SOULT, NICOLAS JEAN DE DIEU, Duke of Dalmatia (1769-1851), marshal of France, was born at Saint-Amans-la Bastide (now in department of the Tarn) on March 29, 1769, the son of a notary. He was intended for the bar, but on his father's death in 1785 he enlisted as a private in the French in fantry, and rose rapidly in the army. He laid the foundations of his military fame by his conduct in Massena's great Swiss cam paign (1799), and especially at the battle of Zurich. He acted as Massena's principal lieutenant through the protracted siege of Genoa, and after many successful actions he was wounded and taken prisoner at Monte Cretto on April 13, 1800. The victory of Marengo restoring his freedom, he received the command of the southern part of the kingdom of Naples, and in 1802 he was appointed one of the four generals commanding the consular guard. Despising Napoleon, Soult affected devotion, being ap pointed in 1803 to the command at Boulogne and in 1804 to be one of the first marshals of France. He commanded a corps at Ulm, and at Austerlitz (q.v.) he led the decisive attack. After the peace of Tilsit he was created (1808) duke of Dalmatia. In the following year he was given a command in Spain after the battle of Gamonal and he pursued Sir John Moore to Corunna.
For the next four years Soult remained in Spain, and his mili tary history is that of the Peninsular War (q.v.). In 1812 he was obliged, after Wellington's victory of Salamanca, to evacu ate Andalusia, and was soon after recalled from Spain at the request of Joseph Bonaparte, with whom he had always dis agreed. In March 1813 he assumed the command of the IV. corps of the Grande Armee, but he was soon sent to the south of France to repair the damage done by the defeat of Vittoria. His campaign there is the finest proof of his genius as a general, although he was repeatedly defeated by Wellington, for his soldiers were raw conscripts, facing Wellington's veterans.
Marshal Soult's political career was less creditable, and it has been said of him that he had character only in front of the enemy. After the first abdication of Napoleon he declared him self a Royalist, received the order of St. Louis, and acted as minister for war (Dec. 3, 1814—March II, 1815). When Napoleon returned from Elba Soult declared himself a Bonapartist, was made a peer of France and acted as major-general (chief of staff) to the emperor in the Waterloo campaign.
At the Second Restoration he was exiled, but was recalled in 1819 and in 1820 again made a marshal of France and in 1827 a peer. After the revolution of 1830 he made out that he was a partisan of Louis Philippe, who revived for him the title of marshal-general. He was minister for war, 1830-34 and 1840-44, and ambassador extraordinary to London for the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838. In 1848, when Louis Philippe was over thrown, Soult again declared himself a republican. He died at his castle of Soultberg, near his birthplace, on Nov. 26, 1851. Soult published a memoir justifying his adhesion to Napoleon during the Hundred Days, and his notes and journals were ar ranged by his son Napoleon Hector (1801-1857), who published the first part (Memoires du marechal-general Soult) in 1854. Le Noble's Memoires sur les operations des Francais en Galicie are supposed to have been written from Soult papers.