Thomas Arthur De Lally Tollendal
| Thomas Arthur de Lally Tollendal | |
 | |
1766 print | |
| Birth | 13 January 1702 Novels |
|---|---|
| Deaths | 9 May 1766 (64) Paris |
| Nationality |  Kingdom of France |
| Occupation (s) | Military , officer |
| Child (ren) | Gerard Lally Tollendal |
Thomas Arthur, baron Tollendal, Count de Lally, Lally said Tollendal, baptized January 13, 1702 in Romans and executed in the Place de Greve , Paris, May 9, 1766, is a senior French military and original Irish.
Summary |
Having obtained the 1January 1709 , a captain's commission in the Irish regiment of Dillon , Count Lally was present in 1714 in the trenches of Barcelona, and was then sent to college. In 1732, is adjutant of the regiment of Dillon, in 1737 he went to England to visit and examine the state of mind. Upon his return to France he got a load of captain of grenadiers, and Cardinal Fleury sent a secret mission in Russia. In 1742, Marshal de Noailles took him for adjutant general and then we created for him an Irish regiment. Louis XV made him sergeant on the field of battle of Fontenoy. At the formation of Normandy's army, under Marshal de Richelieu, Lally was in fact Marshal Quartermaster General, he went to Ireland, and Prince Edward seconded the Battle of Falkirk. He then went to attend all seats of the Austrian Netherlands , and the day of the taking of Maastricht, he was made a brigadier. Finally it was established in 1757 , Lieutenant General, Grand Cross of St. Louis.
The poor command in India
After the War of Austrian Succession , the English power in India , held in check until 1754 by Dupleix , was growing rapidly and threatens to undermine that of France. With the start of the Seven Years War in 1755 it was sending reinforcements, unless you accept the risk of losing everything. After the disgrace of Dupleix , his deputy, Bussy , very enterprising and knowledgeable about the field, seemed indispensable to command, but the Minister of Marine, Machault of Arnouville , he prefers Tollendal Lally, shielded from the Marquess of Pompadour . Lally was appointed Commissioner of the King, trustee of the East India Company and General Commander of all French institutions in the East Indies. The small force of Ach left France May 2, 1757 to touch, after a trip very painful and very long, the Ile de France , on 17 December, eight months after his departure. Pondicherry is for 29 April 1758 after having fought a difficult battle ship before Gondelour to repel an attempted interception English.
The English had had time to fortify and strengthen their wings as evidenced by the first naval battle. With 3500 men landed reinforcements by Ache, nevertheless seizes Lally end 1758 of Cuddalore , of Arcot, and Fort St. David near Pondicherry . But it lacks support for the naval squadron d'Ache returned on the Ile de France to get away from the monsoon to winter. Thus he fails to Madras , the place being resupplied by Pocock's squadron in December 1758, it has been able to stay on site using the base sheltered Bombay. He is forced to lift the siege in February 1759 and to withdraw to Pondicherry. D'Ach comes in September 1759 to bring him reinforcements and money after a last and difficult battle against naval Pocock tries to block instead. Lally But if it is a good fighter, not a good diplomat and rejected alliances with moguls , who from time Dupleix had yet ensured the success of the French. He does not understand the Hindus, he considered the Indians, wants to make war than the European, and despises the sepoys, yet equipped and trained in the European . In Pondicherry itself, its relationship with the directors of the Company becoming very difficult. Lally also quarreled with his second, Bussy , essential man to link with the Hindus. He finds himself gradually isolated while the English received considerable reinforcements, and they do not hesitate to rely on many Indian troops.
Voltaire , who is a shareholder in the Compagnie des Indes , February 15, 1760 wrote in a letter:
"We have one in Pondicherry Lally ... which cost me sooner or later, twenty thousand pounds yearly tournaments ..."
Bussy , who the bad blood, is taken prisoner and then returned to France on parole. D'Ache, who perhaps sees the game as lost, retreated to the Isle de France with his squadron a few days after landing reinforcements. Now alone and cut off from the metropolis, Lally is unable to rectify the situation. The English are reclaiming the ground lost in the Carnatic and come to the siege by land and by sea to Pondicherry in March 1760 with 16 ships and 15,000 men . After many adventures, a long resistance, and an internal struggle against the officers of his own body and its expeditionary troops mistreated, poorly paid, poorly fed, short of food and ammunition, he surrendered, having defended a 200 men against 15,000, (including English 4000 and more than 10,000 sepoys), January 14, 1761.
