Murat

Joachim Marshal (1804),
king of Naples from 1808 to 1815
(La Bastide-Fortuniere (Lot), 1767 - Pizzo, 1815)

Author: Jean-Louis Enjolras - Cercle Histoire et Figurines

Marshal, king of Naples,: in the Napoleonic game of chess Murat is the knight, a splendid warrior in extravagant costumes; Murat is the bishop, impetuous and unthinking; Murat is the queen, who needs proof of the affection of his master to offer his complete devotion. He is treated as a pawn, placed on a throne without being free to act. The consequence, a half-carried-out betrayal, a tragic end in an Italian village.

Joachim, born of inn-keeper parents, the youngest boy of twelve children, began studies at the seminary of the Lazarists of Toulouse. In February of 1787, following a quarrel with a comrade, he abandoned the ecclesiastical life to join a cavalry regiment. Within two years he became billet master. Involved in a mutiny, he was discharged.
His father, when he saw him return, refused to support him. Murat became a grocer. His dash already made an impression, and he was designated by his canton to participate in the Celebration of the Federation of July 14, 1790. The following year he managed to be admitted into the army again, as a simple soldier.

He was named a second lieutenant on May 30, 1791. Disturbed for a moment by the fall of Robespierre, that fervent republican, he went so far as to adopt the name of Marat. He finally found himself without a post at the end of the year 1794, in Paris. At dawn on 13 vendemiare Barras and a young Corsican general, Bonaparte, asked for a volunteer to bring back the cannon from the park at Sablons. Murat offered to do it. He came back with forty pieces, which made it possible to stifle the royalist insurrection.
By this action Murat tied his fortune to that of Bonaparte. The latter was named head of a brigade on February 2, 1796, and made Murat one of his aides. With that title Murat accompanied him into Italy in 1796, where he distinguished himself by his bravery. Intrusted with carrying the enemy colors to the Directory in Paris, he was also asked to try to talk Josephine into joining her husband. He returned from Paris with the rank of brigadier general. He took part in besieging Mantua. After Campoformio, Bonaparte sent him to the Congress of Rastadt.

In Egypt Murat shined at the head of a cavalry brigade. After the taking of Alexandria (July 2, 1798) and the Battle of the Pyramids (July 21, 1798) he was the first to lead the assault at Saint Jean of Acre (March 28, 1799) during the Syrian expedition. At the Battle of Aboukir, July 25, 1799, he personally captured Pasha Mustapha, from whom he cut off two fingers in the heat of the action. That got him a quite unusual wound: a ball went through his jaw from one side to the other. It also got him the rank of division general. Mural became a popular figure.

For all of that, during all the years they passed together Bonaparte acted short with the one who had given him proof of his loyalty on 18 brumaire by siccing his grenadiers on the flabbergasted law makers: "Chase all those people out for me!" Bonaparte gave him the hand of his sister Caroline in February of 1800, but only after Josephine intervened. He made him marshal in 1804, grand admiral and prince in the following year, but he seemed reluctant to trust him with important tasks.

Governor of Paris in 1804, Murat reluctantly signed the formation of the commission which presided over the execution of the Duke d'Enghien. The following year he left for the Austrian Campaign at the head of all the cavalry. After the taking of Ulm (15-20 October 1805) he pursued the Russian and Austrian armies along the Danube. Although Napoleon had ordered him to cover the flanks of the great army, he entered Vienna at the head of his men on November 11, 1805. Napoleon chewed him out for that act of insubordination. Murat redeemed himself by his conduct at the Battle of Austerlitz on December 2.

Napoleon gave him the grand duchy of Berg and Cleves in 1806; he needed a self-confident man to secure the continental blockade. Murat tasted power; he turned out to be solicitous of the well-being of his subjects. That was the occasion for new straitened relations with the emperor, who soon recalled him into the ranks. Actually, in 1806 Prussia, England, Sweden, and Russia had declared war on France. Murat chased the Prussians up to Leipzig, took part brilliantly in the Battle of Jena on October 14, 1806, made Bluecher surrender at Luebeck. He was the first to enter Warsaw on November 28, 1806. He commanded the French cavalry at Eylau (February 8, 1807). On the order of Napoleon he launched his troops to repel the enemy center. That charge became legendary under the title, "The charge of eighty squadrons".

Napoleon offered Murat the crown of Naples in 1808, but on condition that he remain a pawn of the imperial policy. No doubt Murat had dreamed of the Spanish throne, for which he had paid personally. Sent to Spain without precise instructions, he is the one who harshly repressed the insurrection of May 2, 1808 and organized sending Ferdinand VII and Charles IV to Bayonne. And once he had acquired that Neapolitan crown he trembled to see it taken off his head, to become a second king of Holland, whose kingdom had been purely and simply annexed to the empire in 1810. This plebeian turned out to be a conscientious king. He introduced reforms, organized an army. Frictions with the emperor arose again, exacerbated by the dissention between Caroline and Murat over who was boss.

In 1812 Napoleon called his brother in law to his side for the Russian Campaign, again at the head of the cavalry. During the six months of the campaign Murat was constantly in contact with the Russian armies. At the Battle of Borodino on September 7 he charged the Russian cannon at the head of fifteen thousand horsemen. While Napoleon was in Moscow Murat missed being surrounded at Taroutino (October 18, 1812), succeeding in disengaging. In December Napoleon left him in command of the grand army to return hastily to Paris. Murat did not want this command, he wanted to save his kingdom. At Wilna he lost his cool and abandoned the great army. After returning to Naples he wrote to Napoleon to explain his conduct. He asked to return to the service of the emperor.

He returned to participate in the campaign in the summer of 1813. Napoleon trusted him with the command of the army of the south, charged with containing the coalitions of Schwarzenberg. After the defeat at Leipzig (16-19 October, 1813) he reentered his kingdom. In January of 1814 Murat signed a treaty with Austria. At the Congress of Vienna the generous subsidies which he had paid to various diplomats, most notably Tallyrand, were to no avail. There was the question of restoring the Bourbons to the Neapolitan throne. Murat, desperate, made overtures everywhere; he wrote a cordial letter to Louis XVIII, another when Napoleon was exiled to Elba. Napoleon included Murat in the plans for his return. Murat declared war on Austria when he learned of the emperor's landing. He soon occupied Rome, Ancona, Bologna. He published a proclamation from Rimini in which he called for the unification of Italy. But soon the Austrian troops. led ny Neipperg, surrounded him. That was the defeat of Tolentino, April 21, 1915.

Murat had to flee while Ferdinand regained his throne. He arrived in France, where Napoleon refused to see him. In Corsica he raised six hundred men. That was enough to make him dream of recovering Naples; he set sail for the coast of Italy. Debarking at Pizzo. he was captured, imprisoned. A decree of the king ordered the commission which judged him to give him "half an hour to receive the solace of religion" before having him shot. Murat himself gave the order to fire, on October 13, 1815.