VICTOR-PERRIN, CLAUDE, OF BELLUNO (1764 1841), marshal of France, was born at La Marche (Vosges) on Dec. 7, 1764. In 1781 he entered the army as a private soldier, and after ten years' service he received his discharge and settled at Valence. Soon afterwards he joined the local volunteers, and distinguishing himself in the war on the Alpine frontier, in less than a year he had risen to the command of a battalion. He served at Toulon (1793), in the Italian campaign of 1796-97, in La Vendee, and then in Italy at Marengo. In 1802 he was governor of the colony of Louisiana for a short time, in 1803 he commanded the Batavian army, and in 1805-6 was French plenipotentiary at Copenhagen. On the outbreak of hostilities with Prussia he joined the V. army corps (Marshal Lannes) as chief of the general staff. He distinguished himself at Saalfeld and Jena, and after Friedland where he commanded the I. corps Napoleon gave him the marshalate. After the peace of Tilsit he became governor of Berlin, and in 1808 he was created duke of Belluno. In the same year he was sent to Spain, where he took a prominent part in the Peninsular War (especially at Espinosa, Talavera, Barrosa and Cadiz), until his appointment in 1812 to a corps command in the invasion of Russia. Here his
most important service was in protecting the retreating army at the crossing of the Beresina. He took an active part in the wars of 1813-14, till in February of the latter year he had the mis fortune to arrive too late at Montereau-sur-Yonne. The result was a scene of violent recrimination and his supersession by the emperor, who transferred his command to Gerard.
Victor now transferred his allegiance to the Bourbons, and in Dec. 1814 received from Louis XVIII. the command of the second military division. In 1815 he accompanied the king to Ghent, and on the second restoration he was made a peer of France. He was war minister in 1821-23. In 183o he was major-general of the royal guard, and after the revolution of that year he retired altogether into private life. He died in Paris on March 1, 1841.
His papers for the period 1793-1800 have been published (Paris, 1846).