Auguste de Marmont

French General, nobleman and Marshal of France (1774-1852)

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Lived 1774–1852, aged 78France

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Wikipedia
41 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1774–1852
Aged 78
Awards
17
recognised works

Summary

Updated 2026-06-09

A marshal who switched sides so notoriously that his name became a verb in French — "raguser" meant to betray. Both the Bonapartists and the Bourbons ended up calling him a traitor, and he died in exile having burned through two regimes' trust.

Biography

About

Auguste de Marmont climbed to Marshal of the Empire under Napoleon, then took command of French forces in northern Spain after André Masséna's disgrace. He lost decisively at Salamanca in 1812 as the Peninsular War slipped away. When the Sixth Coalition closed in on France, Marmont defected to the Restoration and stayed loyal to the Bourbons through the Hundred Days — earning him a lasting stain among Bonapartists. In 1830 he led the royalist garrison during the July Revolution, but failed to crush the uprising; King Charles X accused him of betraying the Bourbons just as he had betrayed Napol…

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