Charles Tristan, marquis de Montholon

Charles Tristan, marquis de Montholon (July 21, 1783 – August 21, 1853 ) was a French general during the Napoleonic Wars. He chose to go into exile on Saint Helena with the ex-Emperor after Napoleon's second abdication.

Montholon was born in Paris and was trained for a military career from a young age. In his tenth year, he joined the expedition of Admiral Laurent Truguet to the coast of Sardinia. Entering the army in 1797, he rose rapidly and avowed himself, when chef d'escadron in Paris at the time of the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire (November 1799), entirely devoted to Bonaparte.

He served in several of the ensuing campaigns, participating in the Battle of Jena (1806) and distinguishing himself at the Battle of Aspern-Essling (May 1809), where he was wounded. At the end of that campaign on the Danube, he received the title of count and remained in close attendance on Napoleon, who entrusted him with several important duties. He was chosen for a mission to discuss diplomatic matters with the Austrian commander Archduke Ferdinand Karl Joseph of Austria-Este at Würzburg among others.

At the time of the first abdication of Napoleon at Fontainebleau (April 11, 1814), Montholon was one of the few generals who advocated one more attempt to rally the French troops for the overthrow of the allies.

After the second abdication (June 22, 1815), he and his wife, Albine de Montholon, accompanied the Emperor to Rochefort, where Napoleon adopted the proposal, which emanated from Count Las Cases, that he should throw himself on the generosity of the British and surrender to H.M.S. Bellerophon. Montholon afterwards, at Plymouth, asserted that the conduct of Captain Maitland of the Bellerophon had been altogether honourable, and that the responsibility for the failure must rest largely with Las Cases.

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