Jean Maximilien Lamarque

Divisional-General Jean Maximilien Lamarque (22 July 1770 – 1 June 1832) was a French army officer and politician who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Lamarque served with distinction in many of Napoleon's campaigns, and was known for retaking Capri from the British in 1808 and defeating French Royalists in the Vendée in 1815. The latter campaign received great praise from Napoleon, who said Lamarque had "performed wonders, and even surpassed my hopes".

After the Bourbon Restoration in France, Lamarque became an outspoken opponent of the return of the ancien régime. With the overthrow of the Bourbons in the July Revolution of 1830, he was placed in command of a force to suppress any uprisings by their supporters, known as the Legitimists.

However, he soon became a leading critic of the new constitutional monarchy of Louis Philippe I, arguing that it failed to support human rights and political liberty. He also advocated French support for revolutionary struggles in Poland and Italy. Lamarque's views made him a popular figure. His death was the catalyst of the June Rebellion of 1832, which provided the background for events depicted in Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables.

Born in Saint-Sever in the Landes department of France, Lamarque was a member of a powerful and influential family. His father Pierre Joseph Lamarque (1733–1802) was a lawyer and seneschal of Saint-Sever. His uncle Jean-Jacques Lamarque (1737–1809) was director of a theological college and was persecuted during the Reign of Terror. Lamarque's father was elected a member of the Third Estate to the Estates General of 1789 and took the Tennis Court Oath. He became a member of the National Constituent Assembly.

Lamarque joined his father in Paris and joined the army in 1791. He was involved in early revolutionary and anti-clerical activity. He was a member of a battalion that gutted and then burned Vabres Cathedral, after removing a marble altar to build a monument for the recently murdered Jean-Paul Marat.

In January 1792, Lamarque enlisted in the 4th Landes Battalion as a grenadier, and was promoted to lieutenant on 3 April 1793. By May he was a captain of grenadiers, participating in the "colonne infernale" led by Théophile Corret de la Tour d'Auvergne in the Army of the Western Pyrenees. He was wounded twice on 6 February 1794, and distinguished himself in July 1794 by successfully taking Hondarribia, defended by 1700 men, with a small force. He was promoted once more and transferred to the Army of the Rhine. He participated with distinction at the battles of Engen (3 May 1800), Messkirch (4-5 May 1800), Biberach (9 May 1800), Höchstädt (19 June 1800) and Hohenlinden (3 December 1800). In the last action he was so successful that General Moreau recommended him to Napoleon to receive the rank of brigade general, which he was given in March 1801.

On the outbreak of the War of the Third Coalition, Lamarque served in the Grande Armée and fought at the Battle of Austerlitz. In 1806, he followed Marshal Masséna and Joseph Bonaparte in the invasion of Naples, where he took part in the Siege of Gaeta and fought the insurgents led by Fra Diavolo. In 1807, after Joseph Bonaparte was made King of Naples, he appointed Lamarque as his chief of staff, with the rank of divisional general. When Joachim Murat took over from Joseph Bonaparte, Lamarque was sent to consolidate his position by retaking Capri from British forces under Hudson Lowe. Lamarque led an attack which took the British by surprise. After a hard-fought battle he succeeded in taking the island, and agreed to transport Lowe and his remaining troops to Sicily.

Lamarque was then made chief of staff by Murat and awarded the Royal Order of the Two-Sicilies. In 1809, he was sent to the Kingdom of Italy to lead one of six armies under the command of Napoleon's adopted son Eugène de Beauharnais. He fought at the Battle of Piave River (8 May), at the capture of Ljubliana (22 May) and at the Battle of Wagram (8 July), during which he had four horses shot from under him. Afterwards, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Army of Italy, and commanded a reserve division of the National Guard near Antwerp.