Marie Edme Patrice Maurice de MacMahon, marquis de MacMahon, duc de Magenta (; 13 June 1808 – 17 October 1893), was a French general and politician who served as President of France from 1873 to 1879. He was elevated to the dignity of Marshal of France by Napoleon III.
MacMahon led the main French army in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. He was trapped and wounded at the Battle of Sedan in September 1870, in part because of his confused and indecisive strategic planning. The army, including MacMahon and Emperor Napoleon III, surrendered to the Germans. Thus the Emperor was deposed and the French Third Republic was proclaimed. After convalescing, MacMahon was appointed head of the Versailles army, which suppressed the Paris Commune revolt in May 1871 and set the stage for his political career.
According to David Bell, after Adolphe Thiers' resignation in May 1873, the royalist majority in the National Assembly drafted MacMahon as the new leader, with the hope that he would hold the fort until the Bourbon pretender was ready to restore the throne. However, the Count of Chambord's extreme Legitimist stance made restoration politically impossible. MacMahon refused to support efforts to force the Assembly's hand. In the absence of his full support there was no way to achieve monarchy by extra-parliamentary means. The right had no choice but to keep MacMahon in office to gain time and act as a barrier to the left by repressing radical agitation and pursuing policies to restore "moral order" to the country. In November 1873, he was voted a term of office of seven years.
In 1874, due to demands for Bonapartism, MacMahon called for constitutional reform. To ensure calm this led to a system of a President and Senate elected indirectly. In 1876, MacMahon had to accept the governments of moderate Republicans Jules Armand Dufaure and Jules Simon. However, in 1877, MacMahon dismissed Simon and recalled the Duke de Broglie. The new government was dissolved on a no confidence vote. Conservatives hoped to exploit their influential press, heavy patronage, and martial law to coerce the voters. They failed in the general election of October 1877, as the Republicans won the majority despite the challenges on the right. In January 1879, the Republicans forced MacMahon's resignation.David Bell, et al. eds. Biographical dictionary of French political leaders since 1870 (1990) pp 257-258.
MacMahon was a devout conservative Catholic, and a traditionalist who despised anarchism, communism, socialism and liberalism and strongly distrusted the mostly secular Republicans. He kept to his duty as the neutral guardian of the Constitution and rejected suggestions of a monarchist coup d'état, but refused to meet with Gambetta, the leader of the Republicans. He moved for a parliamentary system in which the assembly selected the ruling government of the Third Republic, but he also insisted on an upper chamber. He later dissolved the Chamber of Deputies, resulting in public outrage and a Republican electoral victory. Soon after MacMahon resigned and retired to private life.
Family and early life
The MacMahon family is of Irish origin. They were Lords of Corcu Baiscind in Ireland and descended from Mahon, the son of Muirchertach Ua Briain, High King of Ireland.Brian Boru and The Battle of Clontarf, Seán Duffy, page 100, page 273John O'Hart,Irish Pedigrees or the Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation, Volume 1, 1892, pages 148–150, https://archive.org/details/irishpedigreesor_01ohar/page/150 After losing much of their land in the Cromwellian confiscations of 1652, a branch moved to Limerick for a time. They supported the deposed King James II in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and settled in France during the subsequent reign of King William III.Firinne, D.H. and Eugene O'Curry, Life of Marshal MacMahon, Duke of Magenta. (The "Irishman" Office, Dublin, 1859) pp. 5–6. They applied for French citizenship in 1749; after the definitive installation of the family in France, their nobility was recognised by the patent letter of King Louis XV.
A military family (14 members of the house of de Mac Mahon were in the Army), they settled in Autun, Burgundy, at the Chateau de Sully, in the département of Saône-et-Loire, where Patrice de MacMahon was born on 13 June 1808, sixteenth and the second-youngest son of Baron (1754–1831), Baron of Sully, Count de MacMahon and de Charnay, and Pélagie de Riquet de Caraman (1769–1819), a descendant of Pierre-Paul Riquet.
His grandfather Jean-Baptiste de MacMahon, was named Marquis de MacMahon and 1st Marquis d'Éguilly (from his wife Charlotte Le Belin, Dame d'Éguilly) by King Louis XV, and the family in France had decidedly royalist politics.
Military career
Early career and service in Algeria
In 1820, MacMahon entered the Petit Séminaire des Marbres at Autun; then completed his education at Lycée Louis-le-Grand at Paris. He then entered the Special Military School at Saint-Cyr on 23 October 1825. He then joined the application school at the General Staff Headquarters on 1 October 1827, for a period of two years.
Following his graduation from Saint-Cyr, MacMahon entered the French Army in 1827. He was assigned to the 4th Hussars Regiment in 1830. MacMahon subsequently participated in the French conquest of Algeria as a sous-lieutenant in the . He was commended for his capacity and bravery during the seizure of Algiers. On 24 November 1830, MacMahon further distinguished himself while serving with his regiment, during the , during the . He was awarded the Knight Order of the Legion d'honneur.
