LA MORICIÈRE, LOUIS-CHRISTOPHE-LÉON JUCHAULT de. - French general and commander-in-chief of the papal army, b. at Nantes of a noble Breton family on 5 Feb. 1806, d. at the Château de Prouzel (Amiens) on 11 Sept. 1865. Having chosen the military life (1826), he attended for two years the École Polytechnique in Paris and the École d'Application in Metz, whence he emerged as a second lieutenant of artillery. Having left for Africa in 1830, he distinguished himself at the capture of Algiers so as to earn promotion to captain of the Zouaves, which marked the beginning of a very rapid career. He was interim governor of the colony following the victory of Isly (1845), reaching the height of his renown when, on 23 Dec. 1847, he forced to final capitulation the most worthy of his adversaries, the intrepid emir Abd-el-Kader.
Once Algeria had been pacified, he found occasion to devote himself to politics. Already elected in 1846 by the legitimists as deputy for the district of St-Calais (Sarthe), he was an opponent of Guizot, was designated minister of War with Thiers, commander of the National Guard, and was gravely wounded during the riots of 24 Feb. 1848, which marked the end of the "July monarchy." The Constituent Assembly of the Second Republic had him as deputy for the department of the Sarthe (Apr. 1848), and the new regime emerged safe from the tragic June disturbances in large part through the energy and the "sublime" valor, as Alexis de Tocqueville wrote, of La M. Having sided with Cavaignac, he received the War Ministry (28 June 1848), afterwards going as ambassador of France to Moscow, where he also defended Catholic interests (1849). He moreover firmly opposed the designs of Louis Napoleon, and was in this way among the first designated victims of the coup d'état of 2 Dec. 1852. Arrested, taken to Mazas and to Ham, finally expelled from France, he spent nine years of exile between England, Germany and Belgium, in the course of which, through the efforts of Montalembert and of Dechamps, later archbishop of Malines, he chose to return to that faith and that observance of religious duties which made him a fervent and exemplary Catholic.
Hence the last of his exploits. When Pius IX, after the detachment of the Romagna (June 1859), seeing his liberty threatened, turned for help to the Catholics of the whole world, the first among those called was precisely La M. Though knowing that he was embarking on a desperate enterprise and with the prospect of compromising his military reputation, La M. was ready and magnanimous. To De Corcelles, who was sounding out his intentions (Oct. 1859), he said he would be glad even to die for such a cause; to his relative and former fellow soldier Msgr. De Merode, who brought him the formal invitation (3 March 1860), he added that a son cannot fail to hasten at the call of the Father. And he departed secretly from Paris, landed at Ancona, and assumed in Rome the supreme command of the papal troops (9 Apr.). Volunteers and officers from every country soon followed his example: a few months sufficed for La M., assisted by the new minister of Arms, Msgr. De Merode, to renew and strengthen the entire structure of the army. And when his four mobile brigades and the antiquated fortresses were surprised by an assault of preponderant royal forces in the Marches and in Umbria (11 Sept. 1860), new and old papal soldiers knew how to fight and die, upholding the honor of the flag. The resistance offered to the enemy penetration by the strongholds of Pesaro, S. Leo and Spoleto, the field actions of the Schmidt brigade in the Perugia area and of the De Courten brigade in the S. Angelo area, enabled La M. to cross the Apennines with the De Pimodan and Kropt brigades. Having reached Loreto on the evening of 17 Sept., he found the road to Ancona blocked by about three royal divisions, but nevertheless succeeded in surprising them the following morning in the tactical field near Castelfidardo (v.), whence, thanks to the sacrifice of almost all the troops, he managed to shut himself up in Ancona (v. ANCONA E NUMANA, ARCIODICESI di). And there he held out with only four thousand men against two army corps and the entire naval squadron for a full ten days of stubborn defense (19-29 Sept.).
Taken prisoner to Genoa, where he disembarked feverish (7 Oct.), he soon returned to Rome, welcomed with paternal affection by Pius IX, who, after having in vain offered him the title of Roman count and the ministry of Arms, wished to confirm him in the supreme command and to decorate him with the Order of Christ and honorary Roman citizenship. La M. then drew up a lucid and objective Report on the campaign fought (cf. Giornale di Roma, Suppl. to no. 259, year 1860) and, having retired to his Château de Prouzel, amid demonstrations of esteem and respect, he also declined the French gift of a sword of honor, since, as he said, he had been able to save only the honor of the army he commanded. He spent his last years in the reorganization of the papal troops and in works of charity. He was buried in the church of S. Filiberto near Nantes.
Bibliography14 works
Paolo Dalla Torre