Jacques Alexandre Bernard Lauriston

Born Feb. 1, 1768, in Pondicherry, India; died June 12, 1828, in Paris. French military and government figure.

Lauriston became an aide of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1800. He was sent with a diplomatic mission to Copenhagen in 1801. Promoted to general in 1805₁ he commanded a French military expedition in the Antilles. He was appointed governor of Venice in 1807 and received the title of count in 1808. Lauriston commanded the artillery in the battle of Wagram in 1809. In 1811 he was ambassador to St. Petersburg. In October 1812, before the retreat of the French Army from Moscow, Napoleon I sent him to M. I. Kutuzov’s camp for peace negotiations. At the battle of Leipzig of 1813, Lauriston was captured by the troops of the anti-French coalition and soon after joined the Bourbons. During the Restoration, Lauriston was made a peer in 1815, marquess in 1817, and marshal in 1823. In 1823, he was one of the commanders of the French expeditionary corps sent to suppress the revolution in Spain, and in 1824 he was appointed minister of state.