MACDONALD, ALEXANDRE (1765-1840), duke of Taranto and marshal of France, was born at Sedan on Nov. 17, 1765, of an old Jacobite family, and was related to Flora Mac donald. In 1785 he joined the legion supporting the revolutionary party in Holland against the Prussians, and then received a com mission in the French army. He supported the Revolution, and was appointed aide-de-camp to General Dumouriez. He refused to desert to the Austrians with Dumouriez, and was rewarded with the rank of general of brigade. He took part in Pichegru's invasion of Holland (1795), served as general of division on the Rhine and in Italy (1797), became first French governor of Rome, and later reconstituted the kingdom of Naples as the Partheno paean Republic. His resistance against Suvarov's attack in northern Italy gained him the position of governor of Versailles, where he 4cquiesced in the events of the 18th Brumaire. In 1800 he received the command of the army in Switzerland, and his march (I800-0I) over the Spliigen Pass, is as noteworthy as Bonaparte's famous passage of the St. Bernard before Marengo.
After some years as French plenipotentiary in Denmark, he be came (1809) military adviser to Eugene Beauharnais, viceroy of Italy. For his share in the victory over the Austrians at Wagram Napoleon made him marshal of France and duke of Taranto. After serving in Spain (181 0) and Russia (1812), he invaded Silesia in 1813, and was defeated by Blucher at Katzbach (see NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS). Napoleon presented him with the sabre of Murad Bey for his fidelity, and directed him to submit to the new regime. At the Restoration he was made a peer of France, and became chancellor of the Legion of Honour (1815 31) and major-general of the royal bodyguard (1816). From 183o his life was spent in retirement at Courcelles-le-Roi (Seine et-Oise), where, greatly respected, he died on Sept. 7, 1840.
See Mathieu Dumas Evenements militaires; Segur, Lettre sur la campagne du General Macdonald dans les Grisons en 1800 et 18o1 (18o2), and Eloge (1842) ; his memoirs were published in 1892 (Eng. trans. Recollections of Marshal Macdonald).