Louis-Nicolas Davout
Louis-Nicolas d'Avout (10 May 1770 – 1 June 1823), better known as Davout, 1st Prince of Eckmühl, 1st Duke of Auerstaedt, was a French military commander and Marshal of the Empire who served during both the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. His talent for war, along with his reputation as a stern disciplinarian, earned him the nickname "The Iron Marshal" (Le Maréchal de fer). He is ranked as one of Napoleon's finest commanders and also stands among the most outstanding military commanders of the modern era.
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Attributed
[edit]- When Napoleon asked him, "How would you behave if I made you King of Poland?" he replied, "When a man has the honour to be a Frenchman, he must always be a Frenchman," but he added, "From the day on which I accepted the crown of Poland I would become entirely and solely a Pole, and I would act in complete contradiction to your Majesty if the interests of the people whose chief I was demanded that I should do so."
- Reported in R. P. Dunn-Pattison, Napoleon's Marshals, 2nd ed. (London: Methuen & Co., 1909), p. 182
External links
[edit]
Encyclopedic article on Louis-Nicolas Davout on Wikipedia
