Adolphe Édouard Casimir Joseph Mortier

First Duke of Treviso

Born on February 13, 1768 at Cateau-Cambrésis in northern France, the son of a cloth merchant who was a member of the Constituent Assembly, young Edouard Casimir Mortier joined the National Guard after a solid education, and was elected captain of the 1st Battalion of Northern Volunteers in September 1791.

Although he took part in all the major battles - Jemmapes, Hondschoote, Fleurus, siege of Maastricht with the Army of the North; Altenkirchen, Giessen, Friedberg, occupation of Mainz with the Army of the Rhine - his career, especially when compared with that of some of his future colleagues, was not particularly brilliant.

He did not become a brigadier general until February 1799 (after having refused the rank for the first time in 1797, at the time of the peace of Campo-Formio). Mortier proved so useful to André Masséna during the campaign against the Austro-Russians that he was appointed divisional on the battlefield of Zurich on September 25.

Having wholeheartedly supported the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire, he was placed in a position of trust: command of the 17th military division, headquartered in Paris. He remained there for three years, earning Napoleon Bonaparte's esteem for his composure, diligence and perfect execution of orders.

After the Peace of Amiens broke down in May 1803, the First Consul commissioned him to occupy the electorate of Hanover. Less than a month later, his mission was accomplished, the enemy army had surrendered and Mortier had begun to organize the country in the French style, taking care not to inflict unnecessary hardship on the population.

On his return, he was appointed colonel general commanding the artillery and sailors of the consular guard, then marshal (May 1804).

In 1805, he commanded the Guard infantry. In 1806, he once again occupied the electorate of Hanover - which had in the meantime been ceded to Prussia - and the rest of northern Germany. He had to implement the draconian measures decided by Napoleon I, particularly against the English who had settled in the region, but he refused to break into the counters of the Hamburg bank. (Seven years later, Louis-Nicolas Davout would be less scrupulous). He then led the left wing at Friedland and became governor of Silesia after the Peace of Tilsit.

He spent a year in this post, then three in Spain after being created Duke of Treviso (July 1808). He took part in the battles of Licinena and the Arzobispo bridge (August 8, 1809), was wounded at the battle of Ocaña (November 19), and fought again at Fuentes de Cantos (September 15, 1810) and La Gebora (February 19, 1811).

During the Russian campaign, Mortier commanded the young guard, taking part in the battles of Borodino (September 7, 1812), Krasnoye and Berezina (November 17-18). As governor of the Kremlin, he was responsible for blowing up the Tsar's palace after Napoleon I's departure. This order was never carried out.

Present at all the battles of the campaign in Saxony of 1813, he took part in the campaign of Northeast France in 1814 at the head of the Old Guard. Charged, with Auguste Viesse de Marmont, with defending Paris, and seeing his troops pushed back as far as the barrière de la Villette, he agreed with his colleague to negotiate a ceasefire, then withdrew with his soldiers to Corbeil to await the outcome of events without compromising himself. On April 8, he supported Napoleon I's deposition, then submitted to Louis XVIII, who appointed him governor of Lille.

In March 1815, when the fugitive king wanted to settle in Lille, Mortier urged him not to consider it, as the city was unsafe. His advice having been heeded, the Marshal left for Paris to resume his position with the Emperor. The Emperor appointed him Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Guard. Mortier entered the campaign on June 8, but gave up his command on June 13, two days before the battle of Waterloo, due to an attack of gout that left him bedridden.

The Second Restoration showed little resentment at first, and made him military governor of Rouen. But when the council of war appointed to judge Michel Ney, of which he was a member, declared itself incompetent, Mortier was finally disgraced.

He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1816, and regained his peerage in 1819. Under Louis-Philippe, whom he had met in his youth in the northern army, he was successively ambassador to Russia from December 1830 to September 1831, then Minister of War and President of the Council from November 18, 1834 to March 12, 1835.

He died on July 28, 1835, killed by Giuseppe Fieschi's infernal machine during a review of the National Guard.

Mortier's name is inscribed on the 13th column (east pillar) of the Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile .

His tomb  is in Paris, in the Père Lachaise cemetery, division 27. His heart still rests there, while his remains have been transferred to the Invalides .

Freemasonry : Initiated in February 1792 into the lodge "Les Amis Réunis" of Lille, honorary member of the regimental lodge "Les Emules d'Assas", Marshal Mortier was named Grand Officer of the Grand Orient of France in 1806 and then became, under the Restoration, a member of the Supreme Council of the 33rd degree.