Regnault or Regnaud de Saint-Jean-d'Angély, Auguste-Étienne

(1794-1870)

   marshal of France

   Born in Paris, Auguste-Étienne Regnault (or Regnaud) de Saint-Jean-d'Angély was the son of michel regnault de saint-jean-d'angély. After serving in the final campaigns of the first empire, he was aide-de-camp to napoléon i during the hundred days. Excluded from the military ranks during the Second restoration (1815), he fought in the Greek War of Independence (1825), then was restored to his position in the French military (1829). He was a rightist deputy in the Constituent Assembly, then in the Legislative Assembly (1848, 1849), and a member of the expedition to Rome (1849), sent against the Roman Republic founded and led by Giuseppe Mazzini and other Italian nationalists after the Revolution of 1848. Regnault supported the policies of the prince-president Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (see napoléon III), whom he served for a time as minister of war (1851). A senator (1852), he was named a marshal of France after distinguishing himself at the Battle of Magenta (1859).