BERTHIER, ALEXANDRE, Prince of Neuchatel and Wagram, and marshal of the French empire, was b. at Versailles, Nov. 20, 1753. His father, a military engineer, trained him for the army, which he entered in 1770, and fought with Lafayette in the American war of independence. At the outbreak of the French revolution, he was appointed maj.gen. of the national guard of Versailles, and rose to be a gen. of division. and chief of the staff in the army of Italy, 1795; and in 1798. in the absence of Bona pa•te, entered the papal territory, and proclaimed the republic in Rome. Ile accompa nied Napoleon to Egypt in the same year as chief of the staff, a post which he also held in all the subsequent campaigns. At the revolution of 18th Brumaire (1709), he became war minister, and (till 18n8) as such signed many important treaties and truce's. He always accompanied the emperor, and often rendered important services: for the part he took in the battle, of Wagram, lie received one of his many distinctions. 13. was Napoleon's proxy in the marriage of Maria Louisa, at Vienna, 1810. In the emnpaigns of 1812, 1813, and 1814, he was constantly by the emperor's side, and acted both as chief of the staff and as quartermaster-general. It was only B.'s love of order, quick insight, and activity that could have superintended the movements of so many armies. Napoleon
slid him full justice on this score, asserting at the same time that he was incapable of leading the smallest corps darmee alone.
On the fall of Napoleon. B. hardly showed clue gratitude for the favors heaped upon him. He had to surrender the principality of Neuchatel: and not to lose more. he sub mitted to LOWS XVIII., who made him a peer and marshal, with the title of captain of the guards. Napoleon, who never doubted his secret attachment, made overtures to him from Elba: these he neither answered nor yet revealed to Louis, which mad& him suspected by both. On the return of Napoleon from Elba, in a tit of irresolution B. retired to Bamberg, in Bavaria, to his father-in-law, duke William, where his mind became unhinged with the conflict. On 1st July,. 1815, while looking from the balcony of the palace at a division of Russian troops marching towards the French frontier, the bitter sight was too much—he threw himself down into the street, and thus ended his life. His appeared in 1826.—lie had two brothers, Victor Leopold, and Cesar, who both served with distinction, and' rbse to be generals.