Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse (29 May 1750 – 24 July 1812) was a French admiral.
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Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse was born in Auch, in the heart of Gascony. The Villaret de Joyeuse family figured among the minor nobility from Languedoc. He originally joined the gendarmes du roi, but he had to leave at sixteen after killing one of his comrades in a duel.
Unable to enter the elite naval schools, he entered the navy as a volontaire in 1768. In 1773, he served as a lieutenant on the Atalante in the Indian Ocean. In 1778, he distinguished himself at the siege of Pondicherry, earning the rank of capitaine de brûlot (fireship captain).
He then served under Suffren, who gave him command of the frigate Bellone after the battle of Cuddalore. He was later transferred to the frigate Dauphine, and became first officer aboard Suffren's ship of the line Brillant.
In 1782, Suffren made him his aide, and gave him a seemingly impossible mission: escape the English fleet and warn the two ships of the line and two frigates blockading Madras about a superior English fleet. "You will probably be taken on your way out or on your way back, make out as you can, but fight well!". He set out in the small frigate Naïade. After four days, he encountered the 64-gun HMS Sceptre. Villaret eluded his opponent by sailing in shallow waters, where his larger and heavier opponent could not follow. Close to Madras, he finally engaged the English ship, striking his colours after a five-hour battle, Naïade having over two metres of water in her hull. The English captain refused to accept Villaret's sword, saying: "Sir, you have given us a fairly beautiful frigate, but you made us pay dearly for her!". Villaret was taken prisoner, but the sound of the battle had warned the French squadron, which escaped. Villaret was exchanged in 1783, and made Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Louis in July. He was promoted to lieutenant de vaisseau in 1784 for his service. After the war, Villaret served in the harbour of Lorient.
Unlike the majority of naval officers, Villaret did not emigrate during the Revolution.
In 1791, he was given command of the frigate Prudente to transport troops to Saint-Domingue. Arriving shortly before the slave revolt that launched the Haitian Revolution, he helped the governor transport troops around the island.
On 14 March 1792, he swore the "civic oath" to the Republic, while his brother emigrated. Promoted to capitaine de vaisseau in 1792, he was given the command of a ship-of-the-line, Trajan. In 1793, he commanded a small squadron patrolling the coast of the Vendée, in order to prohibit the British from aiding the Vendéan Revolt. When the rest of the Brest fleet sailed to Belle-Isle and a mutiny broke out among many ships in the fleet, Villaret was one of the few officers who maintained order aboard his ship.
In 1794, Jeanbon Saint André named Villaret-Joyeuse as the commander of the Brest fleet because of his ability to maintain discipline during the turmoil of the revolution. The same year, Villaret was promoted to contre-amiral. Assisted by Saint André, Villaret reorganised and revitalised the Brest fleet. Among other measures, Saint André and Villaret-Joyeuse founded a naval artillery school.
In the summer of 1794, Villaret sailed with 23 ships-of-the-line and 16 frigates to protect a 117-ship convoy of grain from the United States. In protecting the convoy, Villaret-Joyeuse was forced to engage a 25-ship British fleet in the Battles of Prairial, of which the British referred to the main engagement as the Glorious First of June. Although defeated, he rallied his remaining ships and rescued five ships that had surrendered, and the grain convoy reached Brest unmolested.
Supported by Saint-André, Villaret-Joyeuse kept his command despite the defeat. He blamed the defeat on the conduct of several of his captains who had failed to fulfil their duties. In September 1794, Villaret-Joyeuse was promoted to vice-amiral. In December, the Committee of Public Safety ordered him to attack British commerce in the Croisière du Grand Hiver. Although the cruise did lead to the capture of a number of British merchant ships, the French fleet was battered by storms in which several ships were sunk and all the surviving ships suffered heavy damage.
In June 1795, he sailed with nine ships to relieve a small squadron near Belle Île. During the First Battle of Île de Groix, Villaret-Joyeuse chased away the small British squadron blockading Belle Île. Unable to bring them to battle, Villaret attempted to return to Brest, but contrary winds forced him towards Lorient. Close to Lorient, Villaret-Joyeuse was discovered by British admiral Alexander Hood's fleet, guarding the expedition to Quiberon. During Second Battle of Ile de Groix, several of Villaret's ships disobeyed his orders and sailed away, abandoning three ships to the British.
In 1796, Villaret-Joyeuse resigned in protest against the state of the Navy and in opposition to the Directory's plan to invade Ireland, instead of campaigning in the Indian Ocean.
In 1797, he was elected to the Council of Five Hundred as a representative of Morbihan. As a member of the Club de Clichy, he made several speeches about the colonies, speaking against the emancipation of slaves. He also lobbied in favour of strengthening the Navy.
Arrested during the Coup of 18 Fructidor, Villaret avoided deportation to Guyane, but was exiled to Île d'Oléron, where he remained for three years.
In 1801, Napoleon ended Villaret-Joyeuse's exile and returned him to active command. Initially, Napoleon wanted Villaret-Joyeuse to prepare an expedition to capture the Cape of Good Hope, then head into the Indian Ocean. With the Peace of Amiens, Napoleon decided to attempt to regain control of Saint Domingue. In December 1801, he set out with the twelve-ship Brest fleet, which carried the major portion of General Emmanuel Leclerc's expedition to Saint Domingue. Conflicts over command led Villaret to return to France with the majority of the fleet.
In April 1802, Napoleon named him Capitaine-General of Martinique and Sainte-Lucie. Taking control of Martinique in September, he faced the threats of slave-uprisings, yellow fever and British invasion.
He cooperated with Admirals Missiessy and Villeneuve who sailed into the Caribbean in 1805. In January 1809, a British expedition invaded Martinique and laid siege to the fortress at Fort-de-France. The month-long siege ended on 24 February when the British were able to bring up their heavy artillery.
Upon his return to France, Napoleon, who was angered at the surrender, had Villaret court-martialed for surrendering the island too quickly. Initially found guilty, Villaret pleaded his case and eventually received a pardon from Napoleon in 1811: "Bravery and fidelity plead in favour of the vice-admiral (...) did his faults lose the colony? At most, they shortened its keeping for a few days." As Napoleon prepared for the invasion of Russia, he named Villaret governor of Venice in the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, in April 1811; there he was particularly occupied with maritime affairs. Villaret retained this position until 24 July 1812, when he died of edema.
To honour him, Napoleon had his name engraved on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.