Historical Dictionary of the Napoleonic Era

by George F Nafziger

  On 12 April 1801 Pérignon was made a senator, served as commissioner extraordinary for the resolution of border issues with Spain on 11 September 1802, was vice president of the Senate on 27 October, and made maréchal d’Empire on 19 May 1804. On 6 September 1811 he was elevated to the dignity of comte d’Empire. Pérignon did not serve on active duty during the Empire and did not rally to Napoleon during the Hundred Days. He was made a peer of France on 4 June 1814 and served in various military functions until his death. Pérignon was given the baton of a maréchal de France by Louis XVIII on 14 July 1816. On 31 August 1817 he was elevated to the dignity of marquis. Pérignon died in Paris on 25 December 1818.

  PETROVI, GEORGE, “KARAGEORGE” (1787–1817). Born in 1768 George Petrovi, himself only a peasant, led the Serbs in the 1804 insurrection against the Ottomans. He was given or assumed the name “Karageorge” or Black George. He showed great military skill and leadership, which allowed him to take Belgrade in 1806. During the aftermath of the capture, however, he allowed the massacre of the Ottoman population of Belgrade to occur. In 1808 he was proclaimed the hereditary chief of the Serbs. During the 1809–11 Russo-Turkish War he fought with Russia against the Ottoman Empire, but when Russia was threatened by Napoleon’s invasion, the Russians signed a peace treaty with the Ottomans and abandoned him. Karageorge fled to Austria only to attempt to return to Serbia when it appeared safe in 1817. However, on his return he was murdered, probably at the instigation of Milo Obrenovi. Although an illiterate peasant, Karageorge showed great military ability. The dynasty descended from him is known as “Karadjordjevi.”

  PICHEGRU, JEAN CHARLES (1761–1804). Pichegru was born on 26 February 1761 in Arbois, France. He was the son of a farmer. Pichegru studied mathematics at the college of Brienne and joined the Metz Artillery Regiment on 30 June 1780. He served in the American War of Independence and on 15 June 1792 was elected to the rank of premier lieutenant adjudant-major. Pichegru presided over a Jacobin club in Besançon and was quickly elevated to the rank of lieutenant colonel commanding the 3rd Battalion of the Guard in October 1792. Promotions came quickly, with his rising to général de brigade on 22 August 1793 and général de division the following day.

  On 2 October 1793 Pichegru became the provisional commander of the Army of the Rhine and full commander of it on 27 October. He engaged in numerous operations along the Rhine, but on 6 January 1794 replaced Jourdan as commander of the Army of the North and of the Ardennes. Pichegru defeated Clerfayt at Cassel, Menin, and Courtrai, while his second in command, Moreau, defeated Coburg at Tourcoing in May 1794. Pichegru was victorious at Hooglede, carried Ypres and Antwerp and defeated the British under York at Boxtel. He also conquered all of Holland and captured the Dutch fleet at Texel.

  On 31 March 1795 Pichegru was sent to command the Army of the Rhine in place of Michaud. When the Army of the Rhine and Moselle was newly recreated he took command of it on 20 April. Pichegru captured Mannheim, but by 14 March he left the army and was elected to the Council of Five Hundred on 12 April 1797. Pichegru would rise to the post of president of the council. He was a royalist leader and planned a coup d’état, but on 18 fructidor he was proscribed and arrested on 4 September 1797 and deported to Cayenne, Guiana. Pichegru escaped in June 1798 and reached Surinam, taking refuge in London. He served on Korsakov’s staff in the 1799 campaign in Holland, fighting against the Republican French armies.

  Pichegru took part in the Cadoudal-Pichegru Conspiracy and secretly went to Paris. Pichegru was taken by the police on 28 February 1804 after being revealed by one of his former officers, Le Blanc, with whom he had sought refuge. He was imprisoned in the Temple and found strangled to death on 4 April 1804.

  PICTON, SIR THOMAS (1758–1815). Picton was born in Poyston, Pembrokeshire, Wales. He joined the army in 1773 as an ensign. When the 75th Regiment of Foot mutinied in 1783, Picton quelled it by his prompt personal action. After that he retired to his father’s estate for nearly 12 years, but in 1794 went with the British army to the West Indies. He took part in the capture of St. Lucia and was promoted to lieutenant colonel for his part in the battle.

