CHAMPIONNET, JEAN ETIENNE French general, born at Valence, enlisted in the army at an early age and served in the great siege of Gibraltar. In May he was charged with the suppression of the disturbances in the Jura, which he quelled without bloodshed. Under Pichegru he took part in the Rhine campaign of that year as a brigade commander and at Weissenburg and in the Palatinate won the warm commenda tion of Hoche. He commanded the left wing of the French armies on the Rhine, between Neuwied and Dusseldorf, and took part in the expeditions to the Lahn and the Main. In 1798 Championnet was named commander-in-chief of the "army of Rome," which was protecting the infant Roman republic against the Neapolitan court and the British fleet. The Austrian general Mack had a tenfold superiority in numbers, but Championnet captured Naples itself and there set up the Parthenopean repub lic. But his intense earnestness and intolerance of opposition soon embroiled him with the civilians, and the general was recalled in disgrace. The following year, however, saw him again in the field as commander-in-chief of the "army of the Alps." The campaign which followed was uniformly unsuccessful, and, worn out by the unequal struggle, Championnet died at Antibes, on Jan. 9, 1800.
See A.R.C. de St. Albin, Championnet, ou les Campagnes de Hol lande, de Rome et de Naples (186o) ; M. Faure, Souvenirs du General Championnet (1904)•