Philippe Higonet

Philippe Higonet (5 May 1782 – 12 February 1859) was a French general and politician. He was born on 5 May 1782 in Saint-Geniez-d'Olt (Aveyron) and died on 7 April 1862 in Aurillac (Cantal).

Life Youth Son of Joseph Higonet, master apothecary, and of Marie Massabuau, Philippe Higonet was born on Sunday 5 May 1782, in Saint-Geniez-d’Olt, Aveyron. He was born in a family of nine children and was the younger brother of the future Colonel Joseph Higonet. He left his father's laboratory at the age of 21 to join the military camp of Boulogne, where Napoleon was assembling his "Grande Armée". He then enlisted, on 20 April 1804, in the 4th Regiment of Line Infantry. He was immediately appointed corporal, then sergeant on 30 June 1804. Higonet stayed for a few months in Patras and he established there several health commissions for the freed but suffering Greek population, and even managed, in December 1828, to contain an outbreak of plague which was developing in the mountainous villages of Kalavryta and Vrachni. He finally left the Greek soil after four months of mission in the Peloponnese, on 9 January 1829, after having completely liberated Greece from the occupier. During this campaign, on 22 February 1829, he was promoted by king Charles X Commander of the Royal and Military Order of Saint-Louis and then, on his return to France, Commander of the Order of the Redeemer by the new independent Greek State, in 1830.

But following the July Revolution, he resigned from his deputy mandate on 12 August 1830, and chose exile from the inside. After the French Revolution of 1848, he came out of his retirement and tried to be re-elected for a mandate of representative of the people at the National Legislative Assembly of the Second Republic, but this time without success.

Last years After his resignation from his mandate as deputy on 12 August 1830, Philippe Higonet was placed on availability, retired to Aurillac and devoted himself, during eighteen years, to the administration of the domain of the Château de Veyrac, to which he made many improvements, and dealt exclusively with agriculture, becoming president of the Cantal Agriculture Society.

On 30 May 1848, he retired as a Maréchal de camp (Brigadier General).

He supported the candidacy of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte during the presidential election of December 1848, but refused to swear allegiance after his coup of 2 December 1851. He then spent the last years of his life at Aurillac. Because of the wounds he received in February 1807 during the battle of Eylau, which made him suffer cruelly, he died on 12 February 1859 in Aurillac, at the age of 77. He was buried in the town's Massigoux cemetery. On one side of the funerary stele, his name and his honorary distinctions are surrounded by a mandorla (oval almond) on which are inscribed the names of his main battles: Mariazell, Austerlitz, Eylau, Les Quatre Bras, San Sebastian, Pamplona, Navarino and the Castle of Morea.

Decorations, military ranks and representative positions

Deputy of the district of Cantal (1827-1830) Brigadier General (Général de brigade) of the French army. French decorations: 60px Commander of the Royal and Military Order of Saint-Louis (22 February 1829). 60px Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honour (14 May 1806).

Foreign decorations:

Annexes