Jean-Andre Massena (6 May 1758-4 April 1817) was a Marshal of the First French Empire under Emperor Napoleon I. He was nicknamed "the Dear Child of Victory", and he served with distinction during Napoleon's Italian Campaign and while commanding French forces during the fight against Portugal and Great Britain from 1811 to 1814 during the Peninsular War.
Biography[]
Rise to prominence[]
A young Massena in 1796
Born in the Piedmontese/Sardinian city of Nice (currently located in France), Massena joined the French Navy in 1772 and served as a cabin boy aboard a merchant ship. In 1791, he rejoined the army after a short tour of duty in the Royal Italian Regiment, and he had risen to the rank of Colonel by 1792. Massena was made commandant of the base of Nice in Alpes-Maritimes, and he served in a series of battles in Italy from 1794 to 1797 alongside a rising Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1799, he was deployed to Switzerland and defeated the Russians at the Second Battle of Zurich and again at the St. Gotthard Pass, where he held off Aleksandr Suvorov's Russian army.
Napoleonic Wars[]
Massena at the Battle of Bologna, 1796
Afterwards, Massena was made commander of forces in Italy, but he was later dismissed by Napoleon. In 1804 he was made a Marshal and was invited to rejoin Napoleon's ranks and, although he was defeated by Archduke Charles at the Battle of Borgoforte in January 1805, he defeated the Austrians at Venice in March and at Caldiero in October. He would not see service again until the Fifth Coalition in 1809, heroically defending Aspern from the Austrians at the Battle of Aspern-Essling.
In 1810, Andre Massena was dispatched to Spain to command French forces in the Province of Beira in northern Portugal. Massena was the victor of engagements such as the Battle of Estremadura in April 1811, Santarem in May, and the Battle of Caceres in September. Massena's abilities in fighting gained France control of northern Portugal, and he defended it from counterattacks from Britain and Portugal. However, he was replaced by Jean-de-Dieu Soult as commander of the initiative in Portugal after losing a great deal of men in the storming of Caceres. Massena spent this time replenishing, reinforcing, and resupplying his army, whose morale was still high but numbers few.
Eventually, Massena was sent to become a local commander at Marseilles, where he was stationed until the restoration of Bourbon rule over France in April 1814. Although he refused to join Napoleon I on his invasion of France from Elba in March 1815, Massena refused to try Marechal Michel Ney in the aftermath of Napoleon's defeat. He died in 1817; the city of Nice's Place Massena is named for him.