Marie Edme Patrice Maurice de MacMahon, marquis de MacMahon, duc de Magenta (French: [patʁis də makma.ɔ̃]; 13 June 1808 – 17 October 1893), was a French general and politician who served as President of France from 1873 to 1879. He was elevated to the dignity of Marshal of France by Napoleon III.
MacMahon led the main French army in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. He was trapped and wounded at the Battle of Sedan in September 1870, in part because of his confused and indecisive strategic planning. The army, including MacMahon and Emperor Napoleon III, surrendered to the Germans. Thus the Emperor was deposed and the French Third Republic was proclaimed. After convalescing, MacMahon was appointed head of the Versailles army, which suppressed the Paris Commune revolt in May 1871 and set the stage for his political career.
According to David Bell, after Adolphe Thiers' resignation in May 1873, the royalist majority in the National Assembly drafted MacMahon as the new leader, with the hope that he would hold the fort until the Bourbon pretender was ready to restore the throne. However, the Count of Chambord's extreme Legitimist stance made restoration politically impossible. MacMahon refused to support efforts to force the Assembly's hand. In the absence of his full support there was no way to achieve monarchy by extra-parliamentary means. The right had no choice but to keep MacMahon in office to gain time and act as a barrier to the left by repressing radical agitation and pursuing policies to restore "moral order" to the country. In November 1873, he was voted a term of office of seven years.
In 1874, due to demands for Bonapartism, MacMahon called for constitutional reform. To ensure calm this led to a system of a President and Senate elected indirectly. In 1876, MacMahon had to accept the governments of moderate Republicans Jules Armand Dufaure and Jules Simon. However, in 1877, MacMahon dismissed Simon and recalled the Duke de Broglie. The new government was dissolved on a no confidence vote. Conservatives hoped to exploit their influential press, heavy patronage, and martial law to coerce the voters. They failed in the general election of October 1877, as the Republicans won the majority despite the challenges on the right. In January 1879, the Republicans forced MacMahon's resignation.
MacMahon was a devout conservative Catholic, and a traditionalist who despised anarchism, communism, socialism and liberalism and strongly distrusted the mostly secular Republicans. He kept to his duty as the neutral guardian of the Constitution and rejected suggestions of a monarchist coup d'état, but refused to meet with Gambetta, the leader of the Republicans. He moved for a parliamentary system in which the assembly selected the ruling government of the Third Republic, but he also insisted on an upper chamber. He later dissolved the Chamber of Deputies, resulting in public outrage and a Republican electoral victory. Soon after MacMahon resigned and retired to private life.
The MacMahon family is of Irish origin. They were Lords of Corcu Baiscind in Ireland and descended from Mahon, the son of Muirchertach Ua Briain, High King of Ireland. After losing much of their land in the Cromwellian confiscations of 1652, a branch moved to Limerick for a time. They supported the deposed King James II in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and settled in France during the subsequent reign of King William III. They applied for French citizenship in 1749; after the definitive installation of the family in France, their nobility was recognised by the patent letter of King Louis XV.
A military family (14 members of the house of de Mac Mahon were in the Army), they settled in Autun, Burgundy, at the Chateau de Sully, in the département of Saône-et-Loire, where Patrice de MacMahon was born on 13 June 1808, sixteenth and the second-youngest son of Baron Maurice-François de Mac Mahon (1754–1831), Baron of Sully, Count de MacMahon and de Charnay, and Pélagie de Riquet de Caraman (1769–1819), a descendant of Pierre-Paul Riquet.
His grandfather Jean-Baptiste de MacMahon, was named Marquis de MacMahon and 1st Marquis d'Éguilly (from his wife Charlotte Le Belin, Dame d'Éguilly) by King Louis XV, and the family in France had decidedly royalist politics.
Early career and service in Algeria
In 1820, MacMahon entered the Petit Séminaire des Marbres at Autun; then completed his education at Lycée Louis-le-Grand at Paris. He then entered the Special Military School at Saint-Cyr on 23 October 1825. He then joined the application school at the General Staff Headquarters on 1 October 1827, for a period of two years.
Following his graduation from Saint-Cyr, MacMahon entered the French Army in 1827. He was assigned to the 4th Hussars Regiment in 1830. MacMahon subsequently participated in the French conquest of Algeria as a sous-lieutenant in the 20th Line Infantry Regiment. He was commended for his capacity and bravery during the seizure of Algiers. On 24 November 1830, MacMahon further distinguished himself while serving with his regiment, during the Medea expedition, during the battle of Mouzaïa mountain. He was awarded the Knight Order of the Legion d'honneur.
Recalled to France, MacMahon participated in 1832 to the Ten Days' Campaign where he was noticed again during the Siege of Antwerp.
He was promoted captain in 1833, and returned to Algeria, this time, in 1836 where he was placed under the orders of General Bertrand Clausel, and then General Charles-Marie Denys de Damrémont. He led several audacious cavalry raids across tribal occupied plains and distinguished himself during the Siege of Constantine, in 1837, where he was slightly wounded. In 1840, he left Algeria and upon his return to France, he learned that he had been promoted to chef d'escadron (cavalry squadron chief).
Returned again to Algeria at the head of the 10th Chasseur Battalion à Pied, distinguished himself, in April, at the Battle of Bab el-Thaza and against the troops of Emir Abdelkader, on 25 May.
On 31 December 1842, he was promoted lieutenant-colonel in the 2nd Regiment of the French Foreign Legion 2ème R.E.L.E. In 1843, he assumed the functions of regimental commander, when the incumbent was taken ill, and retained the command until 1845.
MacMahon distinguished himself again during the battle of Chaab el-Gitta and the battle of Aïn Kebira on 14 October and 17 October 1844.
Promoted colonel in December 1845, he was assigned command of the 41st Line Infantry Regiment, garrisoned at Marnia.
Since 1848, MacMahon was appointed head of the subdivision of Tlemcen, where he was promoted général de brigade on 12 June that same year.