Marshal of the Empire
Marshal of the Empire was a title that carried immense weight in Napoleonic France, one so coveted that a sardonic quip greeted the very first list of appointments. When André Masséna's friends arrived to congratulate him on his nomination in 1804, he muttered quietly: "There's fourteen of us..." The remark captured something essential about the new dignity. Napoleon Bonaparte had just proclaimed the First French Empire and was rewarding his generals, yet the choices were uneven enough that a future Marshal, Auguste Frédéric Louis Viesse de Marmont, complained that if Jean-Baptiste Bessières qualified, anyone could. Marmont himself would receive the baton five years later.
What exactly was this title, and why did it matter so much? It was technically a civil dignity, not a military rank. Yet it outranked every grade in the French Imperial Army in terms of visible prestige, carried four silver stars compared to the three of a divisional general, and gave its holders a baton of dark blue velvet decorated with golden eagles. Over roughly a decade, Napoleon would appoint twenty-six men to its ranks. Two of them became kings. Three were killed in action. One received thirty-four battle wounds across his career. The full story of the Marshalate is the story of the Empire itself.
The French word Maréchal traces its lineage back to the Carolingian era, derived from the ancient German marascahl, meaning a stable supervisor responsible for the king's horses. As the battle horse grew in importance during the early Middle Ages, that custodial role accumulated prestige, and by the time of Albéric Clément it had become something genuinely honorific. Clément led King Philippe-Auguste's vanguard at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214 and is recorded as the first named incumbent of the dignity.
At the outset, only one man held the position at a time. Three decades after Bouvines, however, King Louis IX of France set sail for the Seventh Crusade with two Marshals at his side. By the fifteenth century the role had shed its equestrian origins entirely; these men were simply military leaders, a function they would carry forward to modern times. King Louis XIV, whose 72-year reign was the longest of any French monarch, named as many as 51 Marshals. In the decades before the Revolution the court typically maintained between fifteen and sixteen at once. Then came the rupture: a law of the 4th of March 1791 reduced the active number to six, and a decree of the 21st of February 1793 abolished the dignity altogether. Napoleon's decision to revive it eleven years later was a deliberate act of imperial legitimacy, reaching back past the Revolution to an older French tradition.
Article 48 of the sénatus-consulte of the 19th of May 1804 formally established the Marshals as the highest-standing among the grand officers of the Empire. In the Imperial court hierarchy they ranked fifth, behind only the Emperor and Empress, the Imperial family, the great dignitaries, and the ministers. The etiquette surrounding them was precise. When Napoleon himself wrote to a Marshal, he addressed him as Mon Cousin, meaning Cousin. A letter from a third party would open with Monsieur le Maréchal, and when spoken to in person, a Marshal was addressed as Monseigneur, meaning My Liege. Arriving at headquarters, he was greeted with thirteen cannon shots; away from it, with eleven.
Contrary to the impression left by most paintings of the period, the four stars displayed on a Marshal's uniform were silvered, not gilded. The uniform itself was established by decree on the 18th of July 1804 and designed by the painter Jean-Baptiste Isabey and the designer Charles Percier. In practice, many Marshals chose variants of the official design or different costumes altogether. The baton remained the one non-negotiable symbol. It was cylindrical, fifty centimetres long, four and a half centimetres in diameter, made of wood, and covered in dark blue velvet decorated with golden eagles or honey bees, both emblems of the Empire.
Beyond ceremonial trappings, the distinction came with substantial material rewards. Seventeen of the twenty-six Marshals received the title of Duke or Prince, and four were created Counts of the Empire. Several received significant annuities, and a few received direct financial endowments from Napoleon. Louis-Alexandre Berthier and André Masséna each received more than one million francs.
The first promotion, announced alongside the proclamation of the Empire in 1804, created eighteen Marshals in a single stroke. An initial list was drafted by State Secretary Henri Jacques Guillaume Clarke, and Napoleon altered it in his own handwriting, notably adding the name of Joachim Murat, which had been conspicuously absent from Clarke's draft. Whether that omission was deliberate or an oversight, the source records no evidence either way.
