Louis Marie de Lescure

Louis de Salgues, Marquis de Lescure (* October 13, 1766 in Versailles, † November 4, 1793 in La cape, Mayenne ) was one of the leaders and generals of the revolt in the Vendée during the period of the French Revolution.

Biography

Youth

Louis de Salgues de Lescure was born into an impoverished noble family which originally came from the Albi, but later in northern Poitou at Castle Clisson in Boismé at Parthenay was located on the border of Vendée. From the age of 16, he attended the military school ( école militaire ), where he stood out from the other aristocratic classmates by his sincerity and piety. In the last years before the outbreak of the Revolution he was a cavalry officer. He married Marie -Louise Victoire de Donnissan Castle Citran in the Médoc. Fearing the worst for the nobility and clergy, he emigrated in 1791 for a few months abroad, but returned in the spring of 1792 returned to Paris, where he studied under the -. Ultimately unsuccessful - defense of Louis XVI in Tuilerienschloss (10 August 1792) was present against the Parisian mob. He then returned to his tenure at Parthenay, where he consulted with his younger cousin Henri de La Rochejaquelein on how to proceed.

Vendée Uprising

The conservative, that is, religious- royalist set and mostly peasant population of Poitou and the Vendée disapproved of most of the actions of the revolutionaries against the order of the Ancien Régime. The announcement of a levy of troops from 300,000 men broke the camel 's back and a popular uprising broke out. However, this lacked leaders, the farmers looked for among the local nobility, of which they knew or assumed that they are similarly opposed the revolution as themselves Thus, the emissaries of the surrounding villages turned to the landlord ( seigneurs ) of the area; in the case of Louis de Parthenay this Salgues de Lescure, in which just his cousin Henri was visiting was. Without hesitation they both took them being transferred leadership to, but M. de Lescure was denounced and sent by republic loyal authorities to jail from Parthenay, from which he was, however, soon freed by the peasants - a circumstance that the ties between the farmers and their leaders still had to be close. Shortly thereafter began the hostilities at Thouars and Fontenay ( 25-26. May 1793 ), in which the armies of the rebels initially resulting in victory. When the failed siege of Nantes (29 June 1793), the tide turned and the never particularly closed crowd of peasants splintered into individual squads on the plundering and demolished durchzuschleppen tried their home, where they, however, of the now reinforced Republican troops were attacked. There seemed to be no other option than the more fighting possible, but the defeats piled up.

Death

On October 15, 1793 Louis de Salgues de Lescure was severely wounded at the battle of La Tremblaye at Cholet on the head, so that he had to be carried on a stretcher. His wife, their parents and the only one-year daughter attended him what was customary at that time; but that she stayed with him, probably also to the destruction of their native possessions ( Clisson Castle ) was due by soldiers of the Republic. Shortly after the lost battle continued all the Vendée Army with an entourage of homeless, ragged and hungry women, children and old men - a total of about 25,000 people - at Saumur on the Loire in north direction over - an event that, as Virée de is Galerne become known. This change of direction had three main reasons: First, stationed in the area were less Republican troops; Secondly, one hoped to preserve their own home and the families of war damage and thirdly, there was the possibility here to unite with the expected English army parts, but never arrived. So you moved on through the land, occupied a place for one or two days and then had to move on. All these hardships were for the severely wounded Lescure too much: Initially in his right mind, he fell into disrepair in an agony and died on November 4, 1793 at La cape near the border with Brittany. His father left the body at an unknown location to bury in order to preserve it from the desecration of the Republicans. All these events were subsequently written down by his wife, for the hardships with her ​​husband's death were not far from over, and published in the first Restoration (1814 ).