Recalled to France, MacMahon participated in 1832 to the Ten Days' Campaign where he was noticed again during the Siege of Antwerp.
He was promoted captain in 1833, and returned to Algeria, this time, in 1836 where he was placed under the orders of General Bertrand Clausel, and then General Charles-Marie Denys de Damrémont. He led several audacious cavalry raids across tribal occupied plains and distinguished himself during the Siege of Constantine, in 1837, where he was slightly wounded. In 1840, he left Algeria and upon his return to France, he learned that he had been promoted to chef d'escadron (cavalry squadron chief).
Returned again to Algeria at the head of the , distinguished himself, in April, at the Battle of Bab el-Thaza and against the troops of Emir Abdelkader, on 25 May.
On 31 December 1842, he was promoted lieutenant-colonel in the 2nd Regiment of the French Foreign Legion 2ème R.E.L.E. In 1843, he assumed the functions of regimental commander, when the incumbent was taken ill, and retained the command until 1845.
MacMahon distinguished himself again during the battle of Chaab el-Gitta and the battle of Aïn Kebira on 14 October and 17 October 1844.
Promoted colonel in December 1845, he was assigned command of the , garrisoned at Marnia.
Since 1848, MacMahon was appointed head of the subdivision of Tlemcen, where he was promoted général de brigade on 12 June that same year.
In 1849, he became a Commander of the Order of the Legion d'honneur, and served under General Aimable Pélissier, chief of the general staff of the Oran Province.
In 1852 MacMahon organized in Algeria the plebiscite of legitimation by universal suffrage destined to approve the French coup d'état of 1851. In March the same year he was appointed commander of the and promoted Général de division in July.
Crimean War, Sevastopol
During the Crimean War, he was given command of the 1st Infantry Division of the 2nd Orient Army Corps and, in September 1855, he won a victory at the Battle of Malakoff during the Siege of Sevastopol. During the battle he is reputed to have said: "Here I am; here will I stay!" ()Bent, S. A. (1887). Familiar short sayings of great men [eBook edition]. Ticknor and Company. https://www.bartleby.com/344/268.htmlThis word that is very suggestive in its concision, was that of Marshal de Mac Mahon, in the circumstances which historian Henri Martin related to: Mac-Mahon, while launching all his division, had finished off with repelling the Russians from Malakof. Informed that the openings were rigged with mines and that there were severe risks of explosions and being blown to pieces, he responded with the famous: ("J'y suis, j'y reste !" – "Here I am; here will I stay !"). Later, other controversies were engaged around the authenticity of this word, and no certain proof of this authenticity were able to be appropriated. It seems that the historical truth would be a little different. After having entered into Malakof, the French troops had to sustain violent counterattacks launched by the Russians; it was only after a couple of hours that their position were finally consolidated, and Mac-Mahon would have sent a letter to Pélissier with the following message, quite different in the form and the content :" Je suis dans Malakof et je suis sûr de m'y maintenir" – "Here I am in Malakof and I am certain of maintaining myself" (Paris soir, 4 January 1937)
Senator and further Algerian service After his return to France, he received a number of honours and was appointed Senator. Desiring a more active life, he refused a senior position in the French metropolitan army, and returned to Algeria. In Algeria, he served in a campaign against the Kabyle people. On his return to France, he voted as senator against a new law on general security, proposed after the failed assassination attempt of Felice Orsini against Emperor Napoleon III; the law (which passed) allowed easier government action against "enemies of the Empire" and those suspected of political crimes, and made anyone who did not pledge allegiance to Napoleon III ineligible for the legislature.
Magenta: Marshal of France
MacMahon distinguished himself during the Italian Campaign of 1859. He advanced his troops without having received orders at a critical moment during the Battle of Magenta, which assured French victory.
For his military services, he was appointed a Marshal of France by Emperor Napoleon III, and awarded the title of Duke of Magenta.
Governor General of Algeria In 1861 MacMahon represented France at the coronation of William I as King of Prussia. In 1864, he was named as Governor General of Algeria.
MacMahon did not distinguish himself in this appointment. While he initiated several reforms, numerous complaints were made against him. During the first half of 1870, he submitted his resignation to Napoleon III. When the Olivier cabinet was formed, the Emperor abandoned his Algerian projects and MacMahon was recalled.
Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune MacMahon led the main French army in the Franco-Prussian War where he suffered several defeats in Alsace. He was seriously wounded during the Battle of Sedan. In 1871 the French army surrendered, and the Germans had clearly won the war. Overall his strategic planning was confused and marked by indecision. He, along with the rest of the army including the Emperor, was made prisoner during the capitulation of Sedan on 1 September.
In 1871, he became the head of the army of the French Third Republic, under President Adolphe Thiers, and in May led the Semaine Sanglante, the bloody week-long military campaign which defeated the Paris Commune and placed the city under the authority of the Third Republic. He was not blamed for the repression, but instead became the hero of the hour for the right.Hutton, Patrick H., Historical Dictionary of the French Third Republic. (Greenwood Press, New York, 1986) pp. 587–88
President of the Republic