Fourteen of the eighteen were active generals. Seven had served Napoleon directly during his campaigns in Italy and Egypt. Others had commanded Republican armies on the Rhine and were known for their firm Republican sympathies; Napoleon included them to secure their loyalty rather than their past service to him. Four of the initial eighteen were elderly senators given an honorary grade, men whose active campaigning days were over. Of these, François Christophe de Kellermann, the oldest Marshal on the list, confounded expectations by proving one of Napoleon's most effective commanders of reserve-class forces.
The profiles ranged widely. Louis-Alexandre Berthier had fought in the American Revolutionary War as part of the French Expeditionary Corps and became Napoleon's indispensable chief of staff, building a complex staff apparatus that proved highly effective throughout the campaigns. Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte had served as both Minister of War and as ambassador to Austria under the Directory; he would later become Crown Prince of Sweden in 1810 and King in 1818, and the source notes that he is the direct ancestor of the current Swedish royal family. Guillaume Brune had been a close friend of the journalist Jean-Paul Marat before rising to command. Louis-Nicolas Davout, described in the source as perhaps Napoleon's finest general, had already served in Egypt; rumours circulated that his promotion was partly a consequence of the deaths of two of his patrons, General Desaix at Marengo and Charles Leclerc, who died of yellow fever in Haiti.
Claude Victor-Perrin became the sole Marshal elevated in the second promotion of 1807, rewarded specifically for his performance at the Battle of Friedland. He had also served under Napoleon in the siege of Toulon and during the Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars.
The third promotion of 1809 followed the Battle of Wagram and produced three new Marshals, each chosen for a different reason. Jacques MacDonald was the only Marshal of the Empire ever promoted on a battlefield and was described as Napoleon's choice for "France." Nicolas-Charles Oudinot was the choice for the "Army," and Auguste de Marmont was named as the choice of "friendship," the source suggesting the distinction owed more to his closeness with the Emperor than to great generalship.
The fourth promotion of 1811 elevated a single man: Louis-Gabriel Suchet, who became the only Marshal to earn his baton in the Peninsular Wars, after his victory at Tarragona. Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr received his in 1812 after routing a Russian army at Polotsk while defending the French spearhead driving toward Moscow.
The sixth promotion brought the most unusual appointment of all. Józef Antoni Poniatowski, a member of the House of Poniatowski, was the only non-French Marshal Napoleon ever created. He received the baton on the eve of the disastrous Battle of Leipzig in 1813, served as a Marshal for three days, and drowned during the retreat. Emmanuel de Grouchy, elevated in the seventh and final promotion of 1815 before the Hundred Days, would become widely blamed for failing to join Napoleon at Waterloo, having become entangled in unnecessary engagements with Prussian field commander Von Blücher.
Three Marshals stood apart for their records on the battlefield. Jean Lannes, Louis-Nicolas Davout, and Louis-Gabriel Suchet were virtually undefeated in pitched battle despite fighting in dozens of engagements. Lannes, who had proved courageous in both Italy and Egypt and rose to command the Consular Guard, was mortally wounded at the Battle of Aspern-Essling on the 31st of May 1809. Jean-Baptiste Bessières, one of Napoleon's closest friends, died near Lützen on the 1st of May 1813. Józef Poniatowski drowned at Leipzig on the 19th of October 1813 after only three days wearing the baton.
Nicolas-Charles Oudinot's endurance was extraordinary. Across his entire career he suffered thirty-four battle wounds; during his five years as a Marshal from 1809 to 1814 alone, he absorbed seven of them. He lived to the age of 81.
