- Louis Jules Trochu
Infobox President | name=Louis Jules Trochu
order=Interim French Head of State
32ndPrime Minister of France
nationality=French
term_start=4 September 1870
term_end=22 January 1871
predecessor=Emperor Napoleon III (Head of State)
Charles Cousin-Montauban (Prime Minister)
successor=Adolphe Thiers (President of France)Jules Dufaure (Chief of Government)
birth_date=birth date|1815|3|12|mf=y
birth_place=Palais ,France
death_date=death date and age|1896|10|7|1815|3|12|mf=y
death_place=Tours ,France
spouse=
party=
vicepresident=Louis Jules Trochu (12 March 1815 - 7 October 1896) was a French military leader and politician. He served as President of the
Government of National Defense - being France's "de facto "head of state - from 4 September 1870 until his resignation on 22 January 1871 (although he retained the role symbolically until the legislative elections of February 1871).Military career
He was born at Palais (
Belle-Île-en-Mer ). Educated at St. Cyr, he received a commission in the Staff Corps in 1837, and was promoted to lieutenant in 1840, and captain in 1843. He served as a captain inAlgeria under Marshal Bugeaud, who, in recognition of his gallantry in the battles of Sidi Yussuf and Isly, made him his "aide-de-camp " and entrusted him with important commissions. He was promoted to major in 1845, and to colonel in 1853. He served with distinction throughout the Crimean campaign, first as "aide-de-camp" to Marshal St. Arnaud, and then as general of brigade, and was made a commander of theLégion d'honneur and general of division. He again distinguished himself in command of a division in the Italian campaign of 1859, where he won the Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur.In 1866 he was employed at the ministry of war in the preparation of army reorganization schemes, and he published anonymously in the following year "L'Armée française en 1867", a work inspired with
Orleanist sentiment, which ran through ten editions in a few months and reached a twentieth in 1870. This brochure brought him into bad odour at court, and he left the war office on half-pay and was refused a command in the field at the outbreak of theFranco-Prussian War . After the earlier disasters in 1870, he was appointed by the emperor first commandant of the troops of Châlons camp, and soon afterwards (17 August) governor of Paris and commander-in-chief of all the forces destined for the defence of the capital, including some 120,000 regular troops, 80,000 mobiles, and 330,000 National Guards.He worked energetically to put Paris in a state of defence and throughout the
Siege of Paris showed himself a master of the passive defensive. At the revolution of 4 September he became president of the Government of National Defence, in addition to his other offices. His "plan" for defending the city raised expectations doomed to disappointment; the successive sorties made under pressure ofpublic opinion were unsuccessful, and having declared in one of his proclamations that the governor of Paris would never capitulate, when capitulation became inevitable he resigned the governorship of Paris on 22 January 1871 to GeneralJoseph Vinoy , retaining the presidency of the government until after thearmistice in February.He was elected to the National Assembly by eight
Département s, and sat forMorbihan . In October he was elected president of the council general for Morbihan. In July 1872 he retired from political life and in 1873 from the army. He published in 1873 "Pour la vérité et pour la justice", in justification of the government of national defence, and in 1879 "L'Armée française en 1879, par un officier en retraite", a sort of supplement to his former work of 1867.He died at Tours.
Decorations
*
Légion d'honneur
**Knight (2 January 1844)
**Officer (9 August 1854)
**Commander (22 September 1855)
**Grand Officer (12 August 1861)
*Médaille Commémorative d'Italie (1859)
*Médaille Coloniale with agrafe "Algérie"
*Knight of the Order of Leopold (Belgium)
*Grand Officer of theOrder of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (Sardinia)
*Companion of theOrder of the Bath (UK)References
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