Murat, Joachim

b. 1767; d. 1815

French soldier and King of Naples, son of an innkeeper, born at La Bastide-Fortunière, near Cahors, France. He entered the French army, in which he served under Napoleon in Italy and Egypt, distinguishing himself at the battle of the Pyramids (1798). For his part in the 13th Vendémiare he was made a lieutenant-colonel and first aide-de-camp to Napoleon, and after Aboukir was made a general of a division. He dispersed the Council of Five Hundred at St Cloud in 1799, and in the following year married Napoleon's youngest sister, Marie Armonciade Caroline. He was made governor of the Cisalpine republic in 1801, and, after taking part in the battles of Jena, Eylau, and Austerlitz, was made Grand Duke of Berg and Cleves.

In the invasion of Spain in 1808 he commanded the French armies, but shortly afterwards Napoleon gave him the crown of Naples, and he was proclaimed king of the Two Sicilies. He styled himself King Joachim-Napoleon and his rule was generally liberal in character. In 1812 he commanded the cavalry of the grand army which invaded Russia; but after the battle of Leipzig he hurried back to his kingdom and, having broken with Napoleon, made overtures to Austria and Great Britain. When Napoleon escaped from Elba, Murat thought he could himself win all Italy and then treat with Napoleon as an equal, but he was checked at Ferrara and routed at Tolentino. He then organised an expedition to Calabria against the restored Bourbons, but was captured and shot at Pizzo.

© JM Dent/Historybookshop.com

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