KACDONALD, ETIENNE JACQUES JOSEPH ALEXANDRE, dilke Of Taranto, marshal and peer of France, was b. Nov. 17, 1765, at Sancerre, in the department of Cher, He was descended from a Scotch family which followed James II. to France. Macdonald embraced the cause of the revolution, entered the army as a lieut., and rapidlv rose to high military rank. In 1798 he was intrusted with the government of th6 Roman stateq. but was coinpelled to evacnate them by the superior force of the enemy. In 1799 he defeated the Austrians at Modena, and was defeated on the Trebbia by a superior Austrian and Russian force under Suwarrow. As commandant of Versailles, he ren dered very important service to Bonaparte in the revolution of 18th Brumaire; and in 1800 and 1801 he chased the Austrians from Switzerland and the Tyrol; but. after honorably filling some important political posts, lie lost the favor of Bonaparte by his honest support of the cause of Moreaur. In1.805 he was surrunoned by the emperor to take the command of the right wing of the army of Italy under Eugene Beauharnais; and took Laibach. He greatly distinguished himself at the battle of Wagram, and on the field of battle became reconciled to Napoleon, who, for his services on that tlay, created him marshal and duke. He held a command in Spain in 1810, afterwards in the
Russian campaign; in 1813 he defeated the Prussians at Museburg, and contributed to the success of the battles of Lntzen and Bautzen, but was subsequently defeated by Blucher at the Katzbach. After the battle of Leipzig he was employed in covering the retreat of the French army, and saved himself only by swimming the Elster. In the subsequent struggles on French ground between the Marne and Seine, Macdonald made desperate efforts; but when he saw that further resistance was hopeless, he advised the emperor to abdicate. The Bourbons made him a peer, and gave him the command of military division; and on Napoleon's return from Elba, it fell to his lot to oppose his progres.s to Paris. All his troops went over to Napoleon, but he himself accompanied Louts XVIII. in his flight; and although he returned to France, lie refused td serve dur ing the hundred days. After the second restoration he was continually loaded with honors of every kind, but consistently maintained, in the chamber of peers, the princi ples of constitutional liberty. He died at his seat of Courcelles, near Guise, Sept. 24. 1840.