Charles François Dumouriez

Divisional-General Charles-François du Périer Dumouriez (; 26 January 1739 – 14 March 1823) was a French Army officer and politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of War in the Constitutional Cabinet of Louis XVI. Born in Cambrai, Dumouriez joined the French Royal Army in 1757 and served with distinction in the Seven Years' War. Following a spell as a diplomat in Louis XV's Secret du Roi and brief imprisonment due to financial misconduct, he was named commandant of Cherbourg and oversaw the development of the port city.

At the outbreak of the French Revolution, Dumouriez went to Paris and joined the Jacobin Club. With the Girondins' support, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1792. He then briefly served as Minister of War but resigned due to conflict with Louis XVI, after which he assumed command of the Army of the North in its campaign against Austria and Prussia. Alongside François Christophe de Kellermann, he achieved a major victory at Valmy, forcing an invading Prussian army to withdraw.

Dumouriez then launched an invasion of the Austrian Netherlands and scored another victory at Jemappes. In early 1793, he advanced into the Dutch Republic but was driven back to the Austrian Netherlands before suffering a major defeat at Neerwinden. A monarchist at heart, Dumouriez had long disagreed with the direction the revolution had taken and was increasingly coming into conflict with radical deputies such as Maximilien Robespierre and Jean-Paul Marat. After Neerwinden, he attempted to march on Paris, overthrow the National Convention and restore the constitutional monarchy, but the plot was foiled and he subsequently defected to the Austrians. Dumouriez spent the rest of his life in exile, wandering through Europe until settling in England, where he died in 1823. His name is among the ones inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe, on Column 3.

Early life and education

Dumouriez was born in Cambrai, on the Scheldt River in [[Nord (French department)|

northern France]], to parents of noble rank. His father, Antoine-François du Périer, served as a commissary of the royal army, and educated his son most carefully and widely. He continued his studies in Paris at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, and was then sent to his uncle in Versailles for a year. In 1757 began his military career as a volunteer and served in six campaigns of the Seven Years' War. In the Battle of Rossbach, he served as a cornet in the Régiment d'Escars. He was stationed in Emden, Münster, Wesel and carried a small library with him. He received a commission for good conduct in action, with distinction (receiving 22 wounds during the battle of Corbach). In 1761 he recovered in the baths at Aachen. After the peace of Hubertusburg he retired at Abbeville as a captain, with a small pension (which was never paid), a love affair with his niece and the cross of St Louis.

Dumouriez then visited Italy, Spain and Corsica, and his memoranda to the duc de Choiseul on Corsican affairs at the time of the Corsican Republic led to his re-employment on the staff of the French expeditionary corps sent to the island, for which he gained the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He administered it with much success for more than ten years. The construction of the fortifications and dikes began in 1779/1782 and extended in 1786. He used a plan by Vauban to create an outer port. He proved a neglectful and unfaithful husband, and the couple separated. Madame Dumouriez took refuge in a convent.

Political career

thumb|upright|1792 bust of Dumouriez by [[Houdon]]

At the outbreak of the Revolution, seeing the opportunity for carving out a new career, he went to Paris, where he joined the Jacobin Club. In 1790, Dumouriez was appointed French military advisor to the newly established United Belgium States and remained dedicated to the cause of an independent Belgian Republic. In 1791 he was sent to the coast. The death of Mirabeau, to whose fortunes he had attached himself, proved a great blow. However, opportunity arose again when, in his capacity as a lieutenant-general and the commandant of Nantes, he offered to march to the assistance of the National Constituent Assembly after the royal family's unsuccessful flight to Varennes. He played a major part in the declaration of war against Austria (20 April), and he ordered General Dillon, commander of Lille, to attack Tournai, and the invasion of the Austrian Netherlands. His foreign policy was greatly influenced by Jean-Louis Favier. Favier had called for France to break its ties with Austria.

On the king's dismissal of Roland, Clavière and Servan (13 June 1792), he took Servan's post of Minister of War, but resigned it a few days later on account of Louis XVI's refusal to come to terms with the National Constituent Assembly, concerning his suspensive veto. Within a week he joined the army of the North under Marshal Luckner. After the émeute of 10 August 1792 and Lafayette’s flight, he gained appointment to the command of the "Army of the Centre". At the same moment, France's enemies assumed the offensive. Dumouriez acted promptly from Sedan, Ardennes.

On 24 August 1792 Dumouriez wrote to his ally General François Kellermann about the void in military power within France. Within this letter, Dumouriez voices his opinions adamantly that Lafayette was a "traitor" to France after being arrested for mobilizing his army from the borders of France to Paris to protect the Royal family from revolutionaries who were dissatisfied with the monarchy of France at the time. Within this letter, Dumouriez's attachment to the Jacobin club is explicitly present as he tells Kellermann that the army was finally "purged of aristocrats". Dumouriez's loyalty to France's military which was evident within this letter was instrumental to him ascending to his future position of Minister of Foreign Affairs from March 1792 to June 1792, restoring the natural borders of France. Dumouriez outmaneuvered the invading forces of the Duke of Brunswick in the forest of Argonne.

His subordinate Kellermann repulsed the Prussians at Valmy (20 September 1792). After these military victories, Dumouriez was ready to invade Belgium to spread revolution in the Flanders campaign.