  When Trinidad was taken, Abercromby made Picton governor of the island, where his administration was highly successful. In 1801 Picton was gazetted brigadier general. He was not without enemies and they demanded his removal for permitting the torture of individuals, allowed under Spanish law, while he had been administrator. Picton was replaced by Colonel William Fullarton. Picton resigned his post and returned to England in December 1803, only to be arrested by order of the Privy Council. He was tried in 1806 and found technically guilty, but this verdict was superseded in 1808 upon retrial.

  In 1801 Picton joined Wellington to command a division in Spain. He was a difficult man and at the Coa, in July 1810, he refused to come to Craufurd’s assistance, choosing instead to obey the letter of Wellington’s orders to avoid an engagement. Picton served with distinction at Busaco, Fuentes de Oñoro, Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz. Wounds forced him to return to England after Badajoz, but he returned to command the 3rd Division at Vitoria and participate in the remaining battles along the Pyrenees, Orthez and Toulouse. Picton joined Wellington in the 1815 campaign and was severely wounded at Quatre-Bras. Picton concealed the wound and remained in command at Waterloo, where he was shot through the head by a musket ball and killed. Picton was buried in his family vault at St. George’s, Hanover Square, and a monument was erected to his memory at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

  PILLNITZ, DECLARATION OF. The Declaration of Pillnitz, issued on 2 August 1792, was made by Emperor Leopold II of the Holy Roman Empire and King Friedrich William II of Prussia to confirm their intention to collaborate with other European sovereigns to restore the power of the French monarchy.

  PITT, WILLIAM (1759–1806). Pitt was born at Hayes, near Bromley, Kent, England, on 28 May 1759, the second son of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. He was educated at home and by age 13 he had written a political tragedy, Laurentino, King of Chersonese. In 1773, at age 15, Pitt went to Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, to continue his studies. A serious illness forced an absence from Cambridge, but by 1774 he had returned and in 1776 he was graduated as a master of arts without examination. His father died in 1778, leaving him with an income of £300 per year. Pitt was called to the bar on 12 June 1780 and stood for Parliament, but was defeated. He was, however, returned for Sir James Lowther’s pocket borough of Appleby and entered Parliament on 23 January 1781, at age 21. During 1783 and the Shelburne Ministry, he first encountered Fox and the beginnings of that long rivalry began. In December 1783 Pitt’s fortunes changed when George III dismissed his ministers and appointed Pitt first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer in a new government. At this time Pitt discovered the power of the electorate and began to woo it. Parliament, however, soon dissolved and a new election was held, with Pitt running for Cambridge University, which he would represent for the rest of his life.

  This new election propelled Pitt into the ministry. The French Revolution would begin soon, but Pitt and Britain were soon involved in the numerous cabals that preceded it. Russia was attempting to gain control of the Baltic and Emperor Joseph II was attempting to swap the Netherlands for Bavaria. Meanwhile France was maneuvering to establish its hegemony over the Lowlands and supported Joseph II. Seeking to maintain the balance of power Pitt maneuvered Britain through the maelstroms of European politics successfully until the French Revolution began and war was declared by the French. Pitt brought Britain into the various coalitions against France and began an active subsidization of the various continental powers that fielded armies against France.

  The emancipation of Ireland was a major issue in Britain and it tore Pitt’s ministry apart. Pitt offered his resignation on 3 February 1799 and on 5 February King George III accepted it. George III, however lapsed into a bout of insanity and Pitt remained in office until March 14. Pitt remained in retirement until 1804 when he returned to politics and became chancellor of the exchequer and first lo
rd of the treasury on 10 May.

  Pitt became prime minister once again and picked up the burden of the war in Europe. In 1805, with his health failing, he witnessed the disgrace of his old friend Dundas. Though Trafalgar saved Britain from invasion, the end of the year saw the double disasters of Ulm and Austerlitz. On January 23, 1806, he died. His last words were, “My country! How I leave my country!”

