Edouard Mortier
| Édouard Mortier, 1st Duc de Trévise | |
|---|---|
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| 13th Prime Minister of France | |
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In office 18 November 1834 – 12 March 1835 |
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| Monarch | Louis Philippe I |
| Preceded by | Hugues-Bernard Maret, duc de Bassano |
| Succeeded by | Victor, 3rd duc de Broglie |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
13 February 1768 Le Cateau-Cambrésis |
| Died | 28 July 1835 (aged 67) Paris |
| Political party | None |
Adolphe Édouard Casimir Joseph Mortier, 1st Duc de Trévise (13 February 1768 – 28 July 1835) was a French general and Marshal of France under Napoleon I. He was one of 18 people killed in 1835 during Giuseppe Marco Fieschi's assassination attempt on King Louis Philippe I.
Mortier was born at Le Cateau-Cambrésis on 13 February 1768, son of Charles Mortier (1730 – 1808) and wife Marie Anne Joseph Bonnaire (b. 1735), and entered the army as a sub-lieutenant in 1791.
He served in the French Revolutionary Wars in the campaigns of 1792 and 1793 on the north-eastern frontier and in the Netherlands, and subsequently on the Meuse and the Rhine. Mortier was tasked by Hatry to negotiate the surrender of the Fortress of Mainz, which he completed successfully and then returned to Paris. In the war against the Second Coalition in 1799, he was promoted successively general of brigade and général de division. During the Second Battle of Zurich, he led a force of 8,000 in the attack from Dieticon on Zurich. His conduct of the French occupation of Hanover, bringing about the Convention of Artlenburg, led Napoleon to include Mortier in the first list of marshals created in 1804.
He commanded a corps of the Grande Armée in the Ulm campaign in which he distinguished himself. In the campaign of the middle Danube, which culminated in the Battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon placed him in command of a newly formed VIII. Corps, composed of divisions from the other Corps. Mortier over-extended his line of march on the north shore of the Danube and failed to heed Napoleon's advice to protect his north flank. A combined force of Russians and Austrians, under over-all command of Mikhail Kutuzov enticed Mortier to send Théodore Maxime Gazan's 2nd Division into a trap and French troops were caught in a valley between two Russian columns. They were rescued by the timely arrival of a second division, under command of Pierre Dupont de l'Étang's 1st Division, which covered a day's march in a half day. The Battle of Dürrenstein (11 November 1805) extended well into the night. Both sides claimed victory, the French lost more than a third of the participants, and Gazan's division experienced over 40 percent losses. The Austrians and Russians also had heavy losses—close to 16 percent. After Austerlitz, Napoleon dispersed the Corps and Gazan received the Legion of Honor, but Mortier was simply reassigned.
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