FOY, MAXIMILIEN SEBASTIEN French general and statesman, was born at Ham, Picardy, on Feb. 3, and educated at the college of Soissons, passing to the artillery school of La Fere. After his first campaign in Flanders (1791-92) he attained captain's rank, and served under Dampierre, Jourdan, Pichegru and Houchard. In 1794 he was imprisoned by the Convention, but released on the fall of Robespierre. He distinguished himself in Moreau's campaigns of 1796-97, and in the Swiss campaign of 1798, winning the rank of chef de brigade under Massena in 1799. In 1800 he served in the Marengo cam paign. Foy's opposition, as a republican, to the rise of Napoleon, and his vote against the establishment of the empire led to his joining the army in Holland. In 1807 he took part in the defence of the Dardanelles against the English, and later served through out the Peninsular War. He won the rank of general under Junot, and served under Soult and Massena. Napoleon, to whom Mas sena sent him on a mission, made him a general of division. He won new laurels at Salamanca (1812) and in the Pyrenees, and received a command at the first restoration of the Bourbons. He joined Napoleon when the king fled the country, and held a divisional command in the Waterloo campaign (q.v.). He retired from the army at the second restoration, and in 1819 was elected to the chamber of deputies, where he used his considerable in fluence on the side of the liberal principles of 1789. At this time he began his history of the Peninsular War. In 1823 he protested against French intervention in Spain, and after the dissolution of 1824 was re-elected for three constituencies. He died in Paris on Nov. 28, 1825, and the great esteem in which he was held for his maintenance of liberal principles was shown by the vast concourse at his funeral.
The Histoire de la guerre de la Peninsule sous Napoleon was pub lished from his notes in 1827, and a collection of his speeches (with memoir by Tissot) appeared in 1826. See Cuisin, Vie militaire, poli tique, etc., du general Foy; Vidal, Vie militaire et politique du general Foy.