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Georges Cadoudal

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CADOUDAL, GEORGES (1771-1804), leader of the Chouans during the French Revolution, was born on Jan. 1, 1771, near Auray (Morbihan). From 1793 he organized a revolt in the Morbihan which was quickly suppressed, and he thereupon joined the army of the revolted Vendeans, taking part in the battles of Le Mans and of Savenay in December 17 93. Returning to Mor bihan, he was arrested, but escaped from his prison at Brest. Cadoudal was one of the leaders of the Chouannerie, and was con stantly fomenting trouble in Britanny, escaping, when the posi tion was dangerous, to England. After the repression of the revolt of 180o he came to Paris and had an interview with Napoleon, but the police suspected him of a plot to murder the latter, and he fled again to England. In Aug. 1803 Cadoudal crossed the Channel for the last time, in a British cutter, armed with British Government drafts to finance a rising in Paris. On Feb. 29, 1804, Pichegru was arrested, on March 9 Cadoudal, and shortly afterwards many others. The conspirators were said to be expecting a prince, and Napoleon's police imagined the prince to be the duc d'Enghien. Cadoudal and 19 of his companions were sentenced to death. Some of the sentences were commuted, but Cadoudal, with others, was executed on June 24. Cadoudal is popularly known as Georges.

See

Proces de Georges, Moreau et Pichegru (1804) ; the Memoires of Bourrienne, of Hyde de Neuville and of Rohu ; Lenotre, Tournebut (on the arrest) ; Lejean, Biographie bretonne.

paris and morbihan