald Gordon |title=Napoleon and his marshals |date=2012 |publisher=Fonthill Media |isbn=978-1-78155-036-6 |series=The Fonthill complete A.G. Macdonell series |location=Stroud}}</ref>{{page needed|date=August 2024}}  He was subsequently removed from command. Brune commanded the French army that occupied Switzerland in 1798 and established the [[Helvetic Republic]]. In the following year, he was in command of the French troops in defence of [[Amsterdam]] against the [[Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland]] under the [[Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany|Duke of York]], in which he was completely successful – the Anglo-Russian forces were defeated in the [[Battle of Castricum]], and compelled, after a harsh retreat, to re-embark. He rendered further good service in [[Vendée]] and in the Italian Peninsula{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=681}} from 1799 to 1801, winning the 1800 [[Battle of Pozzolo]].

In 1802, Napoleon dispatched Brune to [[Constantinople]] as ambassador to the [[Ottoman Empire]]. During his two-year diplomatic service, he initiated relations between France and [[Qajar dynasty|Persia]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.napoleon-series.org/research/government/diplomatic/c_tufrdip1.html | title=Franco-Turkish Relationship during First Empire }}</ref>

== Napoleonic Wars ==
[[File:Guillaume Marie-Anne Brune.jpg|thumb|Marshal Brune]]

Following his coronation as Emperor of the French in 1804, Napoleon made Brune a [[Marshal of the Empire]] (''Maréchal d'Empire''){{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=681}} while he was still in [[Constantinople]]. During the campaigns against Austria during the [[War of the Third Coalition]], Marshal Brune commanded the army in Boulogne from 1805 to 1807 overseeing drilling and keeping a watchful eye on the British. In 1807 Brune was appointed Governor General for the Hanseatic Ports and in 1808, Brune held a command of troops fighting in [[War of the Fourth Coalition]] and occupied [[Swedish Pomerania]], taking [[Siege of Stralsund (1807)|Stralsund]] and the [[Rügen|Island of Rugen]]. Despite these victories, his staunch republicanism and a meeting with [[Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden]] raised Napoleon's suspicions. These suspicions were only made worse by Brune, who refused to talk to Napoleon about the matter, claiming simply that "It's a lie". Brune made his biggest blunder while drafting a treaty between France and Sweden when he wrote "the French army" instead of "His Imperial Majesty's Army". Whether an intentional insult or act of incompetence, Napoleon was infuriated and Brune was removed from duty. He then spent the next years at his country estate in disgrace and was not re-employed until 1815.<ref name=Pattinson/>

== Hundred Days and death ==
[[File:Mort du maréchal Brune le 2 août 1815.jpg|thumb|Brune's death, illustration by Gustave Roux]]

After Napoleon's abdication, Brune was awarded the [[Order of Saint Louis|Cross of Saint Louis]] by [[Louis XVIII]], but rallied to the emperor's cause after his escape from exile in [[Elba]].<ref name=Pattinson/> Leaving behind their past quarrels, Napoleon appointed Brune commander of the [[Army of the Var]] during the [[Hundred Days]]. Here he defended Southern France against the forces of the [[Austrian Empire]] and [[Kingdom of Sardinia]], with the addition of the British [[Mediterranean Fleet]] and local Royalist guerrillas. Brune, while he held [[Liguria]], slowly began to retreat, holding Toulon. Brune kept the mobs in Marseille and [[Provence]] under control.

On 22 July 1815, after hearing of the defeat at [[Battle of Waterloo|Waterloo]], Brune surrendered [[Toulon]] to the British.<ref name=Pattinson>{{Cite book |title=Napoleon's Marshals |author-link=Richard Dunn Pattison |author=Dunn-Pattison, Richard P. |year=1909 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34400/34400-h/34400-h.htm#Page_276}}</ref> Fearing the Royalist mobs in [[Provence]] and aware of their hatred towards him, Brune asked Admiral [[Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth|Edward Pellew]] to sail him to [[Italy]], but the request was rudely denied, with Pellew calling him "the prince of scamps" and a "blackguard". Brune then decided to travel to [[Paris]] over land with the promise of Royalist protection, although none was provided.<ref name=Pattinson/> He managed to arrive safely with two [[Aide-de-camp|aides-de-camp]] in [[Avignon]], but was there shot and killed by an angry Royalist mob after being chased into a hotel, as a victim of the [[Second White Terror]]. The new Bourbon government soon fabricated the story that Brune had committed suicide.<ref name=Pattinson/> His body, thrown into the [[Rhône|River Rhone]], was retrieved by a fisherman and buried by local farmers and was later recovered by his wife Angélique Nicole Pierre<ref name=Pattinson/> to be buried in the cemetery of [[Saint-Just-Sauvage]].<ref>{{Cite journal |journal=Revue de l'Institut Napoléon |title=Revue de l'Institut Napoléon |date=1984 |language=fr |page=141 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qcVVAAAAYAAJ |last1=Napoléon |first1=Institut}}</ref>

An inquiry compelled by his widow later made public that Brune's murder had been covered up by the royal authorities, and revealed that the mob responsible was led by baseless allegations that Brune was the one parading [[Marie Thérèse Louise of Savoy, Princesse de Lamballe]]' head on a pike around Paris during the [[September Massacres]].<ref name=Pattinson/> In 1839, one year after Angélique's death, a monument to Marshal Brune was erected in his hometown of Brives.<ref name=Pattinson/>

== Family ==
[[File:Angelique Nicole Pierre (1766-1829), wife of Guillaume Brune.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Angélique Nicole Pierre]]

In 1793, Brune married Angélique Nicole Pierre, from [[Arpajon]].<ref name=Pattinson/> They had no issue but adopted two daughters.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.napoleon-series.org/research/biographies/c_wives.html |title=Wives and Children of the Marshals |website=napoleon-series.org |access-date=31 May 2019}}.</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Sources ==
{{Commons category|Guillaume Marie-Anne Brune}}
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Brune, Guillaume Marie Anne|volume=4|pages=680–681}} Endnotes:
** ''Notice historique sur la vie politique et militaire du maréchal Brune'' (Paris, 1821).
** Paul-Prosper Vermeil de Conchard, ''L'Assassinat du maréchal Brune'' (Paris, 1888).

{{MarshalsNapoleon}}
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{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brune, Guillaume Marie Anne}}
[[Category:1764 births]]
[[Category:1815 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century French diplomats]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of France to the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:French military personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars]]
[[Category:French murder victims]]
[[Category:Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour]]
[[Category:Knights of the Order of Saint Louis]]
[[Category:Marshals of the First French Empire]]
[[Category:Members of the Chamber of Peers of the Hundred Days]]
[[Category:Military leaders of the French Revolutionary Wars]]
[[Category:People from Brive-la-Gaillarde]]
[[Category:People murdered in France]]
[[Category:Names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe]]
[[Category:Deaths by firearm in France]]