Étienne Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre Macdonald, 1st duc de Tarente (French pronunciation: [etjɛn ʒak ʒozɛf alɛksɑ̃dʁ makdɔnald]; 17 November 1765 – 25 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.
Étienne Jacques Joseph Alexandre Macdonald was born in Sedan, Ardennes, France. His father was an exiled Jacobite Army veteran and war poet named Neil MacEachen MacDonald, who had been born into Clan MacDonald of Clanranald at Howbeg in South Uist, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Neil Macdonald briefly studied for the Catholic priesthood in Paris, where he had developed a fluency in the French language that later endeared him to Prince Charles Edward Stuart.
Similarly to his uncle, the fellow Gaelic poet and Jacobite officer Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, 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.
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. At the start of the French Revolution, the regiment of Dillon remained loyal to the King, except for Macdonald, who was in love with Mlle Jacob, whose father was an enthusiastic revolutionary. After his marriage on 5 May 1791, on 17 August 1792 he was promoted to captain, and on 29 August 1792 he was appointed aide-de-camp to General Charles François Dumouriez. He distinguished himself at the Battle of Jemappes, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 12 November 1792 and then colonel on 8 March 1793.
He refused to defect to the Austrians with Dumouriez and as a reward was made général de brigade on 26 August 1793 and appointed to command the leading brigade in Pichegru's invasion of the Netherlands; Macdonald fought at Courtrai and Tournay in 1794. His knowledge of the country proved useful, and he was instrumental in the capture of the Dutch fleet by French hussars in January 1795.
In 1797, having been made général de division back in November 1794, he now served first in the Army of the Rhine and later in the Army of Italy as of 24 April 1798. When he reached Italy in 1798, the Treaty of Campo Formio had been signed on 18 October 1797, and Bonaparte had returned to France; but, under the direction of Berthier, Macdonald occupied Rome in the 1798-1799 Roman Republic, of which he was made governor on 19 November 1798, and then in conjunction with Championnet he defeated General Mack at the Battle of Ferentino, the Battle of Otricoli, the 5 December 1798 Battle of Civita Castellana, and two military affairs, first at Calvi Risorta and then on 3 January 1799 at Capua, and then by 10 January 1799, he had resigned his Office due to disagreements with Championnet. However, despite any differences, the men managed to conquer the 1282-1799 Kingdom of Naples, which then became known as the Parthenopaean Republic.
Imperial Russian Army General Suvorov invaded northern Italy in March 1799 with an Austro-Russian army, and was undoing the conquests of Bonaparte and defeated Moreau at Cassano and San Giuliano. In response Macdonald moved northwards in command of the Armée de Naples. With 35,000 men, he attacked Suvorov's 22,000 men at the Trebbia. After three days' fighting, receiving no help from Moreau, he was utterly defeated and retreated to Genoa. Later, he was made governor of Versailles and acquiesced, even if he did not participate, in the events of the 18 Brumaire.
In 1800, he received command of the army in the Helvetic Republic, maintaining communications between the armies of Germany and of Italy. He carried out his orders diligently, and in the winter of 1800–01, he was ordered to march over the Splügen Pass at the head of the Army of the Grisons. This achievement is described by Mathieu Dumas, his chief of staff. It is sometimes considered as noteworthy as Bonaparte's passage of the St Bernard before the Battle of Marengo, although Macdonald did not fight a battle.
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. It was for the same reason that Napoleon did not give him a military command between 1803 and 1809.
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.
After the battle, having rushed to find him on the corpse-strewn battlefield, Napoleon told Macdonald, "You have behaved valiantly...On the battlefield of your glory, where I owe you so large a part of yesterday's success, I make you a Marshal of France. You have long deserved it." Additionally, Napoleon soon after ennobled him as duc de Tarente (Duke of Taranto) in the Kingdom of Naples.