  PLATOV, COUNT MATVEY IVANOVICH (1751–1818). Platov was born as the son of a cossack starshina (foreman) and began his military service very early in life and by 1772 he commanded a regiment. Platov participated in the Russian-Turkish wars of 1769–74 and again from 1787–91. He fought with distinction at the battle at the river Kalalakh and the assault on the Turkish fortress Izmail, after which he was promoted to the rank of general major.

  In 1795 Platov was appointed a field ataman of Cossacks and took part in the war against Persia. However, in 1797 he was dismissed from the military service, exiled to Kostroma, and later locked in the Petropavloskaya Fortress. Platov was restored to royal favor and in January 1801 he was appointed by Pavel I to command the Cossack troops in the planned expedition to India.

  Platov remained occupied with economic matters of the Don Cossack troops and with the training of Cossacks until 1806. He participated in the 1806–07 campaigns and fought at Eylau and Friedland. From 1808 to 1809 Platov participated in the Russian-Turkish war, commanded a corps, and captured Gyrsovo. In 1809 he was promoted to the rank of general of cavalry. When Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812, he commanded all Cossack troops, covering the retreat of the Russian army to Moscow, fighting numerous large and small engagements with the advancing French.

  During the battle of Borodino, Platov led Uvarov’s Corps on a raid into the rear of the French army that paralyzed the French and probably saved the Russian army from total annihiliation. During the French retreat from Moscow he led an active pursuit of the French, engaging them at Gorodnya, the Kolotsk Monastery, Gzhatsk, Smolensk and Dubrovna.

  Platov took part in the campaigns of 1813 and 1814. He participated in the blockade of Danzig, led a corps at the battle at Leipzig and in 1814 he captured Namur.

  After the war in 1814 Platov visited England and was given a state reception. In London the British government presented him with a saber; in Oxford he was given an honorary doctorate, and a British ship was named in his honor. Platov died in Novocherkassk, Russia, where a monument was erected in his honor.

  PLEISCHWEITZ, ARMISTICE OF. The Armistice of Pleischweitz was signed on 2 June 1812. It was a temporary cessation of hostilities between France and the Allies after the battle of Bautzen. Though Napoleon knew that the Allies would use the period of the armistice to rebuild their armies and feared that it might give them the opportunity to bring Austria and Sweden into the war against him, his armies desperately needed time to rebuild. By agreeing to the armstice Napoleon abandoned his pursuit of the beaten allied armies in a gamble that he could rebuild his army faster and better than the Allies could rebuild theirs. History would show that he lost the gamble. It ended with the restoration of hostilities on 15 August 1813.

  POLAND. On the death of August II of Saxony in 1733, Stanislaw Leszczyski, father-in-law to Louis XV of France, attempted to regain his throne with the aid of a small French force under Louis de Bréhan. Because the king of Poland was elected, he solicited and received the assistance of the Czartoryski family and was soon reelected king.

  After Leszczyski’s election, Poland again factionalized and the Lithuanians (the Czartoryskis) changed their minds They now favored Friedrich August III of Saxony, son of the late king, and invited the Russians to intervene. A Russian army appeared before Warsaw, forced a phantom sejm (the body that elected the king) and had August III declared king. Stanislaw retired to become Duke of Lorraine and Bar, keeping the title of King of Poland, but leaving August III as the actual king.

  August III left running the country to his minister, Heinrich von Brühl, who in turn turned the government of Poland over to the Czartoryskis.

  Unfortunately, the great families of Poland were obstinately opposed to any reform or violation of their constitution. The Francophilic Potockis, in particular, whose possessions in southern Poland and the Ukraine covered thousands of square miles, hated the Russophilic Czartoryskis and successfully obstructed all of their efforts.

  After a period of cooperation with the Saxon court the Czartoryskis broke with it and again turned to Russia. Their intermediary was their nephew Stanislaw Augustus Poniatowski, who, in 1755, they sent as a minister to the Russian court in the suite of British minister Sir Charles Hanbury Williams. The handsome and insinuating Poniatowski speedily won the heart and bedroom of Grand Duchess Catherine, but gained nothing else for Poland and returned discredited in 1759.

