| Gabriel d'Hédouville | |
|---|---|
| Born | 27 July 1755 Laon |
| Died | 30 March 1825 Brétigny-sur-Orge |
| Allegiance | Kingdom of France, First French Republic, First French Empire, Kingdom of France |
| Rank | général de division |
| Battles/wars | French Revolutionary Wars (Battle of Valmy Battle of Kaiserslautern) |
| Other work | Diplomat |
Gabriel-Marie-Théodore-Joseph, comte d'Hédouville (1755, Laon, Aisne — 1825) (also Thomas Hedouville) was a French soldier and diplomat.
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A student at the royal collège at La Flèche, he became a lieutenant in 1788 and rose to adjutant-general and lieutenant-colonel in 1792. He fought at the battle of Valmy on 20 September that year and was made général de brigade and chief of staff to the armée de Moselle the following March. He then distinguished himself at Kaiserslautern. However, he was then suspended and imprisoned as a noble and thus as a suspect, but was freed on 9 Thermidor year II (27 July 1794), brought back into the army at the rank of général de brigade and sent to the armée des côtes de Cherbourg (then at Brest). He became général de division in November 1795 and the armée des côtes de Cherbourg's chief of staff in January 1795, under Lazare Hoche. Under Hoche's orders he carried out a policy of pacification and appeasement in the west, which had revolted against the Republican regime.
He then spent short stay on Saint-Domingue in 1798, where he had been sent to be governor during Sonthonax's second commission. He encouraged the dissension between André Rigaud and Toussaint Louverture which helpef to fuel the Haitian Revolution.[1][2] Toussaint's military leadership during the Haitian Revolution enabled the rebellious slaves to gain the upper hand and to restore most of Saint-Domingue to France. Now that he ruled the island, Toussaint did not wish to surrender power to France and continued to effectively rule the country autonomously. Hédouville was one of the rivals to power Toussaint had to overcome. Hédouville was eventually forced to flee.[3] However, before he left he was able to fatally divide Toussaint and André Rigaud.[4]
After his time on Saint-Domingue, Gabriel Marie Joseph Hédouville was employed by the armée d'Angleterre before returning to western France in January 1800 to take over from Hoche as commander-in-chief of the Armée de l'Ouest, where he again negotiated a peace settlement with the Royalists. He was then the Consulate's minister pleniplotentiary at Saint Petersburg from 1801 to 1804, when the Tsar broke relations with France; Hédouville left Saint Petersburg 7 June 1804. On 1 February 1805 he became a member of the Sénat conservateur, and he was also ennobled as a comte d'Empire. Remaining a monarchist at heart, he enthusiastically rallied to Louis XVIII in 1814.