Beauharnais, ALEXANDRE, VICOMTE DE

Beauharnais, ALEXANDRE, VICOMTE DE, born in 1760 of an ancient French family in the island of Martinique; served, under Rochambeau, in the American War of Independence; and in 1789 eagerly embraced the French Revolution, voting, on the night of 4th August, for the abolition of privileges and the political equality of all citizens. As a reward for his constancy to the cause of liberty, he was named Secretary of the National Assembly and subsequently member of the military committee, but largely forfeited his popularity by venturing to praise and defend the conduct of General Bouillé in his sanguinary suppression of the insurrection at Nancy. The flippant manner in which he received the news of the flight of Louis XVI. was eminently characteristic of the man. He merely rose and said to the Assembly: 'Gentlemen, the king has just gone off; let us pass to the order of the day.' In 1793 he declined the office of Minister of War, and tendered his resignation as general of the Army of the Rhine, because it had been determined to exclude the nobility from the service. During the Reign of Terror, his enemies revived the report that he had participated in the surrender of Mainz, because he had remained idle with his troops for 15 days. In consequence of this accusation, he was brought to Paris, tried and sentenced to death by the revolutionary tribunal. He submitted to his fate with firmness, and died on the scaffold, July 23, 1794. In 1779 he had married Josephine, afterwards wife of the great Napoleon, and his daughter Hortense in 1802 married Napoleon's brother Louis; so that Beauharnais was thus the grandfather of Napoleon III.