Lambert of plotting a coup against the Rump Parliament
and demanded his impeachment. Lambert, angered at
the accusation, dissolved the Parliament with a threat of
violence. Haselrig appealed for aid from the nation’s mil-
itary, and General George monck, another Parliamen-
tary veteran of the civil war and the commander in chief
of forces in Scotland, sided with Heselrig and reported
that he would support the right of Parliament against
Lambert. Lambert marched his army north to confront
Monck; however, on the way, much of his army deserted
him, and he was captured. Monck imprisoned Lambert
in the Tower of London and went on to restore Charles
II to the throne.
Lambert somehow escaped from the tower in April
1660 and issued a proclamation that all supporters of
the anti-Royalist cause should rally to his side at Edge-
hill, the site of an earlier Civil War battle. However,
no support was forthcoming, and he was captured by
Colonel Ingoldsby, who had participated in the execu-
tion of Charles I and hoped for a pardon from the new
monarch. Initially sentenced to death, Lambert was
again taken to the Tower of London, then moved to
the island of Guernsey and finally to Drakes Island in
Plymouth Sound, where he remained for the rest of his
life. Following the death of his wife in 1676, Lambert
lapsed into insanity. He died in prison in February
1684 at the age of 64, having spent the last 24 years
of his life imprisoned. A brilliant painting of him, by
artist Robert Walker, is in the National Portrait Gallery
in London.
References: Dawson, William Harbutt, Cromwell’s Un-
derstudy: The Life and Times of General John Lambert and
the Rise and Fall of the Protectorate (London: W. Hodge
and Company, Ltd., 1938); Farr, David, John Lambert:
Parliamentary Soldier and Cromwellian Major-General,
1619–1684 (Rochester, N.Y.: Boydell Press, 2003);
Rushworth, John, Historical Collections of Private Passages
of State, Weighty Matters in Law, Remarkable Proceedings
in five Parliaments:... , 8 vols. (London: Printed by
Tho. Newcomb for George Thomason, 1659–1701),
VII:731; Gardiner, Samuel Rawson, History of the Great
Civil War, 1642–1649, 4 vols. (London: Longmans,
Green & Company, 1893); Bruce, George, “Worcester,”
in Collins Dictionary of Wars (Glasgow, Scotland: Harper-
Collins Publishers, 1995), 269–270; The Case of Colonel
John Lambert, Prisoner in the Tower of London (London,
1661).
Lannes, Jean, duc de Montebello (1769–1809)
French general
Jean Lannes was born the son of a stableboy in the vil-
lage of Lectour, France, on 11 April 1769. Unable to
afford an education, he was taught by the village priest
to read and write and was later apprenticed to a dyer of
materials. He joined the French army in 1792, rising to
the rank of chef de brigade during the French war with
Spain (1793–94). In 1795, a reform of the army ranks
lost him his commission. Nevertheless, he enlisted as a
volunteer and fought in naPoleon’s Italian campaign.
His bravery at the battle of Dego (14–15 April 1796)
brought him to the attention of Napoleon, who took
Lannes under his wing and promoted him to the rank of
brigadier general in 1797.
Lannes accompanied Napoleon during the Egyp-
tian campaign (1798–99), playing a key role in several
engagements, including the battle at Gaza (25 Febru-
ary 1799), the Siege of Acre (19 March–20 May 1799),
and the battle of Aboukir (25 July 1799), where he was
wounded. After Napoleon returned to France in 1799,
Lannes was named as commander of the 9th and 10th
French divisions, and he was again at his leader’s side
when Napoleon undertook the coup d’état of 18 Bru-
maire and declared himself emperor. Now France’s ruler,
Napoleon immediately sent Lannes and the French
army into Italy, where they defeated the Austrians under
Marshal Karl Peter Ott, Freiherr von Batorzek, at Mon-
tebello (9 June 1800), the battle from which Lannes
later took his title. The French victory at Montebello
in northwest Italy contributed to Napoleon’s stunning
victory against the Austrians under Lieutenant General
Michael Melas at nearby Marengo (14 June 1800). With
the end of the campaign, Lannes was named by Napo-
leon as the French minister to Portugal in 1801.
Upon the establishment of the French Empire in
1804, Lannes was made one of its 18 marshals. As com-
mander of the V Corps of the Grand Armée, he played
a key role in Napoleonic victories at the battles of Ulm
(16 October 1805), Austerlitz (2 December 1805), and
Jena (14 October 1806). At Austerlitz, also called the
battle of the Three Emperors because the forces fight-
ing represented three empires, he commanded the left
wing of Napoleon’s army, bringing defeat on France’s
enemies. At Pultusk, Poland, on 26 December 1806, he
commanded the French army to victory over the Rus-
sians, with the same result occurring at Friedland in June
1807. lAnneS, JeAn, Duc De montebello