1. Jean Lannes was one of Napoleon's most daring and talented generals, and is regarded by many as one of history's greatest military commanders.
24 Facts About Jean Lannes
1. 2.
Jean Lannes was born in the small town of Lectoure, in the province of Gascony in Southern France.
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Jean Lannes was apprenticed in his teens to a dyer.
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Jean Lannes received little education, but his great strength and proficiency in many sports caused him in 1792 to be elected sergeant-major of the battalion of volunteers of Gers, which he had joined upon the outbreak of war between France and Spain.
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Jean Lannes served under General Jean-Antoine Marbot during the campaigns in the Pyrenees in 1793 and 1794, and rose by distinguished conduct to the rank of chef de brigade.
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Jean Lannes served under General Barthelemy Louis Joseph Scherer, taking part in the Battle of Loano.
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Jean Lannes re-enlisted as a simple volunteer in the French Armee d'Italie.
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Jean Lannes served in the Italian campaign of 1796, and climbed his way up to high rank , being given command of a brigade in General Charles-Pierre Augereau's division and later of 3 battalions of the permanent advance guard at different times.
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Jean Lannes was distinguished in every battle and played an important role in the victory at Dego.
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Jean Lannes led troops under Claude Victor-Perrin in the invasion of the Papal States.
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Jean Lannes was chosen by Bonaparte to accompany him to Egypt as commander in one of General Jean-Baptiste Kleber's brigades, in which capacity he greatly distinguished himself, especially during the retreat from Syria.
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Jean Lannes was wounded at the Battle of Abukir, before he returned to France with Bonaparte, and assisted him in the Coup of 18 Brumaire.
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Back with the Armee d'Italie, Jean Lannes commanded the advanced guard in the crossing of the Alps in 1800, was instrumental in winning the Battle of Montebello, from which he afterwards took his title, and played a large part in the Battle of Marengo.
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General Joachim Murat and Chef de brigade Jean-Baptiste Bessieres schemed to have Lannes removed over a budget deficit, but Augereau bailed him out.
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Jean Lannes purchased the seventeenth-century Chateau de Maisons, near Paris, in 1804 and had one of its state apartments redecorated for a visit from Napoleon.
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In January 1809, he was sent to capture Zaragoza, and by 21 February, after one of the most stubborn defences in history, Jean Lannes was in possession of the place.
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Jean Lannes later said, "this damned Bonaparte is going to get us all killed" after his last campaign in Spain.
18.
Jean Lannes took part in the engagements around Eckmuhl and the advance on Vienna.
19.
On 22 May 1809, during a lull in the second day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling, Jean Lannes went and sat down at the edge of a ditch, his hand over his eyes and his legs crossed.
20.
Jean Lannes was carried to the tete de pont, where the chief surgeons proceeded to dress his wound.
21.
Jean Lannes bore the painful operation with courage; it was hardly over when Napoleon came up and, kneeling beside the stretcher, wept as he embraced the marshal.
22.
Jean Lannes was initially buried in Les Invalides, Paris, but in 1810, he was exhumed and reinterred in the Pantheon national after a grandiose ceremony.
23.
Jean Lannes married twice, in Perpignan on 19 March 1795 to Paulette Meric, whom he divorced because of infidelity in 1800, after she had given birth to an illegitimate son while he was serving in Egypt:.
24.
Jean Lannes was continually employed in tasks requiring the utmost resolution and daring, and more especially when the emperor's combinations depended upon the vigour and self-sacrifice of a detachment or fraction of the army.