Étienne Jacques Joseph Alexandre Macdonald

Étienne Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre Macdonald, 1st duc de Tarente (; 17 November 176525 September 1840), was a Marshal of the Empire and military leader during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars.

Born in Sedan, the son of an exiled Scottish Jacobite, Macdonald was serving in the Irish Brigade at the outbreak of the revolution. He embraced the revolutionary cause and rapidly rose through the ranks after distinguishing himself at the Battle of Jemappes, earning the rank of brigade general in 1793 and divisional general a year later. Macdonald commanded the French troops in Rome following the proclamation of the Roman Republic in 1798. In 1799, he took part in the conquest of the Kingdom of Naples, but later in the same year suffered a major defeat at the Trebbia by an Austro-Russian army under Alexander Suvorov. He supported Napoleon following the Coup of 18 Brumaire but fell out of favour due to his association with Jean Victor Marie Moreau and was forced into semi-retirement.

In 1809, Napoleon recalled Macdonald to active duty. He played a significant role in the French victory at the Battle of Wagram and was made a Marshal of France on the battlefield, and Duke of Taranto (duc de Tarente) soon after. He covered the French retreat following their decisive defeat at Leipzig and barely escaped with his life. Macdonald was made a peer of France after the Bourbon Restoration, and did not rejoin Napoleon during the Hundred Days. He was appointed chancellor of the Legion of Honour in 1815 and major general of the royal bodyguard a year later. He died in 1840 at the age of 74.

Often regarded as one of Napoleon's less capable marshals, Macdonald nevertheless had a first-ranking and successful career under the leadership of various French military commanders, including Dumouriez, Pichegru, and Napoleon.

Family background Étienne Jacques Joseph Alexandre Macdonald Neil Macdonald was a close relative of the far more famous Flora MacDonald, who aided the escape of Prince Charles Edward Stuart to France after the defeat of the 1745 Rising at the Battle of Culloden.

In a Gaelic poem composed, however, after his release from the Tower of London, Niall mac Eachainn mhic Sheumais, who had also risked his own life to protect the hunted Prince, harshly criticized his cousin Flora MacDonald. Flora, he alleged, had carefree steps and accordingly sought to curry favor with both the Stuarts and Hanoverians at the same time, instead of making a choice and sticking with it. In contrast, Neil not only vowed his own forever loyalty to the Prince, but followed him into exile in France, where he married into the nobility. In the late 1820s, a partial manuscript of Mac Echainn's, "fluent charming, and undoubtedly genuine narrative of the prince's sojourn in the Hebrides", during the rising's aftermath resurfaced in the hands of a Paris barber who claimed to be his illegitimate son. Marshal MacDonald, who had just visited South Uist seeking to research his genealogy in 1825, had been unaware of the manuscripts existence.

Military life In 1784, Macdonald joined the Irish Legion, raised to support the revolutionary party in the Dutch Republic against the Kingdom of Prussia and was made lieutenant on 1 April 1785. After it was disbanded, he received a commission in Dillon's Regiment, Irish Brigade of the French Royal Army. Later, he was made governor of Versailles and acquiesced, even if he did not participate, in the events of the 18 Brumaire.

On his return to Paris, Macdonald married the widow of General Joubert, and was appointed French ambassador to Denmark. Returning in 1805, he was associated with Moreau and thus incurred the dislike of Napoleon, who did not include him in his first creation of marshals.

Under Napoleon Serving throughout the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Macdonald led major formations in the 1809 campaign against Austria, in Spain (1810–1811), Russia (1812), Germany (1813), and in France (1814).

He remained without employment until 1809, but then Napoleon made him military adviser to Prince Eugène de Beauharnais, viceroy of the Kingdom of Italy and the commander of the Army of Italy. After meeting an unexpected defeat at Aspern-Essling, Napoleon summoned Eugène's army north to join him, with Macdonald in tow. On the second day of Wagram, amid great pressure along the entire front, Napoleon ordered Macdonald to launch a desperate counterattack on the enemy centre. Macdonald promptly organised a gigantic three-sided open-backed infantry square, covered by Nansouty's cavalry, and hurled it against the Austrian lines. Despite sustaining terrible casualties from the Austrian artillery, this bold attack broke the Austrian centre and won the day.

From 1830, he lived in retirement at his country home, the Chateau de Courcelles-le-Roy in Beaulieu-sur-Loire commune, Loiret, where he died on 25 September 1840, aged 74.

Personal life In 1791, he married Marie-Constance Soral de Montloisir (died 1797) and had 2 daughters: Anne-Charlotte Macdonald (1792–1870) Adele-Elisabeth Macdonald (1794–1822)

In 1802, he married Felicité-Françoise de Montholon (1780–1804), the widow of General Joubert, and had a daughter: Alexandrine-Aimee Macdonald (1803–1869)

In 1821, he married Ernestine-Therese de Bourgoing (1789–1825) and had a son: Louis-Marie Macdonald, 2nd duc de Tarente (1824–1881)

Scottish legacy On 30 April 2010, a plaque was unveiled to the memory of Marshal of France Jacques Macdonald on the Outer Hebridean island of South Uist, the familial home of Macdonald. Macdonald had visited South Uist in 1825 in order to find out more about his family roots.

Assessment Macdonald was assessed in the Encyclopædia Britannica of 1911, which argued:Macdonald had none of that military genius that distinguished Davout, Masséna and Lannes, nor of that military science conspicuous in Marmont and St Cyr, but nevertheless his campaign in Switzerland gives him a rank far superior to such mere generals of division as Oudinot and Dupont. This capacity for independent command made Napoleon, in spite of his defeats at the Trebia and the Battle of Katzbach, trust him with large commands till the end of his career. As a man, his character cannot be spoken of too highly; no stain of cruelty or faithlessness rests on him. Richard Dunn-Pattison praised Macdonald for his "keen military insight" while A. G. MacDonell called his career a string of defeats. John M. Keefe blamed his defeat at Katzbach on a general lack of staff officers in French armies not commanded by Napoleon, arguing that Macdonald had fought successfully in the rest of his career.