Thomas-Robert Bugeaud, duke d’Isly

Thomas-Robert Bugeaud, duke d’Isly (born Oct. 15, 1784, Limoges, Fr.—died June 10, 1849, Paris) was a marshal of France who played an important part in the French conquest of Algeria.

Bugeaud joined Napoleon’s imperial guard and later distinguished himself during the Peninsular War, after which he rose to the rank of colonel. He supported the First Restoration (1814), but his troops forced him to side with Napoleon during the Hundred Days (1815). During the Second Restoration, Bugeaud made a rich marriage and repurchased his family lands lost in the Revolution. He then took up farming until the July Revolution of 1830 allowed him to resume his military career.

Sent to Algeria for a short period in 1836, Bugeaud defeated Abdelkader, emir of Mascara and hero of the Arab resistance, at Sikkah (July 6), and with whom he negotiated the Treaty of Tafna (1837), which delimited the territories of the two parties. Critical of the traditional cumbersome French military tactics used in Algeria, Bugeaud successfully developed particularly harsh techniques more suited to conditions of irregular warfare. In 1841, when he returned to Algeria as governor-general, his new tactics won early successes over the Algerians. In 1843 he was made a marshal of France. After crushing Abdelkader’s Moroccan allies at the Battle of Isly (1844), Bugeaud received his ducal title. He returned to Algeria for short periods in 1845 and 1847 but resigned as governor-general in September 1847 in protest over the government’s neglect of his plans for military colonization.

When revolution broke out in Paris in 1848, Bugeaud commanded Louis-Philippe’s troops in the city but failed to save the monarchy. Under the Second Republic he published many antisocialist pamphlets and accepted command of the Army of the Alps. Bugeaud’s collected military writings were published in 1883 and served as a handbook of colonial warfare.