Tollendal Lally, scapegoat for defeats of the Seven Years War
Taken prisoner, he was taken to Madras before being directed to England where, at his insistence, he obtained his freedom on parole to go to Paris to defend themselves against accusations of cowardice, treason and corruption made against him. The East India Company defends some time, then the loose in the pasture to those who seek an example . Scapegoat defeats inflicted by the English, he is imprisoned in the Bastille by lettre de cachet (1762), without the right to choose a lawyer. He defends his honor, publishes memoirs defenses, but the authoritarianism which he had demonstrated to his troops, his failure to Madras and his surrender to Pondicherry makes the defense very difficult. He asked to be brought before a council of war, but the Parliament of Paris that the judge after an investigation that began in 1764. Bussy d'Ache and testify against him. Councillor Pasquier's report concluded that Lally is guilty of usurping authority "despotic and tyrannical" . 3 May 1766, he was sentenced to beheading for "betraying the interests of the king" . After four years in prison, he is led to execution in place of strikes in a carriage, draped in black . His decapitation, the work of butchers Sanson father and son, runs almost Grand Guignol : Sanson misses, broken jaw with his sword and several teeth and must start over.
This assassination legal product great indignation in France and Europe. Voltaire , who forgets his good words about Lally (see above) takes his defense, and with it public opinion. He denounced the ruling and wither then mobilized in 1773 with her son legitimized , the Marquis de Lally Tollendal , for his rehabilitation. The latter, published by the pen of Voltaire Fragments on India and other defenses of the memory of his father . It is launching a series of retrials and obtains a ruling of the Supreme King of the unjust sentence of parliament had condemned his father to death without hearing him, because he had been gagged by the same leading to the scaffold. However, the case remitted to the Parliaments of Rouen and Dijon , only ends on a partially favorable ruling: the crime of high treason is removed, but other charges are maintained and the memory will never Lally rehabilitated. The son of Lally Tollendal was allowed to bear the name of his father .
The media coverage by Voltaire in this case contributed to the unpopularity of Louis XV, who needed a scapegoat, and discredit the monarchy in France, blamed by the public for the loss of French India. The rehabilitation of Lally was nevertheless highly demanded by public opinion in the whole of Europe.
Notes
- Andr Zysberg, Monarchy of Enlightenment, 1715-1786, New history of modern France, a collection point threshold, H211, 2002, p. 273-4. Lucien Bely , international relations in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth century Themis collection, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1992, p. 555.
- On the composition of this force, see the article Battle of Cuddalore (1758)
- Patrick Villiers, Jean-Pierre Duteil, Europe, the sea and the colonies, XVII - XVIII century, History Collection Square No. 37, Hachette, 1997, p. 105. Dictionary of Maritime History, edited by Michel Verge-Franceschi , Mouthpieces Collection, Editions Robert Laffont, 2002, p. 1326.
- Zysberg Andre, op. cit., p. 273-274.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- The English had devastated the city from top to bottom.
- Quoted by Lucien Bely , op. cit., p. 555.
- Quoted by Andre Zysberg, op. cit., p. 274.
- Ibid.
- He has learned his parentage until the day of the execution of his father.
- Lucien Bely , op. cit., p. 555.
- Ibid.
Sources and bibliography
- Lucien Bely , international relations in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth century collection Themis, Presses Universitaires de France, 1992.
- Jean Baptiste Honor Raymond Capefigue, Louis XV and society of the eighteenth century, vol. 3-4, Paris, Langlois and Leclercq, 1842, p. 260.
- Adrien d'Epinay, Information for use in the history of the Isle of France until the year 1810, inclusive, Paris, Dupuy, 1890, p. 151-2.
- Haudrre Philippe, Grard Le Boudec, La Compagnie des Indes, Editions Ouest-France, 2010.
- Andre Zysberg, The Monarchy of the Enlightenment, 1715-1786, Editions du Seuil, Paris, 2002.
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