Invasion of France (1795)

Invasion of France
Part of War of the First Coalition
Un épisode de l'affaire de Quiberon, by Paul-Émile Boutigny
Date 23 June – 21 July 1795 Location Quiberon Result Republican victory
Belligerents
Republican France	French Royalists: - Chouans - Émigrés  Great Britain
Commanders and leaders
Lazare Hoche Jean Baptiste Canclaux Jean Humbert Emmanuel de Grouchy Jean-Lambert Tallien	Joseph de Puisaye Louis Charles d'Hervilly † Georges Cadoudal Charles de Sombreuil † Vincent de Tinténiac † Alexander Hood Bridport John Borlase Warren
Casualties and losses
?	around 5000 dead and 6332 captured

The invasion of France in 1795 or the Battle of Quiberon was a major landing on the Quiberon peninsula by émigré, counter-revolutionary troops in support of the Chouannerie and Vendée Revolt, beginning on 23 June and finally definitively repulsed on 21 July. It aimed to raise the whole of western France in revolt, bring an end to the French Revolution and restore the French monarchy. It had a major impact, dealing a disastrous blow to the royalist cause.

Louis XVIII and the comte d’Artois (the future Charles X of France) divided the counter-revolutionary activities and theatres between them - to Louis went political generalities and the region from the Alps to the Pyrénées (including Lyon), and to the comte the western provinces (Vendée, Brittany, Normandy). The comte named Joseph de Puisaye général en chef of Brittany, a good choice since de Puisaye had military talent and political and diplomatic experience.

Playing the English card, Joseph de Puisaye headed the preparations for the expedition to Quiberon but at precisely the same time a Royalist alliance was operating on Louis XVIII's behalf in Paris. This alliance had a representative in London, through whom they managed to half-discredit Joseph de Puisaye even before the expedition set out and impose a deputy chosen by the alliance, comte Louis Charles d'Hervilly. The alliance sent d'Hervilly such ambiguous instructions that he was even in a position to contest de Puisaye's orders, or even to claim that it was he not de Puisaye who had been given supreme command of the expedition.

Even the chosen landing-point - Brittany - was not unanimously accepted. Several émigrés preferred a landing in the Vendée, but this was mainly down to François de Charette, who put himself up as a rival to Joseph de Puisaye. The surrounding of the Île de Quiberon were thus chosen as the landing-point despite their many disadvantages to the invaders - it was only a narrow strip of land, with the shoals blocking access to part of the coasts. It was also decided to put some of the émigré soldiers in red British uniforms, which proved unwise owing to the Bretons' dislike for British soldiers, and to make up the numbers by using Republican prisoners held on British prison hulks (many of whom would clearly have split loyalties and re-join the Republic forces, seeing as they hated the British as much as the émigrés). The comte d'Artois was not even consulted on the choice of date for the expedition, yet it was in his name that Joseph de Puisaye was acting, since the comte d'Artois had theoretically assumed command for all Royalist operations in western France.

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Wikipedia