Charles de la Bédoyère

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Charles Angélique François Huchet, Comte de la Bédoyère (1786-1815) was a French General under Napoleon who was executed in 1815.

Descended from an old Breton family, he entered the army in late 1806 as a Second Lieutenant, he served as an aide-de-camp to Marshal Lannes and then Prince Eugene, seeing active service in Spain, Italy, Germany, Russia and France, and being award the Legion of Honour and the Iron Crown. He was a Colonel commanding the 7th Regiment of the Line at Grenoble when Bonaparte returned from exile in Elba and marched north to Paris. On the 8th March la Bédoyère and his regiment went over to Bonaparte en masse.

During the Waterloo campaign la Bédoyère, now promoted to Lieutenant-General, was the officer sent with a message to d'Erlon's Ist Corps, then marching west to join Ney at Quatre Bras, to turn east to support Bonaparte at Ligny. Ney was furious when he heard saw the corps marching away from battle and sent another order for it to return immediately to Quatre-Bras. As a result of these orders and counter-orders d'Erlon's 20,000 men, which could have sealed the fate of the Allies at Quatre-Bras or the Prussians at Ligny, spent the entire day marching back and forth without firing a shot.

Two days later at the Battle of Waterloo de la Bédoyère served as an aide-de-camp to Bonaparte, and was one of the last to leave the battlefield. Afterwards finding that he was not eligible for amnesty as he believed, he secretly travelled to Paris in order to see his wife before heading to Switzerland and exile, but was recognized and arrested. La Bédoyère was tried by a military court and condemned to death by firing squad, and this was confirmed and carried out at the plain of Grenelle on 19 August 1815. At his death he was aged only 29.