|
|
François Joseph Lefebvre, duc de Dantzig, (1755-1820) was marshal of France during the Napoleonic Wars.
He enlisted in army at the age of 18. From 1789 he French Revolution. He was promoted to brigadier general in 1793 and took part in the Battle of Fleurus (June 24, 1794). After general Hoche's death, he was put in command of the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse (September 1797). He commanded the vanguard of the Army of the Danube under Jourdan in March 1799. He was a commander of the Paris troops and supported Napoleon Bonaparte in his coup d'état in 1799.
Bonaparte appointed him senator (1800), promoted him to marshal in 1804. Lefebvre commanded a division of the Armed Guard in the German campaign. At Jena, on October 14, 1806, Lefebvre was in command of the infantry of the Imperial Guard. He sieged and took Danzig in 1807. This difficult siege won him the title of Duc de Dantzig.
In 1808, Lefebvre took part in the Peninsula War and in 1809, he commanded Bavarian army in Eckmühl and Wagram. In 1809, he was defeated by Tyrolean patriot Andreas Hofer and was replaced. He commanded the Old Guard in Russian, German and French campaigns in 1812-1814.
He voted the Emperor's deposition at the Senate and was made Peer of France by Louis XVIII (June 4, 1814), but rallied to Napoleon during the Hundred Days. He was excluded from the House of Peers during the second Restoration. However, he retained his rank of marshal. Louis XVIII gave him back his peerage on March 5, 1819. He died in 1820, and was buried near André Masséna at the Père-Lachaise, Paris.