Background
Marie Esme Patrice Maurice was born Marie Edmé Patrice Maurice de MacMahon, at Sully, Saône-et-Loire, Saone-et-Loire, on June 13, 1808.
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Marie Esme Patrice Maurice de MacMahon
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also known as
Count de MacMahon
Education
He was educated at St. Cyr, the French Military Academy.
Career
Patrice de MacMahon began his military career in Algeria. First achieving fame in the assault of the Malakoff Tower in the Crimean War, he was later credited with the victory of Magenta in the war against Austria in 1859, and was created duke of Magenta and marshal of France.
Called back from his post as governor-general of Algeria (1864 - 1870), at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, he was put in command of the First Army Corps which was overwhelmed in the disaster of Sedan.
Wounded and captured by the Prussians, he was released after the Treaty of Frankfurt and allowed to return to command the army of Versailles which put down the Paris Commune in 1871. When Thiers resigned as chief of state in 1873, MacMahon was elected provisional president of the French Republic.
Although a Bonapartist, MacMahon was generally believed to have accepted the presidency with the expectation of turning over his office to one of the two pretenders to the throne. The hopes of such a maneuver faded rapidly, and by 1877 MacMahon was involved in a constitutional struggle with the Chamber of Deputies, which ultimately resulted in his dissolving the Chamber of Deputies and calling for a new election.
The country returned a majority of deputies opposed to the president, thereby establishing the precedent, followed until the collapse of the Third Republic, that no president should exercise his constitutional powers of dissolving the Chamber. As a result of this defeat, MacMahon resigned the presidency in 1879.
Achievements
Connections
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Born
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Died
January 17, 1893 (aged 84) -
Nationality
France -
Ethnicity
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Political Party
Miscellaneous Right (Legitimist)