François Claude Amour, marquis de Bouillé

François Claude Amour, marquis de Bouillé

François Claude Amour, marquis de Bouillé (19 November 1739 – 14 November 1800) was a French general.

Born at Cluzel-Saint-Èble, Bouillé served in the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), and as governor in the Antilles conducted operations against the British in the American War of Independence during which he captured Sint Eustatius in the Caribbean. On his return to France, he became governor of the Three Bishoprics, of Alsace and of Franche-Comté.

Bouillé (who was the cousin of the prominent revolutionary Lafayette) was hostile to the French Revolution of 1789; he had continual quarrels with the municipality of Metz, and suppressed the military insurrections at Metz and Nancy. He became Commander in Chief of the Army of the Meuse, Sarre and Moselle in 1790.

He then proposed to King Louis XVI that the royal family should take refuge in the frontier town of Montmédy from where an appeal could be made to other nations against the revolutionaries. This project failed as a result of Louis XVI's arrest, on his flight to Varennes, on 21 June 1791. He is the "Bouillé" alluded to in the 5th stanza of the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, as a detestable counter-revolutionary figure:

Original	English translation
Français, en guerriers magnanimes, Portez ou retenez vos coups ! Épargnez ces tristes victimes, À regret s'armant contre nous. (bis) Mais ces despotes sanguinaires, Mais ces complices de Bouillé Tous ces tigres qui, sans pitié, Déchirent le sein de leur mère!	Frenchmen, as magnanimous warriors, Bear or hold back your blows! Spare these sorry victims, Arming against us with regrets. (repeat) But these bloodthirsty despots, But these accomplices of Bouillé, All these tigers who, mercilessly, Rip their mother's breast!

After this, Bouillé went into exile, setting out for Russia. He followed the Habsburg court to Prague for the coronation of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II as king of Bohemia on September 6, 1791. The German author Franz Alexander von Kleist (not to be confused with Heinrich von Kleist) left a character sketch of Bouillé in his Fantasien auf einer Reise nach Prag (1792) after seeing him with his son at a performance of Mozart's opera Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre in Prague on September 2, 1791. Kleist described Bouillé as a broken man wracked with worry and remorse over the actions that sent him into exile and made him vilified in France.

In 1797, he published his memoirs, which were a great success. He died in London in 1800.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Persondata
Name	Amour, Francois Claude, Marquis De Bouille
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Date of birth	19 November 1739
Place of birth
Date of death	14 November 1800
Place of death