  Under the Saxon court Poland’s decline continued. A general agricultural crisis from the 17th to mid-18th century ruined towns and peasants, as well as the small gentry. Only the large and prominent families improved their situations in this period.

  Upon the death of Augustus III the Czartoryskis once again began their manipulations. Stanislaw Augustus Poniatowski was elected king with the aid of recommendations and troops from Catherine II of Russia on 7 September 1764. The actual interregnum lasted from 5 October 1763 to 7 May 1764, when the Convocation Diet was assembled.

  In late 1763 Prince Nikolai V. Repnin arrived in Warsaw and brought up the question of Polish dissidents. This was done officially again on 4 November 1766. At that time the population of Poland was about 11,420,000, of whom about 1,000,000 were dissidents or dissenters. Half of these were Protestants living in the towns of Polish Prussia and Great Poland. The other half was the Russian Orthodox population of Lithuania. The dissidents had no political rights and their religious liberties were unjustly restricted. For these persons, mainly agricultural laborers, artisans and petty tradesmen, Repnin, in the name of Catherine II, demanded absolute equality, political and religious, with the Catholic population of Poland. He was well aware that an aristocratic and Catholic assembly like the sejm would never concede so outrageous a demand.

  In 1767 conservative magnates supported by Repnin formed a conference at Radom whose first act was to send a deputation to St. Petersburg petitioning Catherine to guarantee the liberties of the republic. With a carte blanche in his pocket, Repnin proceeded to treat the sejm as if it were totally subservient to Russia.

  Despite threats, bribes and the presence of Russian troops outside the doors (as well as inside the Chamber of Deputies) the patriots steadfastly refused Repnin’s demands. Only the arrest of the leaders of the resistance by Russian grenadiers stopped further opposition. In addition to removing all restrictions against the dissidents, Russia effectively took over control of the government of Poland.

  This led to a Catholic patriotic uprising known as the Confederation of Bar, which started in 1768 in the city of Bar in the Ukraine. Though supported by the French, this revolt lingered slowly for four years before it died. It also brought to the attention of Berlin and Vienna that Russia was about to absorb all of Poland, so they began to move to expand their own territories at Poland’s expense.

  On 17 February 1772 the first treaty to partition Poland was signed between Prussia, Austria and Russia. The politically paralyzed Poland was to be dismembered with Russia obtaining the palatinates of Vitebsk, Polotsk, Mscislaw and 1,300,000 new inhabitants. Austria got Little Poland without Krakow, but it did get Lvov, Tarnopol and Halicz, which it formed into a new province called Galicia. This territory had 2,650,000 inhabitants. Prussia received the Palatinate of Pomorze, less Danzig; the Palatinate of Chelmno, minus Torun (Thorn); the northern half of Great Poland and the Palatinates of Malbork (Marienburg) and Warmia, calling the new acquisition West Prussia. This territory had 580,000 inhabitants. Poland lost 4.5 million of its 11.4 million inhabitants (39 percent) and 81,584 of its 283,204 square miles (29 percent) of territory.

  The partitioning powers presented the remains of Poland with a new
constitution, but deliberately left in it the two worst elements of the old constitution, the elective monarchy and the liberum veto (which allowed one dissenting vote to veto any action).

  The shock of the partitioning brought much of the petty bickering of the Polish nobility to an end. The “four years sejm” was convened in 1788. The Permanent Council was abolished, the royal prerogative was enlarged, an army of 65,000 men was raised, and the constitution was reformed.

  To further ensure its security Poland sought an alliance with Prussia. Friedrich Wilhelm II initially stipulated that Poland must surrender to him Danzig and Torun (Thorn). The Poles refused and Austrian political intervention prevented this. On 19 March 1791 Prussia and Poland signed a treaty guaranteeing each other’s possessions and to render mutual assistance if the other was attacked.

  With a series of unusual and decisive political maneuvers, on 3 May 1791 the new constitution was instituted. This constitution established a limited, hereditary constitutional monarchy and eliminated the liberum veto and the other obstructive machinery of the old system.