LA ROCHEJAQUELEN, HENRI du VERGIER, Count of. – Vendean general, b. at the château de la Durbellière (Châtillon-sur-Sèvre) on 3 Aug. 1772, d. at Nouaillé on 4 Mar. 1794. A pupil of the military school at Sorèze and an officer in the royal guard in 1791, he joined the Vendeans in revolt against the Revolution and distinguished himself among them by his military skill and personal heroism.
The serious setback suffered by the royalists at Cholet on 17 Oct. 1793 led La Rochejaquelein to supreme command of the insurrection.
With skilful manoeuvring he defeated the republicans at Entrammes on 27 Oct., but within a few days he was heavily defeated before Granville (13 Nov.) and then again at Le Mans a month later owing to the numerical disparity between his forces and those of the three armies under Westermann, Marceau and Kléber. Yet the very young general organised the retreat across the Loire, and after the decisive defeat at Savenay he began a fierce guerrilla war which lasted, in the vain hope of English aid, until the following spring. Falling into an ambush, he lost his life there.