Adolphe Marbot

Antoine Adolphe Marcelin Marbot ( , ; 22 March 1781 – 2 June 1844), known as Adolphe Marbot, was a French general. He belongs to a family that has distinguished itself particularly in the career of arms, giving three generals to France in less than 50 years. His younger brother, Marcellin Marbot, was also a general.

Biography Early life Antoine Adolphe Marcelin Marbot was born into a family of military nobility in Altillac, in the ancient province of Quercy in southwestern France. He was the elder son of General Jean-Antoine Marbot, who had served as aide-de-camp to Lieutenant-Général de Schomberg, inspector general of the cavalry in the military household of the king of France.

After completing his studies at the Military College of Sorèze, he joined the army at the age of seventeen, enlisting in the 21st Cavalry Regiment. He was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant on 5 October 1799, and became aide-de-camp to General Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, commander-in-chief of the Army of the West (and future King Charles XIV John of Sweden), with the rank of lieutenant.

Consulate In 1802, he was arrested on suspicion of participating in a Republican plot against the Consulate. General Bernadotte was suspected of being at the head of this plot and his aide-de-camp, the young Lieutenant Marbot, was interrogated at the Temple Prison in Paris, with the aim of obtaining a confession from him which he would not provide. He was released after 3 months in detention, although First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte continued to regard him as an opponent of the established regime.

Napoleonic wars In 1806, he became aide-de-camp to Marshal Charles-Pierre Augereau and took part in the Prussian and Polish campaign, distinguishing himself particularly at the Battle of Jena, where he was wounded, and at the Battle of Eylau, where his horse was killed under him. Marshal Augereau, having been forced to take leave from the army as a result of his wounds, obtained that his aide-de-camp would join Marshal André Masséna, under whose orders Marbot served until the Treaties of Tilsit. Through his mother, he was the cousin of François Certain de Canrobert, Marshal of France during the Second French Empire.

Royal Order of the Legion of Honour: