General Amédée Louis de Cubières (4 March 1786,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

– 6 August 1853,

), known as Despans-Cubières, was a French general and politician.

Life

Youth

He was the illegitimate son of marquis Louis Pierre de Cubières (page to

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached ...

and squire to

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

then, in 1815, of

Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. He spent twenty-three years in ...

) by Madame Guesnon de Bonneuil (née Michelle Sentuary). As a child he played the role of Love at a festival given at the Hermitage at

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...

by his father and mother in honour of

Marie-Antoinette Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child ...

. Aged 6, Amédée Despans-Cubières was briefly imprisoned with his family in the prison des Récollets of

after the day of 10 August 1792, before he was made one of the " enfants de la liberté" raised by the state at the former abbey of Saint-Martin, before being welcomed into the Jordan family. In 1803, at the request of his mother Madame de Bonneuil, he was adopted by his father and took his name.

First Empire

Placed in the prytanée at Saint-Cyr, he entered the army as a private in the 1st Cuirassier Regiment in 1803 and entering the military school at Fontainebleau on 23 October 1804, leaving it as a

sous-lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until 19 ...

in the 15th Regiment of the Line. He served in that regiment in the

Austerlitz Austerlitz may refer to: History * Battle of Austerlitz, an 1805 victory by the French Grand Army of Napoleon Bonaparte Places * Austerlitz, German name for Slavkov u Brna in the Czech Republic, which gave its name to the Battle of Austerlitz a ...

, Prussian and Polish campaigns, being mentioned in despatches at Austerlitz and wounded at

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

(1806). Promoted to lieutenant on 30 November 1806 he received the cross of the

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

at Eylau (1807). Aide-de-camp to general Morand (from 12 January 1808), he followed him in the Austrian campaign of 1809, the French invasion of Russia in 1812 and the 1813 German campaign. He fought with distinction at Eckmühl and rose to captain at

Essling Essling
Essling entry in the Viennese government's history wiki (German) () is part of

(7 June 1809). He assisted at the

battle of Wagram The Battle of Wagram (; 5–6 July 1809) was a military engagement of the Napoleonic Wars that ended in a costly but decisive victory for Emperor Napoleon's French and allied army against the Austrian army under the command of Archduke Charles ...

(6 July 1809) and had three horses shot from under him at the battle of Borodino. Napoleon I of France made him an officer of the Légion d’honneur in reward for his good conduct in the 1813 campaign, in which he had become

chef de bataillon Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

(promoted 3 October 1813). On 19 November 1813, he was made

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...

of the 18th Light Infantry Regiment. Also in 1813 he married the novelist Aglaé Buffaut, daughter of his own half-sister Marie-Michelle Guesnon de Bonneuil, at first vicomtesse du Bouzet de Marin then Madame Philippe Buffaut. Colonel Cubieres unhorsed

On Napoleon's return from Elba in 1815, colonel de Cubières was made colonel ''à la suite'' to the 1st Light Infantry Regiment, of which the titular colonel was

Beurnonville Pierre de Ruel, marquis de Beurnonville (10 May 1752 – 23 April 1821) was a French general during the French Revolutionary Wars and later a marshal of France and Deputy Grand Master of Grand Orient de France.Dictionnaire de la Franc-maçonnerie ...

. According to Jolyet, Napoleon reviewed this regiment on the day after his arrival back in Paris on 21 March and asked who was its commander. Cubières replied "Sir, it is colonel de Beurnonville ; but he is ill." Napoleon replied "Beurnonville is not sick - it is you, colonel Cubières, who shall nevertheless take command of the 1st Light Infantry". Cubières wished to decline, but Napoleon did not give him time to do so. Although devoted to Napoleon, Cubières demanded his soldiers should come out against the Acte additionnel aux constitutions de l’Empire, to mark the need for a liberal and reforming government. The 1st Light Infantry was thus the only regiment to vote against it. In 1815, Despans-Cubières fought with his regiment at Waterloo and was wounded at Quatre-Bras and at Mont-Saint-Jean.

Bourbon Restoration

According to Jolyet, Cubières was "the most valiant soldier and the best man-of-war that I have known. With this e broughta remarkable beauty, a brilliant spirit, nda generous and independent love". One of the army's staff writing reports for the army dismissals after the Hundred Days stated that he had "an agreeable physique, asvery instructive, an excellent colonel, hoserved with zeal and loyalty, excellent conduct" and decided that he was to be kept on in the Bourbon army. Despite that praise he lost his commission after the Hundred Days, but his father's influence at court allowed him to obtain the general receipt of the

Meuse The Meuse ( , , , ; wa, Moûze ) or Maas ( , ; li, Maos or ) is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a t ...

département and the cross of the Order of Saint Louis (1820). He returned to the army for the Spanish Expedition of 1823, and was put at the head of the 27th Regiment of Line Infantry. He also went on the

Morea expedition The Morea expedition (french: link=no, Expédition de Morée) is the name given to the land intervention of the French Army in the PeloponneseMorea is the name of the Peloponnese region in Greece, which was mainly used from the medieval per ...

with his regiment and received the brevet of maréchal de camp (27 February 1829).

