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Michel Ney, 1st Prince de la Moskowa, 1st Duke of Elchingen (; 10 January 1769 – 7 December 1815), was a French military commander and Marshal of the Empire who fought in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.
The son of a cooper from Saarlouis, Ney worked as a civil servant until 1787 when he enlisted in a cavalry regiment, right before the outbreak of French Revolution. Distinguishing himself as a cavalry officer in the War of the First Coalition, he quickly rose through the ranks and, by the Battle of Hohenlinden (1800), he had been promoted to divisional general. On Napoleon's proclamation of the French Empire, Ney was named one of the original 18 Marshals of the Empire. He played an instrumental role during Napoleon's subsequent campaigns, seeing action at Elchingen (1805), Jena (1806) and Eylau (1807). Ney commanded the French rearguard during the disastrous invasion of Russia, for which he was lauded as "the bravest of the brave" by the emperor.
After Napoleon's defeat by the Sixth Coalition in 1814, Ney pressured the emperor to abdicate and pledged his allegiance to the restored Bourbon monarchy. He rejoined Napoleon during the Hundred Days but met defeat at the Battle of Waterloo (1815), after which he was charged with treason by the restored monarchy and executed by firing squad.
His hometown at the time of his birth was a French enclave in the predominantly German region of Saarland, and Ney grew up bilingual, due to his German roots. He was educated at the Collège des Augustins in Sarrelouis until 1782, when he began working as a clerk in a local notary's office, and in 1784 was employed in mines and forges.
Following the French Revolution, Ney continued to serve in what was now the French Revolutionary Army, in the Army of the North. In September 1792 he saw action at the Battle of Valmy and in October was commissioned as an officer under the Republic. As an officer he participated in the Battle of Neerwinden in 1793 and was wounded at the Siege of Mainz, also in 1793. In June 1794, he was transferred to Army of Sambre-et-Meuse.
Ney was promoted to brigadier general in August 1796, and commanded cavalry on the German fronts. On 17 April 1797, during the Battle of Neuwied, Ney led a cavalry charge against Austrian lancers trying to seize French cannons. The lancers were beaten back, but Ney's cavalry were counter-attacked by heavy cavalry. During the mêlée, Ney was thrown from his horse and captured in the vicinity of the municipality of Dierdorf; on 8 May he was exchanged for an Austrian general. Following the capture of Mannheim, Ney was promoted to général de division on 28 March 1799 and was given brief command over the Army of the Rhine from 25 September to 23 October. Later in 1799, Ney commanded cavalry in the armies of Switzerland and the Danube. At Winterthur, Ney received wounds in the thigh and wrist. After recovering he fought at Hohenlinden under General Jean Victor Marie Moreau in December 1800. From September 1802, Ney commanded French troops in Switzerland and performed diplomatic duties.
In August 1808, he was sent to Spain in command of the VI Corps and saw action in a number of minor engagements. In 1809, he skirmished with a Luso-Spanish force under Sir Robert Wilson at Puerto de Baños. In 1810, Ney joined Marshal André Masséna in the invasion of Portugal, where he captured Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida, and saw further action on the River Côa, and a defeat at the Bussaco. The French army followed the retreating allies to the Lines of Torres Vedras, a scorched earth trap prepared by Wellington in absolute secrecy. After losing 21,000 men of 61,000 in several months of hunger, Masséna and Ney were forced to retreat due to lack of food and supplies, see also attrition warfare against Napoleon. Ney engaged Wellington's forces in a series of rearguard actions (Pombal, Redinha, Casal Novo, and Foz de Arouce) through which he managed to delay the pursuing Coalition forces long enough to allow the main French force to retreat in 1811. He was ultimately removed from his command for insubordination.
