Cadoudal

Cadoudal, George (1771-1804), celebrated leader of the French Royalists (the Chouans) and conspirator. The son of a Breton farmer, he took part in 1793 in the Vendean rising, and soon became captain. After many changes of fortune he gave in his submission to General Hoche in 1796; but in 1799 he was again in arms, and again submitted in 1800, at which time Napoleon is said to have made efforts to gain him over to himself. But he went to England and was made much of by the Royalists. Unable again to rouse Brittany, he began to intrigue in Paris, and sent Saint-Regent as his agent; but denied all connection with the latter's attempt to assassinate Napoleon. Joining in another plot with the Count d'Artois and with Pichegru, which had for its object the kidnapping of Napoleon, he went to Paris in 1803, and after successfully keeping hidden for six months, he was arrested in March, 1804, and having avowed his intention of overturning the Government and putting Louis XVIII. on the throne, he was guillotined with eleven others in June, 1804.