named Junot as his personal secretary. When Napoleon
went to fight in Italy, Junot served as his aide-de-camp
and, during the French campaign in Egypt, was named
as general of brigade. Back in France, Junot fought a
duel on Napoleon’s behalf and was named as governor
of Paris in 1806.
In 1807, Napoleon put Junot in charge of the
French invasion of Portugal. That November, he started
from Salamanca and moved his forces rapidly through
the mountains of Beira. Although he missed a chance
to capture the Portuguese royal family at Lisbon, he eas-
ily took all of Portugal, for which he received the title
duc d’Abrantes and was named as governor of Portugal.
Though an efficient soldier, however, Junot was not an
administrator, and his government suffered from this
lack of experience. In August 1808, Sir Arthur Wellesley,
duke of Wellington, attacked his forces at Vimiera in
the Peninsular War and, on 30 August, forced him to
sign the Convention of Cintra and abandon Portugal to
the British and Portuguese forces. Because of this defeat,
Napoleon, despite naming Junot a marshal of France,
felt betrayed and never fully trusted him again.
Junot subsequently fought with Napoleon’s forces
at Wagram (5–6 July 1809) and with Marshal André
masséna in the Spanish campaign (1810–11), where
he was seriously wounded. He went with Napoleon into
Russia but was not given any major command, and his
role in that campaign was minor and obscure. Once he
returned to France, Napoleon put him in charge of the
province of Illyria (now in present-day Balkans), but by
this time he was suffering from serious dementia. On 29
July 1813, at his father’s home in Montbard, France, he
threw himself out a window to his death.
Historian Vincent Hawkins writes of Junot: “[He]
was one of Napoleon’s most able subordinates, a brave and
sometimes headstrong soldier; his plans were hampered
by his lack of military education; he was a capable admin-
istrator and was completely devoted to Napoleon.”References: Hawkins, Vincent B., “Junot, Jean Andoche,
Duke of Abrantes,” in The Encyclopedia of Military Biogra-
phy, edited by Trevor N. Dupuy, Curt Johnson, and David
L. Bongard (London: I. B. Taurus & Co., Ltd., 1992),
386; “Junot, Gen Andoche, Duc d’Abrantes,” in The
Oxford Companion to Military History, edited by Richard
Holmes (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 469;
Eight Separate Decrees, 9 January–27 February 1808, issued
by General Junot, relating to the administration of the Gov-
ernment of Portugal (Paris, France: Departments of State
and Other Official Bodies, 1809). Junot, JeAn-AnDoche AlexAnDRe, Duc D’AbRAnteS