[[Image:Adolphe Yvon (1817-1893) - Marshall Ney at retreat in Russia.jpg|250px|thumb| The epic retreat of Marshal Ney's rear guard at Krasnoi on 18 November 1812; by [[Adolphe Yvon]].]] [[File:Hess-1812losmina.jpg|thumb|250px|The battle at Losvinka brook by [[Peter von Hess]] ]] [[Image:Louvre-peinture-francaise-Ney-a-Kowno-p1020309.jpg|thumb|250px|Ney at the Battle of [[Kaunas|Kovno]] in 1812, by Denis-August-Marie Raffet]]
Ney was given command of the III Corps of the Grande Armée during the invasion of Russia in 1812. At Smolensk, Ney was wounded in the neck but recovered enough to later fight in the central sector at Borodino. During the retreat from Moscow, Ney commanded the rearguard (and was known as "the last Frenchman on Russian soil" when he passed the Niemen on 14 December). After being cut off from the main army during the Battle of Krasnoi, Ney managed to escape in a heavy fog over the Dnieper River, but not without heavy losses, and to rejoin it in Orsha, which delighted Napoleon. For this action Ney was given the nickname "the bravest of the brave" by the emperor.
Ney fought at the Berezina and helped hold the vital bridge at Kovno (modern-day Kaunas), where legend portrays Ney as the last of the invaders to cross the bridge and exit Russia. On 25 March 1813, Ney was given the title of Prince de la Moskowa. During the 1813 campaign, Ney fought at Weissenfels, was wounded at Lützen, and commanded the left wing at Bautzen. Ney later fought at Dennewitz and Leipzig, where he was again wounded. In the 1814 campaign in France, Ney fought various battles and commanded various units. At Fontainebleau, Ney became the spokesperson for the marshals' revolt on 4 April 1814, demanding Napoleon's abdication. Ney informed Napoleon that the army would not march on Paris; Napoleon responded, "the army will obey me!" to which Ney answered, "the army will obey its chiefs".
When Paris fell and the Bourbons reclaimed the throne, Ney, who had pressured Napoleon to accept his first abdication and exile, was promoted, lauded, and made a Peer of France by the newly enthroned King Louis XVIII. Although Ney had pledged his allegiance to the restored monarchy, the Bourbon court looked down on him because he was a commoner by birth.
At Waterloo on 18 June, Ney again commanded the left wing of the army. At around 3:30 p.m., Ney ordered a mass cavalry charge against the Anglo-Allied lines. Ney's cavalry overran the enemy cannons but found the infantry formed in cavalry-proof Infantry square which – without infantry or artillery support – he failed to break. The action earned Ney criticism, and some argue that it led to Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. Debate continues as to the responsibility for the cavalry charge and why it went unsupported. Ney's cavalry also failed to spike the enemy cannons (driving iron spikes into the touch hole) while they were under French control (during the cavalry attack, the crews of the cannon retreated into the squares for protection, and then re-manned their pieces as the cavalry withdrew). Ney's cavalry carried the equipment needed to spike cannons, and spiking the cannons would probably have made them useless for the rest of the battle. The loss of a large number of cannon would have weakened the army and could have caused the Anglo-Allied Army to withdraw from the battle. Ney was seen during one of the charges beating his sword against the side of a British cannon in furious frustration. During the battle, he had five horses killed under him, and at the end of the day, Ney led one of the last infantry charges, shouting to his men: "Come and see how a marshal of France meets his death!""venez voir comment meurt un maréchal de France!" . It was as though Ney was seeking death, but death did not want him, as many observers reported.
After the court-martial decided on 11 and 12 November that it did not have jurisdiction, Ney was tried on 16 November for treason by the Chamber of Peers. Key evidence in the trial was supplied by Ney's subordinate commanders Generals Bourmont, an arch royalist, and General Claude Lecourbe, a republican who had fallen out of favour during the empire and was now in service to the King. Bourmont testified that Ney had been a keen supporter of Napoleon and gave evidence such as the accusation that Ney was wearing an Imperial Eagle decoration minutes after his decision to switch sides, suggesting some element of planning. Ney responded with outrage:
No other witness corroborated Bourmont's claim that Ney had been wearing an Imperial eagle decoration. While Lecourbe had died, testimony he'd given to a magistrate was read at the trial, showing Lecourbe thought the royalist situation lost and that Napoleon's 14,000 men could not be practically resisted by the 5,000 men of dubious loyalty under Ney's command.