The collective record outside Napoleon's direct supervision was less distinguished. When Marshals were left to cooperate among themselves, friction frequently undermined operations. Some acted in bad faith when placed under a rival Marshal's command, and such conflicts sometimes produced fatal military consequences. The tension was not merely personal vanity. The Marshalate had been constructed as a hierarchy of peers, and asking a man who had commanded armies to defer to another man of equal rank created structural conflict the system was never fully designed to resolve. After Napoleon's fall, most Marshals swore allegiance to the Bourbon Restoration; several held significant commands and positions in the decades that followed, with Jean-de-Dieu Soult living until the 26th of November 1851 and Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey reaching the 20th of April 1842.
With two exceptions, Bessières and Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier, the Marshals led lavish lives and left behind substantial, at times immense, fortunes. The social elevation was codified in their titles: four were created Counts of the Empire, while seventeen received either a dukedom or a princely title. Joachim Murat, who had married Napoleon's sister Caroline, was made King of Naples in 1808. Bernadotte, as already noted, ascended to the Swedish throne.
Each Marshal also held his own personal coat of arms, a privilege extending the iconography of the old French nobility into the new imperial order. Their uniforms, their distinctive batons, the cannon salutes at headquarters, the formal forms of address, all constructed a social tier between the Emperor and the ranks of even the highest military commands. The baton itself carried a specific promise: a popular saying held that every soldier of France carried a Marshal's baton in his knapsack, though the source makes clear that the reality of promotion was governed by Napoleon's own judgment, including at least a few choices that contemporaries considered questionable.
Napoleon appointed twenty-six Marshals across his reign from 1804 to 1815, yet the total number active at any single moment never exceeded twenty. The distinction outlasted him. Most of the men who wore the four silver stars navigated the Restoration and served the Bourbons; Auguste de Marmont, the Duke of Raguse, lived until the 22nd of March 1852, dying in Venice, the last survivor of Napoleon's original Marshalate.
Common questions
What was the Marshal of the Empire title in Napoleon's France?
Marshal of the Empire was a civil dignity, not a military rank, established by sénatus-consulte on the 18th of May 1804 during the First French Empire. It was the highest-standing among the grand officers of the Empire, outranking every military grade in terms of prestige, and entitled its holders to a distinctive baton, special court etiquette, and in many cases a ducal or princely title.
How many Marshals of the Empire did Napoleon appoint?
Napoleon appointed a total of 26 Marshals across his reign from 1804 to 1815, though the number active at any single moment never exceeded 20. The first promotion in 1804 created 18 Marshals at once; six further promotions followed, with the final one taking place in 1815 before the Hundred Days.
Which Marshals of the Empire became kings?
Joachim Murat, who had married Napoleon's sister Caroline, became King of Naples in 1808. Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte became Crown Prince of Sweden in 1810 and King of Sweden in 1818; the source notes he is the direct ancestor of the current Swedish royal family.
What did the Marshal of the Empire baton look like?
The baton was cylindrical, fifty centimetres long and four and a half centimetres in diameter, made of wood and covered in dark blue velvet. It was decorated with golden eagles or honey bees, both Imperial symbols. The Marshal's uniform, including his four silver stars, was established by decree on the 18th of July 1804 and designed by painter Jean-Baptiste Isabey and designer Charles Percier.
Which Marshals of the Empire were killed in action?
Three Marshals were killed in action or died of battle wounds: Jean Lannes, who was mortally wounded at Aspern-Essling on the 31st of May 1809; Jean-Baptiste Bessières, who died near Lützen on the 1st of May 1813; and Józef Poniatowski, who drowned at Leipzig on the 19th of October 1813 after serving as a Marshal for only three days.
Who was the only non-French Marshal of the Empire?
Józef Antoni Poniatowski, a member of the House of Poniatowski, was the only Marshal of Napoleon's Empire who was not French. He received the baton in 1813 and was elevated in the sixth promotion alongside the Battle of Leipzig, where he drowned during the retreat after just three days as a Marshal.
All sources
3 references cited across the entry
- 2citationNapoleon's Marshals Part 6