Napoleon's Marshals: Suchet, Ney, Soult.

In 1804 Napoleon created 18 'Marshals of the Empire', to serve as the senior officers of the Grande Armée. He created a further 8 before his abdication. A few were aristocrats, but others were the sons of shopkeepers or tailors. The most favoured became princes and kings. Among their ranks were legendary figures such as Marshals Lannes, Ney, Soult, Davout and Massena, but also much less well know figures like Pérignon, Brune and Moncey. Our series will explore the lives of all 26 Marshals, and rank them according to our own judgement of their achievements as Marshals.

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[EpichistoryTv]

I hope you enjoy our latest episode of Napoleon's Marshals! Let us know your favourite Marshals in the comments, and if you think we got the rankings correct!

[yrsjhydjmdhyt]

“Michel Ney is truly the bravest of the brave”...I love that painting of him in square formation with his men. A leader should never send his men in a place he wouldn’t go himself & Ney led from the front.

[henriray]

Poor Suchet, he was always getting the short end of the stick. Despite all this he still gave his best performance, and also helped lay the foundations for anti-guerilla war tactics, that are still in use and being studied to this very day. And on top of that, also gained the respect of the people of Aragon. Truly an incredible marshal and general.

[xXArnOduXx]

2 little Facts about Soult:
1) He was the longest Prime Minister in service ever.
2)When he was sent to Queen's Victoria coronation, the Duke of Wellington caught him, took his arm and said: "Finally I got you"

[wyatt]

The Ney section gave me chills. Imagine being outnumbered in enemy territory, you and your men freezing to death, and having the overwhelming courage to inspire them to keep moving and fighting. Incredible.

[carlosn]

The part about Ney was truly epic. The narration of his deeds and his fate was awe inspiring. No wonder he was such a legend, after watching this part even I was ready to follow this man to battle.

[HunterKiller]

“A mother abandoned her five-year-old son twice in the snow. Both times Ney discovered the child and heaved him from the frozen ground. Failing to persuade the mother to take her child, he found another woman to care for him.” That speaks so much about his character

[IrishLegion]

Michel Ney, my favourite Marshall of the Empire:

Born the son of a poor cooper in Lorraine, a German speaking area of France.
He said of his childhood "I esteemed myself rich when I had two loaves of bread on the table."

Fought at Valmy to save the young republic.
Sealed the Ulm manoeuvre at Elchingen.
Captured Magdeburg during the Prussian flight of Germany.
Drove the Russian left into the river at Friedland.
Beat Wellington in Portugal.
The last Frenchman on Russian soil during the retreat from Moscow.
Stood up to Napoleon at Fontainebleau, forcing him to abdicate.
Led the last great cavalry charge of the Napoleonic wars at Waterloo.
Could barely read or write until later in life yet still recognized the talent of the great military theorist Antoine-Henri Jomini.
Condemned to the firing squad by his own countrymen after having fought in nearly every country in Europe with the Emperor because he was not of the restored nobility.

He may not have been the best statistically but he was, as Napoleon put it best....

"The Bravest of the Brave"

[benjamindover]

Wait, so Ney gave the order to fire to his own firing squad. What a legend.

[snk]

"It was during the retreat from Moscow that Ney ensured his place among the legends of military history." Just WOW.

[josefavomjaaga]

Another fun fact about Soult: He was married to a German, Louise Berg, who apparently held quite some influence over him. Napoleon was shocked that "a man of such authority" as Soult would "let himself be managed by his wife". When in 1813 he sent back Soult to Spain after the battle of Dresden, Soult (maybe not really too keen on going, as he had not seen his family in years) told Napoleon: "M`kay. I`ll do it. But you explain that to my wife!" So Madame Soult then had an interview with the emperor, at the end of which Napoleon exclaimed: "Madame, you cannot talk to me like that - I'm the emperor, I'm not your husband! ... And if I was your husband, you still could not talk to me like that!" (The anecdote was told by Napoleon on Saint Helena.)

[CivilWarWeekByWeek]

He has done the unexpected gave us Napoleon's Marshals part 5 truly a man beyond mortality

[catoshinakamoto]

“Surrounded by Cossacks, and down to 800 fighting men, they formed square and kept moving.”

Epic.

[znbmwlz]

Suchet is my favourite marshal. You don't see such humility in every marshal....

[MrMastera]

I literally gave a salute to my monitor while listening to Suchet's story. THIS is how you treat your troops and the occupied provinces. Truly the backbone of the Spain campaign.

[lomax]

Ney was a great man to have in a crisis.

If there wasn't a crisis, he could usually cause one.

[peternguyen]

This was the best episode of the series so far. The last one was so good too and had 2 of the most heartfelt moments with Napoleon’s parting words to MacDonald and to Massena.

[cheriefsadeksadek]

"I And Others Were Fighting For France While You Sat Sipping Tea In English Gardens" Marshal Ney Wow That was Brutal
Edit: "Thank You So Much For 1K Likes "

[Fenniks-]

"Michel Ney is truly The Bravest of the brave" this quote always get to me i have huge Respect for Ney and His ability to lead and motivate his men.

[TheFiresloth]

Various Fun Details :
Suchet's promotion was somewhat unconventional. After Arcole, the French officers were having a big party in a farm. Lannes came to Napoleon's table, drunk as a skunk, and said "Well then, when are you going to make my friend Suchet a colonel ?" Napoleon, himself pretty wasted, took a medal from a guy near him and threw it to Suchet. And that was that. Wich should help us remember that most of them were in their late twenties at the time.
Suchet composed the plan at the battle of Ostrolenka, while Oudinot was to apply it, due to their commandant, Savary, being mostly a placeholder with Napoleon's trust. After the victory, Savary and Oudinot were rewarded, but Suchet stayed humbly in the background, pretty representative of his career.
Suchet called his own son Napoleon, and took the fall of the empire and the Napoleonian dream very badly, maybe worse than any other marshals.
Soult's action at Ocana was one of the few correct applications of Hannibal's Cannae tactic to be done in military history. It's also the worst defeat of the Spanish on their own territory.
Soult had an almost surreal ability to see the value of an art piece. This made some call him one of the greatest thieves in History.
Soult's experience in Spain may have something to do with the brutality of the repression in Algeria, while he was in the government some decades later.
When Ney engaged Wellington with only 7000 in a rearguard action in Portugal, He manoeuvered so well Wellington thought he was fighting the entire French army. While he would not succede in breaking his line at Quatre Bras, he still managed to force him to withdraw.
Ney was famous for basically bullying ennemy cities into surrendering, yelling boasts and threats from under the walls, firing empty cannon shots and claiming he had much more men than he had. Magdebourg and his 25 000 men fell in twenty days with this method.
Ney very probably suffered heavy PTSD from his time in Russia, having exhausted himself by constantly staying on the frontline in the rearguard, without respite and under extreme physical and emotional duress. He was never the same after.
Ney could have possibly avoided the death penalty by claiming Prussian nationality due to his place of birth being lost after 1815. Ney refused. His trial was a big affair, with Moncey, Davout and St-Cyr pleading for his life, and the royalists aiming for an example. Wellington accepted, then declined, to speak in his favour. He was executed after refusing to wear a blindfold and reluctantly accepting a confessor.