Why did the French Revolutionary General Pichegru defect to the Royalists?
Upvote:8
General Jean-Charles Pichegru' defection to the Royalist cause appears to have been down to disillusion with the republican movement, coupled with a hefty financial incentive. Pichegru, though, favoured a constitutional monarchy rather than a return to an absolutist one.
Pichegru had made clear his shift away from the Jacobins when he aligned himself with those associated with the Thermidorian Reaction which led to the execution of Robespierre and 21 'of his closest associates' on the 28th July 1794. However, his politics started wavering (mostly in private) long before then according to the English politician and 'spymaster' William Wickham. Michael Durey, in William Wickham, Master Spy, says that while Wickham was working undercover in Switzerland in 1792,
he had heard the rumour that Pichegru, then a corps commander, was unhappy with the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic.
Wickham was working with Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé in seeking to restore the Bourbon monarchy and, unsurprisingly, thought Pichegru would be a big catch for the cause. It was also reported that Pichegru
does not always conceal his dislike of the system he acts under
Although Pichegru had been declared 'Sauveur de la Patrie' for his part in putting down the Insurrection of 12 Germinal, Year III in Paris on the 1st April 1795,
Unbeknown to his host of Parisian admirers, Pichegru had been been flirting with treason against the Republic for more than a year. In February 1794, while commander of the Army of the North, he had been in contact with Colonel Victor Roland, military representative of the canton of Berne.
Roland, who was working for Wickham, got on well with Pichegru - they were both from the Franche-Comte region in eastern France. Through Roland and from information from a captured French officer, Wickham got information that it might be possible to bribe Pichegru and other French officers. As Durey says, from here the plot gets complicated, but the point has already been established: Pichegru had not been committed to the revolution for quite some time and, (in Feb 1794 or earlier) in his own hand, had written that he had
sympathy for the Constitutional Monarchists in France
Further, even before putting down the Insurrection of 1st April 1795,
Pichegru's belief that the Convention did not have sufficient popular support to sustain a stable republican government without continued military assistance had strengthened.
He was also discouraged by the state of the army, described here (ref: January 1795) as
destitute of everything except courage
On top of these political and military concerns, Pichegru was also was also strapped for cash personally. Thus, Durey concludes,
Saddled with at least one, and possibly two, expensive mistresses, Pichegru was ripe for anti-republican offers.
According to the French Wikipedia article on Pichegru, these inducements were
un million au comptant, une rente de 200 000 francs, le maréchalat, le gouvernement d’Alsace et le château de Chambord
Translation: a million in cash, a pension of 200,000 francs, the rank of marshal, the government of Alsace and the castle of Chambord
The Republican government found out, but the still-popular general was merely packed off to Sweden as ambassador. In 1797, he was arrested for plotting and was deported, but escaped. Finally, in 1804 Pichegru was found strangled in prison after having again been arrested for his part in a plot to overthrow Napoleon (see the Pichegru Conspiracy).
More post
- 📝 What percentage of men, ages 18 to 35, from the northern states served in the Union Army?
- 📝 Why did Germany not join the United Nations until 1973?
- 📝 Was reincarnation part of the early Christian church?
- 📝 When was the silk route active?
- 📝 Who were the candidates in the consular elections for 80 BC in Rome?
- 📝 Typical fortifications around major cities in the 18th century
- 📝 What, if anything, did Hitler think of the Canadian government's treatment of the Native Americans?
- 📝 What kind of canoes were used in 19th century Yucatán?
- 📝 What was the earliest known written constitution?
- 📝 Did international laws on wars of conquest change in 1945?
- 📝 What happened to the compass platform on the Titanic?
- 📝 Has the USA ever taken unilateral military action?
- 📝 In what case was being called a Federalist considered libel?
- 📝 Why did Russia accept the legal framework that led to Kosovo's independence?
- 📝 What was the most important cause of the Second World War?
- 📝 Did a German Jew in the US Army save his home district from bombing?
- 📝 Why is Baja California often shown as an island on maps between 1500 and 1700?
- 📝 Why did the Ottomans 'never' enter wars during Napoleon's invasions?
- 📝 Croatia's reparations to Serbia after WWII
- 📝 Why couldn't bastards inherit titles?
- 📝 What is the largest secret kept in history?
- 📝 Was it widely known during his reign that Kaiser Wilhelm II had a deformed arm?
- 📝 Did Gorbachev say that his intention was to destroy Communism?
- 📝 Why were there "Tributary States" to the Ottoman Empire?
- 📝 How did conditional POW exchanges work in WW2?
- 📝 Who were the first people to get divorced in Western* Christendom?
- 📝 Why did Henry III of England give his sons English names, other than naming them after his favourite saints?
- 📝 Did Hitler display gratitude towards Hugo Gutmann?
- 📝 Anti-Semitism and Edmund Burke
- 📝 How did early Rome mobilize?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Why did the French Revolutionary General Pichegru defect to the Royalists?
- 📝 In the Revolutionary War, why did General Howe attack Philadelphia, instead of continuing his march to join General Burgoyne?
- 📝 Why did the French sell Louisiana?
- 📝 Why did the Allies Invade French North Africa?
- 📝 Why did the Dutch, French & British acquire minor colonies in South America?
- 📝 Why did Guinea vote so differently in the 1958 French constitutional referendum?
- 📝 Why did few French and no Dutch pilots (but many Poles and Czechs) take part in the Battle of Britain?
- 📝 Why did the French nobility adopt Calvinism?
- 📝 Why did the French insist on reclaiming Indo-China after WWII?
- 📝 Why did the French Army melt film during WWI?
- 📝 Why did the French Revolution bring secularism?
- 📝 Why did a Venetian colonel defect to the Ottomans during the siege of Candia?
- 📝 Why did the French concede Mosul to British Iraq?
- 📝 Why did Robert E. Lee say that George McClellan was the best general he ever faced?
- 📝 At the Battle of Waterloo, why did the French army throw so many troops into the fight for Hougoumont?
- 📝 Why did Confederate General Forrest leave the KKK?
- 📝 Why did the French "surrender" all of its troops during the armistice in World War II?
- 📝 Why did the communist party lose in Telangana in India's first general elections?
- 📝 Why did any slaves or former slaves choose to fight against Britain in the Revolutionary War?
- 📝 Why and how did the CIA/OSS support non-communist French trade unions after WWII?
- 📝 Why did the French return all the Dutch Colonies to the Netherlands in Paris Treaty?
- 📝 Why did Hitler attack the Soviet Union when he was still busy fighting the United Kingdom?
- 📝 Why did Native Americans die from European diseases while Europeans didn't catch serious diseases from the New World?
- 📝 Why did the Confederacy think they could win the American Civil War?
- 📝 Why did archery not make a comeback when armor was phased out in the 18th century?
- 📝 Why did the British scuttle the u-boats surrendered after WWII?
- 📝 Why did Canada not join the American Revolution?
- 📝 Why did Churchill order the destruction of the bombes?
- 📝 Why did the USSR give Crimea to Ukraine?
- 📝 Why did the Western Roman Empire collapse but not the Eastern Roman Empire?