Jourdan

Jourdan, Jean Baptiste, Comte de (1762-1833), Marshal of France, was the son of a Limoges surgeon. He entered the army in his seventeenth year, and having shown himself a zealous republican as well as a good soldier, attained the rank of general. In 1797 he became a member of the Council of Five Hundred, and was responsible for the law of Conscription of 1798. His views, however, were too liberal for Bonaparte, and after his defeat at Stockach in 1799 he suffered a temporary eclipse. He soon, however, became a member of the Council of State, was employed in Piedmont, received in 1804 his marshal's baton, and was one of Wellington's opponents in the Peninsula. Having deserted Napoleon on his fall, he was made pair de France by Louis XVIII.; but by the part he took in the Revolution of 1830 he returned to the principles of his youth. He published accounts of some of the campaigns in which he had commanded, notably that of the Army of the Danube.