Adolphe Edouard Casimir Mortier, 1st duc de Trevise (13 February 1768 – 28 July 1835) was one of the 26 Marshals of Napoleon I. He served as Prime Minister of France from 18 November 1834 to 12 March 1835, succeeding Hugues-Bernard Maret and preceding Victor de Broglie.
Biography[]
Mortier was born in Le Cateau-Cambresis, and enlisted in the French revolutionary army in 1791 as a lieutenant. During the Second Battle of Zurich in 1799 he made a name for himself and was made a Division General, having aided the defeat of the Second Coalition. He commanded the French army occupying Hanover and in 1804 his conduct earned him the accolade as one of the 26 Marshals.
The Battle of Durrenstein on 11 November 1805 was nearly a disaster for Mortier, whose army suffered very heavy losses and had to be rescued from a combined Austro-Russian army, which also suffered heavy losses. He was reassigned to Germany in 1806, and in 1808 was made the Duc de Trevise.
Marechal Trevise commanded the large French army stationed at Toulouse in Pays d'Oc in southern France during the Peninsular War in 1811 after winning the Battle of Ocana in 1809. When Napoleon surrendered in 1814 he was made the commander of the Royal Guard of King Louis XVIII of France but in 1815 rejoined Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo, but illness prevented his role in the battle. Mortier was disgraced for many years but in 1819 joined the Chamber of Peers and in 1825 received the Order of the Holy Spirit. From 1834 to 1835, he was Prime Minister of France.
Death[]
Disgruntled vagabond Giuseppe Marco Fieschi assembled 21 musket barrels in an apparatus called the "infernal machine" in order to kill King Louis-Philippe I of France in 1835, having gone insane. The machine fired and grazed the king and his two sons, and Mortier was killed by the firing. King Louis-Philippe openly wept at Mortier's funeral.