July Monarchy

Promoted to commander of the Légion d’honneur (21 March 1831), he was made commander-in-chief of the French troops landed at

Ancona Ancona (, also , ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region in central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region. The city is located northeast of Rome, on the Adriatic ...

in the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...

(9 February 1832) to occupy the town in reprisal for Austrian intervention at

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

. Returning to France in 1837 with the rank of lieutenant-general, he next became Minister for War in the 1839 transitional government (31 March-13 May 1839) then in Adolphe Thiers's second cabinet (1 March-29 October 1840). He attached his name to Paris's fortifications, to the decision to write a history of all France's regiments since Francis I and to the organisation of the

chasseur ''Chasseur'' ( , ), a French term for "hunter", is the designation given to certain regiments of French and Belgian light infantry () or light cavalry () to denote troops trained for rapid action. History This branch of the French Army orig ...

s of

Vincennes Vincennes (, ) is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. It is next to but does not include the Château de Vincennes and Bois de Vincennes, which are attache ...

. Made a peer of France on 7 November 1839, he took part in the discussions of the Chambre des pairs on taxes and roads before being raised to grand officer of the Légion d’honneur on 27 April 1840.

The Teste-Cubières scandal

After leaving the army, general Despans-Cubières was compromised in the Teste-Cubières affair, one of the worst scandals of the

July Monarchy The July Monarchy (french: Monarchie de Juillet), officially the Kingdom of France (french: Royaume de France), was a liberal constitutional monarchy in France under , starting on 26 July 1830, with the July Revolution of 1830, and ending 23 F ...

. Despans-Cubières had bought 159000 shares (7% of the capital) in a business which, under the "concession de Gouhenans", had won authorisation to exploit the coal deposits in

Gouhenans Gouhenans is a commune in the Haute-Saône department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. Coal mines were operated in the village between 1828 and 1916.Pierre Semonin, ''Le gîte houiller de Villafans'', 1993 XIXe - Pui ...

and the surrounding area. In searching for coal seams, the business had discovered a seam of

rock salt Halite (), commonly known as rock salt, is a type of salt, the mineral (natural) form of sodium chloride ( Na Cl). Halite forms isometric crystals. The mineral is typically colorless or white, but may also be light blue, dark blue, purple, pi ...

and it demanded that it be given the concession to mine this, but was refused. Despite this, the business started extracting and selling the salt. One of its associates, Parmentier, was imprisoned and fined 500 francs and the salt mine was closed on 5 February 1835. On 24 April 1841, the business again demanded the salt concession. General Despans-Cubières proposed to buy the authorisation demanded from the minister for public works,

Jean-Baptiste Teste Jean-Baptiste Teste (20 October 1780, in Bagnols-sur-Cèze, Gard – 20 April 1852, in Chaillot, now in Paris) was a French politician of the July Monarchy. He fell from grace in the Teste- Cubières scandal. Life Early life The son of Antoine ...

, and in an 1842 letter to his associates indicated "There is no hesitation on the means by which we should create a supporter within the council f ministers I have the means of arriving at this supporter, and it is up to you to provide the means of interesting him ..Do not forget that the government is in the hands of greedy and corrupt men." Teste accepted a bribe of 94,000 francs from the company. In the meantime, the 1844 novel '' The Count of Monte Cristo'' was published - according to Librairie Générale Française (1995), its character of Fernand Mondego was inspired by general Despans-Cubières. The affair came to light in May 1847 during the trial of the associates of the mining company before the Seine civil tribunal. The company director, Parmentier, submitted in his defence several pieces of correspondence from general Despans-Cubières evoking bribery. The affair received massive publicity and the scandal echoed throughout government. The king decided to move the case to be tried before the Chambre des pairs.''Procès du général Despans-Cubières, lieutenant-general, pair de France, ancien ministre de la guerre, devant la cour des pairs'', Paris, Pagnerre, 1847 On 8 July 1847, Teste, Despans-Cubières, Parmentier and a certain Pellapra (former receiver-general who had served as intermediary) were brought before the high court on corruption charges and on 17 July general Despans-Cubières was condemned to civic degradation and a fine of 10,000 francs. Even so, on 17 August 1852 he won a decree of rehabilitation at the Court of Appeal at Rouen. Allowed to retire as a

général de division Divisional general is a general officer rank who commands an army division. The rank originates from the French (Revolutionary) System, and is used by a number of countries. The rank is above a brigade general, and normally below an army corps ...

on 1 January 1853, he died a few months later.

Notes

Sources

* Adolphe Robert and Gaston Cougny, ''Dictionnaire des Parlementaires français'', Paris, Dourloton, 1889

External links

Biography on www.1789-1815.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Despans 1786 births 1853 deaths Politicians from Paris French Ministers of War Members of the Chamber of Peers of the July Monarchy French generals French military personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Grand Crosses of the Order of Saint Louis French people of the Greek War of Independence