Jacques Macdonald, duke de Tarente

Jacques Macdonald, duke de Tarente (born November 17, 1765, Sedan, France—died September 25, 1840, Courcelles) was a French general who was appointed marshal of the empire by Napoleon.

The son of a Scottish adherent of the exiled British Stuart dynasty, who had served in a Scots regiment in France, he joined the French army and was a colonel when the wars of the French Revolution broke out. He was promoted to general in 1793 and to general of division in 1796.

In May 1798 Macdonald was sent to Italy, where he became governor of Rome and occupied Naples in March 1799; however, his forces were decisively routed by the Russian general Aleksandr Vasilyevich Suvorov at Trebbia, Italy, on June 17–19, 1799, while he was marching north to relieve General Victor Moreau at Genoa. After the coup d’état of 18 Brumaire, year VIII (November 9, 1799), in which Napoleon became first consul, Macdonald commanded the right wing of the Army of the Rhine. In 1800 he won Napoleon’s admiration and praise for his winter crossing of the Splügen Pass from Switzerland into Lombardy, an operation that has been compared to Napoleon’s own Alpine crossing of the Great Saint Bernard Pass that year and one that contributed to the Treaty of Lunéville between France and Austria (1801).

Macdonald’s involvement in the anti-Bonapartist intrigues of General Moreau in 1804 led to his discharge, and he was not recalled to active duty until 1809, when Napoleon judged his military talents indispensable. After contributing to the Austrian defeat at Wagram in July 1809, he was made marshal of the empire and duc de Tarente. He served in Austria in 1809–10 and in Catalonia in 1810–11, but he played no active part in the Russian campaign, being posted in Courland (Latvia). He was defeated by the Prussian marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher in Silesia at the Battle of Katzbach (1813) and barely escaped with his life at the decisive French defeat at Leipzig (October 1813).

Although he was reluctant to recognize the abdication of Napoleon in 1814, Macdonald served Louis XVIII loyally and did not rejoin Napoleon during the Hundred Days. After the Second Restoration of the Bourbons, he was appointed major general of the Royal Guard and named to the Legion of Honour.