to France to serve the inspector general of infantry. In
October 1803, he was appointed commander of the 4th
Division of the Grand Armeé at St. Omer.
Although France had renewed the war against Brit-
ain in 1803, it was 1805 that saw a renewal of the fight-
ing in Europe. Suchet took the 4th Division, against the
Austrians and Russians at Ulm (20 October), Michels-
berg (15 October), Hollabrunn (16 November), and
Austerlitz (2 December). In 1806, he was granted the
Grand Cordon of the Legion of Honour for his brav-
ery in combat. He led his forces at Saalfeld at the side
of Marshal Jean lannes, capturing Landgrafenberg on
11 October 1806, three days before the main battle at
Jena, where Napoleon was able to secure a critical and
crucial victory against the Prussians. Following Jena,
Suchet moved on to capture Closwitz and Vierzehnheili-
gen, then marched on Weimar, where he joined Lannes.
Crossing the Elbe River, the French followed the Prus-
sian general Gerhard blücher to Prentzlow, but when
Blücher hit the French, led by Jean Lannes, at Pultusk
(26 December 1806), Suchet was able to strike him and
aid in the French victory.
Following the battle at Ostrolenka (now Ostroi-
enka, Poland, on the Narew River), Suchet was pro-
moted to commander of the 1st Division of V Corps of
the Grande Armeé. At Eylau on 8 February 1807, he was
seriously wounded, but following the end of the conflict,
he was given the title of count on 19 March 1808 and
sent to Spain, where French forces were fighting the Brit-
ish. First as commander of the III Corps of the Grande
Armeé and then as the commander in chief of the Armeé
d’Aragon, Suchet led his forces to victory over the Brit-
ish at Maria (14 June 1809) and Lerida (22 April 1810).
French victories at Wagram (6 July 1809) and the British
retreat from Walcheren allowed Napoleon to pour thou-
sands of troops into Spain. This contributed to several
victories by Suchet—who was promoted to marshal in
July 1811—in the province of Valencia, allowing him to
capture that area for Spain in 1812. For these services,
he was bestowed in 1812 with the title duc d’Albufera
da Valencia.
Suchet’s capture of Valencia was the last major vic-
tory for the French in Spain. Although he served as the
governor of Catalonia, in late 1813 he replaced Jean-
Baptiste Bessières as colonel-general of the French Impe-
rial Guard. In 1814, he was named as commander in
chief of the Army of the South, and in this role he led
French forces at Molins del Rey (16 January 1814). By
this time, Napoleon’s hold on power in France was slip-
ping, eventually leading to his abdication and exile to
the island of Elba. Suchet, despite his closeness to Napo-
leon, was accepted by the ruling royal family, the Bour-
bons, now restored to power. However, when Napoleon
escaped from exile and returned to France, Suchet of-
fered his services to his former commander. To the sur-
prise of many, including the historians who have studied
this period, Napoleon did not give Suchet an important
command in the 100 days of his campaign, instead rel-
egating the marshal to serve as commander of the small
Army of the Alps. Suchet saw limited action against the
Austrians in Savoy and southern France in June and July
1815 and arranged an armistice with the Austrians after
Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo. The Bourbons did not
turn on him as they did other Napoleonic command-
ers, although it was not until 1819 that his peerage was
restored to him. Thereafter, Suchet retired, living on his
small estate until his death near Marseille on 3 January
1826 at the age of 55. His two-volume Mémoires, edited
by Baron St. Cyr-Nogues, who had served under Suchet,
were published in 1829.
Suchet was highly regarded by Napoleon, who
wrote in 1812: “There is no one there [in Spain] but
Suchet who does well with his tasks. If I had two com-
manding generals like him to lead my troops in Spain,
this war would already be finished; but there each [of
his commanding officers] wants to complete his own
projects and not mine.” Even in exile on the island of
St.-Helena, Napoleon still had kind words for his former
subordinate, stating, “It was the pillaging which made
me lose Spain, with the exception always of Suchet,
whose conduct was exemplary.”References: Windrow, Martin, and Francis K. Mason,
“Suchet, Louis-Gabriel,” in The Wordsworth Dictionary
of Military Biography (Hertfordshire, U.K.: Wordsworth
Editions Ltd., 1997), 285–286; Bergerot, Bernard, Le
Maréchal Suchet, duc d’Albuféra (Paris: Tallandier, 1986);
Suchet, Louis-Gabriel, duc d’Albuféra, Memoirs of the
War in Spain from 1808 to 1814 (London: H. Colburn,
1829). Suchet, louiS-gAbRiel, Duc D’AlbuFeRA DA vAlenciA