Jean-Andoche Junot

Junot was born into a bourgeois family in Bussy-le-Grand, Burgundy, on 25 September 1771. He was the fifth son of Michel Junot (1739–1814) and Marie Antoinette Bienaymé (1735–1806). He first attended school in Montbard, then in Châtillon, where he befriended Auguste de Marmont, then studied law in Dijon. Junot embraced the revolutionary cause, and was present at the Fête de la Fédération in Paris on 14 July 1790. ==Early career==

(1834) On 9 July 1791, Junot was one of the founding members of his hometown's National Guard, serving as captain of its 1st company. At the start of the War of the First Coalition, Junot was sent to the Army of the North, receiving the first of many battle wounds at on 11 June 1792. After the siege, Bonaparte was made a general and Junot joined him as his aide-de-camp. In 1795 Junot participated in the suppression of the Royalist revolt of 13 Vendémiaire under Bonaparte, then followed him to the Army of Italy. ==Egyptian campaign==

Junot was one of the first to be informed of Bonaparte's planned expedition to Egypt. In May 1798, he left for Egypt along with Bonaparte aboard the expedition's flagship, ''l'Orient, and took part in the capture of Malta. Junot fought at the Battle of the Pyramids on 21 July 1798, as a chef de brigade'', and was promoted to brigade general on 9 January 1799. '' by Antoine-Jean Gros (1801) On 8 April 1799, during the ultimately unsuccessful Siege of Acre, Junot distinguished himself leading the vanguard of Kléber's division against an Ottoman relief force five times larger, near the town of Nazareth, retreating only after capturing five enemy standards. His actions prevented the Ottomans from reaching the city and earned Junot recognition within the army. However, he was badly injured shortly afterwards in a duel with General François Lanusse, initiated by Junot after Lanusse insulted Bonaparte. In October 1799 he was captured by a British ship while returning to France, and met Horatio Nelson. == Consulate and early Empire ==

Junot only arrived in France on 14 June 1800, the day of Bonaparte's victory at the Battle of Marengo. Under the consulate, Junot was known for his excesses, throwing money out of his windows and eating three hundred oysters a day. Junot was made a general of division on 20 November 1801. From 1803 to 1804 he served as Military Governor of Paris, then briefly as ambassador to Portugal before rapidly hurrying back to serve under Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805). Junot was then sent to Parma to put down an insurrection. On his return to Paris he was again appointed Military Governor, serving from 1806 to 1807. ==Invasion of Portugal==

Junot's major command came on 29 July 1807, when Napoleon appointed him commander-in-chief of the "" (''Corps d'observation de la Gironde''), which was destined for an invasion of Portugal. The army assembled in Bayonne over the next two months, and was later reinforced with a Spanish contingent under the terms of the Treaty of Fontainebleau (27 October 1807). Departing on 17 October at the head of about 26,500 soldiers, Junot led his troops on an arduous march through Spain, finally crossing into Portugal at Segura on 19 November. Facing little to no resistance, Junot's army advanced towards Lisbon, seizing Castelo Branco on 20 November and Abrantes two days later. On 24 November, he was informed that the country's regent, Prince João (the future King João VI) was preparing to flee to Brazil along with his mother, Queen Maria I, and the court. Junot entered Lisbon without a fight on 30 November, three days after the royal family's departure. (1808) French and Spanish troops soon occupied the rest of Portugal. For his success, Junot was granted the victory title of Duke of Abrantes (''Duc d'Abrantès) by Napoleon, though he was not made a Marshal of the Empire as he expected. He set up his headquarters at the Quintela Palace in Lisbon, as the head of the military administration in Portugal. From late December 1807 to March 1808, Junot enacted far-reaching measures, such as the disbandment of the Portuguese Army (with around 9,000 soldiers joining the Grande Armée'''s Portuguese Legion) and local militias, the proclamation of the dethronement of the House of Braganza, and the confiscation of royal assets. In January 1808, initial incidents of Portuguese resistance to the occupation occurred. Additionally, after the Dos de Mayo Uprising in Madrid, all Spanish troops withdrew from Portugal, and by June, popular revolts had spread throughout the country. On 1 August 1808, a British expeditionary force landed at the mouth of the Mondego river. After a French defeat at Roliça, Junot himself was beaten at the Battle of Vimeiro on 21 August 1808, and he was cut off from France. Only the signing of the advantageous Convention of Cintra with the British allowed him to avoid capture, taking with him "the weapons and baggages" and the loot the army had managed to gather—an expression that later became famous in Portuguese usage. He went back to France in October. The terms of the Convention caused widespread outrage in Britain. ==Later career==

Upon his return, Junot was appointed commander of the III Corps and sent to Spain, where he fought at the Second Siege of Zaragoza. Complications related to this injury were blamed for his later mental decline. At the beginning of 1812 Junot was on leave to restore his ill health, but at the announcement of the infamous Russian campaign he rejoined the army with hopes of regaining Napoleon's favour. and claimed that his rival Joachim Murat had put the blame on him. In May 1813, Junot was made Governor of the Illyrian Provinces. His mental state rapidly deteriorated there, and on one infamous occasion he attended a ball, held by Auguste de Marmont in Ragusa, fully nude except for his dancing shoes and decorations. On another occasion he burnt down his residence and ran away to live with a madman. Some time later, Junot suffered a sudden attack of inflammation to the brain, most likely a long term consequence of his numerous head injuries, leaving him incapacitated. He is buried in Montbard cemetery, where a monument was erected in his honour in 1898. ==Family and relations==

He had two daughters and three sons: • Othello (Egypt, c. 1799), the child of an Abyssinian slave named Xraxarane born during the French campaign in Egypt. Junot ordered for Othello to be brought to France, but he never arrived. ==Notes==