Édouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier

Édouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier, Duke of Treviso ( , ; 13 February 176828 July 1835), was a French military commander and Marshal of the Empire under Napoleon I, who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He served as Minister of War and Prime Minister of France from 1834 to 1835. He was one of 18 people killed in 1835 during Giuseppe Marco Fieschi's assassination attempt on King Louis Philippe I.

Early life Mortier was born at Le Cateau (now Le Cateau-Cambrésis), northern France, on 13 February 1768.

French Revolutionary Wars Upon the outbreak of the War of the First Coalition in 1792, Mortier was assigned to the Army of the North. which he completed successfully and then returned to Paris.

During the War of the Second Coalition in 1799, Mortier was promoted to brigade general and served under General Soult at the Second Battle of Zurich in September 1799, He was made a general of division in October and recalled to Paris in early 1800. In 1805, Mortier was made commander of the infantry of the Imperial Guard.

When the War of the Fourth Coalition broke out in 1806, Napoleon ordered Mortier to assume command of the reformed VIII Corps on 1 October. He was to coordinate his operations with Louis Bonaparte's Franco-Dutch troops. On 16 October, two days after his crushing victory over Prussia at Jena-Auerstedt, Napoleon ordered Mortier and Louis to conquer the Electorate of Hesse. Mortier was to occupy Fulda and then the capital city of Kassel, rule as military governor, and imprison the Elector of Hesse, William I. Every Hessian officer above the rank of lieutenant would be arrested and Napoleon stated his intention to "wipe the house of Hesse-Kassel from the map". Mortier knew this constituted a violation of Hessian neutrality and boasted on 17 October that its very neutrality made it easy to conquer. On 1 November, the French occupied and looted Kassel, discovering that William had fled. Mortier issued a proclamation in which he claimed to have come to avenge Prussian violation of Hessian neutrality but also accused them of being Prussian allies.

Mortier left a division to hold Hesse-Kassel while the rest of his corps was directed to mopping-up operations in Prussia. Hamelin capitulated on 22 November, along with a garrison of 10,000 Prussian troops. Nienburg fell on 29 November, with 2,911 Prussian soldiers marching into captivity. In 1807, he led the left wing of Napoleon's army at Battle of Friedland, and served at the sieges of Stralsund and Kolberg. In 1808, Napoleon rewarded Mortier for his actions at Friedland with the title of "Duke of Treviso" (Duc de Trévise in French), a duché grand-fief (a rare, but nominal, hereditary honor, extinguished in 1946) in his own Kingdom of Italy. He was quickly captured and later tried with two co-conspirators. The three went to the guillotine in February 1836.

Family Mortier married Eve Anne Hymmès (Coblence, 19 August 1779Paris, 13 February 1855), by whom he had six children: Caroline Mortier de Trevise (1800–1842): married to Marie-Hippolyte de Gueulluy, 2nd Marquess of Rumigny. Marie-Louise de Gueulluy de Rumigny x Ludovic-Marie, Count d'Ursel,(1809–1886) Hippolyte, count d'Ursel (1850–1937) Sophie Malvina Joséphine Mortier de Trévise (b. 1803) Napoléon Mortier de Trévise (1804–1869), 2nd Duke of Trévise Edouard (1806–1815) Louise (1811–1831) Eve-Stéphanie Mortier de Trévise (1814–1831), countess Gudin