Cadoudal, GEORGES

Cadoudal, GEORGES, a distinguished leader of the Chouans (q.v.), was born near Auray, in Lower Brittany, where his father was a miller, in 1771. He was among the first to take up arms against the Republic, and soon acquired great influence over the peasants. Captured in 1794, he escaped, became leader of the insurgents in Lower Brittany, and organised an army in which no noble was permitted to command, and which Hoche, with all his generalship, was unable to subdue or disperse. After an apparent submission in 1796, he renewed the revolt in Brittany in 1799, but was compelled to submit, and to dismiss his forces, in February 1800. Bonaparte recognised his energy and force of character, and endeavoured to secure his services; but Cadoudal refused his offers, and passed over to England, where the Comte d'Artois appointed him a lieutenant-general, and where, in 1802, he conspired with Pichegru for the overthrow of the First Consul. With this design he went to Paris, but was arrested, condemned, and guillotined, June 25, 1804. He was a man of stern honesty and indomitable resolution. 'His mind was cast in the true mould; in my hands he would have done great things,' said Napoleon of him. After the Restoration, his family was ennobled.