BRUNE, broon, Guillaume Marie Anne. Marshal of France: b. Brives-la-Gaillarde, 13 March 1763; d. 2 Aug. 1815. While young he went to Paris to study law. At the breaking out of the Revolution he was a printer and had made himself known by some small pieces of his own composition. He now devoted himself ardently to politics, was connected with Damon, and played an active part in the tempests of that period. Till 10 Aug. 1792 he was engaged in publishing a newspaper. Afterward he went as civil commissary to Belgium: .In 1793 he entered the military service in the revolution ary army in the Gironde.' He aided to put down the Jacobins, who had assaulted the camp of Grenelle, 10 Oct. 1795. Afterward he distinguished himself as general of brigade in the Italian army, in the battle of Arcola and in the attack on Verona. When the Directory of Switzerland declared war Brune received the chief command of an army, entered the country without much opposition in January 1798, and effected a new organization of the government. In 1799 he received the chief command in Holland, defeated the British, 19 September, near Bergen, and compelled the Duke of York to agree to the treaty of Alkmaar, 18 October, by which the British and Russians were to evacuate the north of Holland. In January 1800, he was made a councillor of state, and was placed at the head of the Army of the West, in occupation of La Vendee, and contrib uted greatly to the re-establishment of tranquil lity in the revolted province. He was appointed commander-in-chief of the Italian army 13 Au gust. Toward the end of December he led his troops over the Mincio, conquered the Austrians, passed the Adige 8 Jan. 1801, took possession of Vicenza and Roveredo, and concluded an armistice, 16 January at Treviso, with the Aus trian general, Bellegarde, by which several forti fied places in Italy were surrendered to the French troops. When peace recalled him to the council of state toward the end of November 1802, he laid before the legislative body for confirmation the treaty of peace with the court of Naples. Next year he went as Ambassador
to Constantinople. He prevailed there at first over the British party, and received from the Turkish ministry the highest marks of honor; but when new dissensions arose between the two powers he left Turkey. During his absence, 19 May 1804, he was appointed marshal of the empire. At the end of 1806 Napoleon appointed him governor-general of the Hanseatic .towns, and soon after commander of the troops in Swedish Pomerania against the King of Sweden. This monarch invited the marshal to a personal interview, in which he endeavored to convert him to the cause of Louis XVIII. Brune re fused every proposal. After the revolution of 1814 he acknowledged Louis XVIII, and re ceived the crossof Louis, but no appointment. This was the cause of his declaring himself for Napoleon immediately upon his return. He re ceived the chief command of an important army in the south of France and was made a peer. When circumstances changed again he delayed a long time before he gave up Toulon, which was in his possession in 1815, to the troops of Louis XVIII, and sent in his resignation to the King. This circumstance, the severities ex ercised by his command and a report that he was the murderer of the Princess Lamballe, excited popular feeling against him. While re tiring from Toulon to Paris he was recognized at Avignon by a royalist mob, which broke into his hotel and shot him. His body was exposed to the most shameful insults, and then thrown into the river Rhone. Consult 'Notice his torique sur la vie politique et militaire du Marechal Brune' (Paris 1821) ; and Conchard, Vermeil de, (L'Assassinat du Marechal Brune' (Paris 1887).