In order to save Ney's life, his lawyer André Dupin declared that Ney was now Prussian and could not be judged by a French court for treason, as Ney's hometown of Sarrelouis had been annexed by Prussia according to the Treaty of Paris of 1815. Ney ruined his lawyer's effort by interrupting him and stating: " Je suis Français et je resterai Français!" ("I am French and I will remain French!")."Je suis Français et je resterai Français!" On 4 December, when the Peers were called to give their verdict, 137 voted for the death penalty and 17 for deportation; five abstained. Only a single vote, that of the Duc de Broglie, was for acquittal. On 6 December 1815, he was condemned.
On 7 December 1815, Ney was executed by firing squad in Paris, near the Luxembourg Gardens. He refused to wear a blindfold, stating: "Are you unaware that I've spent twenty-five years staring down at cannonballs and bullets?". French Senate account of Ney's execution : « Ignorez-vous que depuis vingt-cinq ans, j’ai l’habitude de regarder en face les boulets et les balles. » He was allowed the right to give the order to fire, reportedly saying:
Ney's body is buried in Paris at the Père Lachaise Cemetery.
It is questionable if Ida Saint-Elme, 'Courtisane de la Grande Armée', was a lover of Michel Ney. Four Men and a Woman: Remarkable Dutch Experiences during the Russian Campaign of Napoleon in 1812 by: Mariska Pool and Mark van Hattem of the Royal Netherlands Army and Arms Museum
Records in Charleston, South Carolina indicate the arrival of one "Peter Stewart Ney" the year following Michel Ney's execution (Michel Ney's father was named Peter, and his mother's maiden name was Stewart). Peter Ney served as a school teacher in Rowan County until his death on 15 November 1846. According to legend, Peter Ney slashed his throat and almost died upon hearing of the death of Napoleon in 1821. His last words upon his death were reportedly "I am Ney of France", However, there was evidence contradicting this legend, the main being that the execution of Michel Ney is well documented and verified. And Marshal Ney, though fluent in German, is not known to have spoken English. One researcher claims evidence exists that Peter Stewart Ney was one Peter McNee, born in 1788 in Stirlingshire, Scotland.
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Trial and execution
When Napoleon was defeated, dethroned, and exiled for the second time in the summer of 1815, Ney was arrested on 3 August 1815. Marshal Moncey was ordered to assume the presidency of a court-martial convened to try Ney but the marshal declined and was for a time imprisoned for it. The King's government then appointed Marshal Jourdan as president and when it finally convened on 9 November 1815, the court-martial comprised the marshals Jourdan, Masséna, Augereau, and Mortier, and the generals Gazan de La Peyriere (instead of Maison who refused), Claparède and Villatte. After long deliberation, the court-martial voted 5–2 to declare itself "non-competent".Welschinger, Henri. Le Maréchal Ney: 1815. Paris: Librairie Plon, 1893.
Family
Ney married Aglaé Auguié (Paris, 24 March 1782 – Paris, 1 July 1854), daughter of Pierre César Auguié (1738–1815) and Adélaïde Henriette Genet (1758–1794, sister of Henriette Campan and Citizen Genêt), at Thiverval-Grignon on 5 August 1802.The paternal grandparents of Aglaé (Ney's wife) were Pierre César Auguié (1708–1776) and Marie Guary (1709–1788); her maternal grandparents were Edmé Jacques Genet (1726–1781) and Marie Anne Louise Cardon, who were the parents of Edmond-Charles Genêt and Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan (). they had four sons:
In literature and the arts
He was portrayed by John Hollingworth in the 2023 film Napoleon.
See also
Notes
(2025). 9782226196767, Albin Michel. ISBN 9782226196767
Further reading
Categories: 1769 Births, 1815 Deaths, People From Saarlouis, Dukes Of Elchingen, Princes De La Moskowa, French Army Personnel Who Were Court-martialed, French People Of German Descent, Members Of The Chamber Of Peers Of The Bourbon Restoration, Marshals Of The First French Empire, Commanders In The French Imperial Guard, Cavalry Commanders, Grand Cross Of The Legion Of Honour, Grand Crosses Of The Order Of Christ, Names Inscribed Under The Arc De Triomphe, People Of The Battle Of Waterloo, Executed French People, Executed Military Leaders, People Executed For Treason Against France, People Executed By The French Military By Firing Squad, Executed People From Saarland, Burials At Père Lachaise Cemetery, Military Personnel From Saarland, People Of The War Of The First Coalition
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