Military career

Army of the North

thumb|The [[Battle of Jemmapes]]

Supported by minister Lebrun-Tondu, he declared in the National Convention on 12 October that he would liberate the Belgians and the Liège people. On 27 October 1792, he invaded the Austrian Netherlands. Dumouriez himself severely defeated the Austrians at Jemappes (6 November 1792). On 14 November he arrived in Brussels. Several times he received a mission of Dutch revolutionary patriots, with whom he agreed on the principles; De Kock, Daendels and his friends settled in Antwerp. Cambon pointed at the empty treasury and the wealthy Dutch. Dumouriez wrote a letter to the Convention scolding it for not supplying his army to his satisfaction and for the Decree of 15 December, which allowed the French armies to loot in the territory they had won, besides the introduction of the inflation-prone assignats in the conquered areas, and to expropriate church property. The Decree insured that any plan concerning Belgium would fail due to a lack of popular support among the Belgians.

Flanders campaign

thumb|upright|1834 portrait of Dumouriez as the [[Army of the North (France)|Army of the North's commander-in-chief]]

Returning to Paris on 1 January 1793, Dumouriez encountered popular ovation, but he gained less sympathy from the revolutionary government. On 12 January he had a meeting with Lebrun-Tondu; on 23 January he was sent back. The Dutch were willing to pay and an invasion of the Netherlands was postponed. To the more radical elements in Paris, it became clear that Dumouriez was not a true patriot but worked during the trial of Louis XVI to save him from execution. On 29 January Dumouriez lost his negotiating mandate. With the help of the Girondists, Dumouriez ensured that defaulting Pache had to resign at the end of January 1793; at the most critical moment of the war.  Although Dumouriez advised the government simply to recognise Belgium's independence, the Jacobins sent several agents. On 7 February Dumouriez appreciated the secret proposals of Van de Spiegel and Baron Auckland: in exchange for recognition of French Republic, France would have to refrain from aggression against other countries. On 15 February, Johan Valckenaer addressed Cambon, the president of the Convention, to give not the committee but Dumouriez all powers to depose regents and restore others to power. Lazare Carnot proposed that annexation be undertaken on behalf of French interests whether or not the people to be annexed so wished. On 17 February 1793, the French troops and the Batavian Legion crossed the Dutch border. Miranda, Stengel, Dampierre, Valence,  and Eustace went northeast; Dumouriez and Daendels went northwest. Breda, Klundert, and Geertruidenberg were occupied with an army of Sans-Culottes that lacked almost everything.  After the French lost Venlo, Aachen, Maastricht and all the supply at Liège in early March, Dumouriez was ordered to return to Brussels rather than further entering Holland.  The situation was alarming. Miranda wrote Dumouriez to continue his plan and not return to Belgium.

On 11 March, Dumouriez addressed the Brussels assembly, apologizing for the actions of the French commissioners and looting soldiers. On 12 March Dumouriez wrote an angry, insolent letter which is considered a "declaration of war on the Convention". He attacked not only Jean-Nicolas Pache, the former Minister of War, but also Marat and Robespierre. Meanwhile, Danton initiated the creation of the Revolutionary Tribunal to interrogate the generals at some time. Dumouriez had long been unable to agree with the course of the Convention. He was disenchanted with the radicalization of the revolution and its politics and put an end to the annexation efforts. He was liked by the Belgium population. It seems both Eustace and Miranda disagreed; on 14 March Eustace wrote a letter to Dumouriez. On 18 March 1793, Dumouriez's army attacked the Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, also the brother of the Austrian emperor, Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld's army. A major defeat in the Battle of Neerwinden nearly ended the French invasion. On 20 March Danton and Charles-François Delacroix were sent to Louvain. On 22 March Dumouriez opened negotiations with the Austrian General Mack. He allowed Dumouriez to retreat to Brussels; Dumouriez' soldiers were deserting in large numbers. The next day Dumouriez promised the Austrians he would leave Belgium  (though he had no permission and was without approval of the convention). On 24 March, Francisco de Miranda blamed Dumouriez for the defeat in the Battle of Neerwinden (1793).

Dumouriez prevented the execution of the decrees of 15 and 27 December, according to Robespierre.  He did not want the Dutch Republic to come under French authority, or even to be incorporated. It was his army that liberated the south of the Netherlands, and he would not allow it to fall into the hands of commissioners of the Convention. For Robespierre, the army had already more soldiers than it needed. On 25 March Dumouriez asked Karl Mack for his support to march on Paris. There he would negotiate peace, dissolve the convention, restore the French Constitution of 1791, plea for the restoration of a constitutional monarchy, and free Marie-Antoinette and her children. He urged Louis Philippe I Duke of Chartres, though still a teenager, to join his plan.  The Jacobin leaders were quite sure that France had come close to a military coup mounted by Dumouriez and supported by Pétion and Brissot.

Dumouriez' defection

thumb|upright|Dumouriez receiving the four commissioners at [[Saint-Amand-les-Eaux on 2 April 1793]]

thumb|upright|Dumouriez sending the arrested commissioners to Tournai

thumb|upright|The defection of Dumouriez

On 25 March Robespierre became one of  members of the Committee of General Defence,  to coordinate the war effort.

By the end of the month Robespierre called for the removal of Dumouriez, who in his eyes aspired to become a Belgian dictator. A body of four commissioners was sent to question and arrest him. The commissioners Camus, Bancal-des-Issarts, Quinette, and Lamarque were accompanied by the acting Minister of War, Pierre Riel de Beurnonville. Dumouriez sensed a trap and invited them to his headquarters at Saint-Amand-les-Eaux  and ordered Miaczinski to arrest them at Orchies. After an hour of deliberations he refused to accept the decree by the convention to go with them to Lille and Paris. Instead Dumouriez arrested the five and sent them over to General Clerfayt on the next day.