Everything about General Boulanger totally explained
Georges Ernest Jean-Marie Boulanger (
April 29,
1837 –
September 30,
1891) was a
French general and
reactionary politician.
Early life and career
Born in
Rennes, Boulanger graduated from
Saint-Cyr and entered regular service in the
French Army in
1856. He fought in the
Austro-Sardinian War (he was wounded at
Robecchetto, where he received the
Légion d'honneur), and in the occupation of
Cochin China, after which he became a
captain and
instructor at Saint-Cyr. During the
Franco-Prussian War, Georges Boulanger was noted for his bravery, and soon promoted to
chef de bataillon; he was again wounded while fighting at
Champigny-sur-Marne (during the
Siege of Paris). Subsequently, Boulanger was among the
Third Republic military leaders who crushed the
Paris Commune in April-May
1871. He was wounded as he led troops to the siege of the
Panthéon, and was promoted
commandeur of the
Légion d'honneur by
Patrice Mac-Mahon. However, he was soon demoted (as his position was considered provisional), and his resignation in protest was rejected.
With backing from his direct superior,
Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale (incidentally, one of the sons of former
king Louis-Philippe), Boulanger was made a
brigadier-general in
1880, and in
1882 War Minister Jean-Baptiste Billot appointed him director of infantry at the war office, enabling him to make a name as a military reformer (he took measures to improve
morale and efficiency). In 1884 he was appointed to command the army occupying
Tunis, but was recalled owing to his differences of opinion with
Pierre-Paul Cambon, the political resident. He returned to
Paris, and began to take part in politics under the aegis of
Georges Clemenceau and the
Radicals; in January
1886, when
Charles de Freycinet was brought into power by the support of the Radical leader, Boulanger was given the post of War Minister - replacing
Jean-Baptiste-Marie Campenon.
Minister
It was in this capacity that Boulanger gained most popularity. He introduced reforms for the benefit of soldiers (such as allowing soldiers to grow beards) and appealed to the French desire for revenge against
Imperial Germany - in doing so, came to be regarded as the man destined to serve that revenge (nicknamed
Général Revanche). He also managed to quell the major workers'
strike in
Decazeville. A minor scandal arose when
Philippe, Comte de Paris, the nominal inheritor of the French throne in the eyes of
Orléanist monarchists, married his daughter
Amélie to
Portugal's
Carlos I, in a lavish wedding that provoked fears of anti-Republican ambitions. The
French Parliament hastily passed a law expelling all possible claimants to the crown from French territories. Boulanger found himself in the unusual posture of a monarchist sympathiser forced to communicate to d'Aumale his expulsion from the armed forces. He received the adulation of the public and press after the
Sino-French War, when France's victory added
Tonkin to its
colonial empire.
On Freycinet's defeat in December of the same year, Boulanger was retained by
René Goblet at the war office. Confident of political support, the general began provoking the Germans: he ordered military facilities to be built in the border region of
Belfort, forbade the export of horses to German markets, and even instigated a ban on representations of
Lohengrin. Germany responded by calling to arms more than 70,000
reservists in February
1887; after the
Schnaebele incident, war was prevented only through political difficulties on either side. Boulanger became a risk for the Goblet government, and was engaged in a dispute with
Foreign Minister Gustave Flourens. On May 17, Goblet was voted out of office and replaced by
Maurice Rouvier. The latter sacked Boulanger, and replaced him with
Théophile Adrien Ferron on May 30.
The rise of Boulangisme
The government was astonished by the revelation that Boulanger had received around 100,000 votes for the partial election in
Seine, without him even being a candidate. He was removed from the Paris region, and appointed commander of the troops stationed in
Clermont-Ferrand. Upon his departure on July 8, a crowd of ten thousand took the
Gare de Lyon by storm, covering his train with
posters titled
Il reviendra ("He'll be back"), and blocking the railway for the following three hours.
The general decided to gather support for his own movement, an eclectic one that capitalized on the frustrations of French
conservatism, advocating the three principles of
Revanche (Revenge on Germany),
Révision (Revision of the Constitution),
Restauration (the return to monarchy). The common reference to it has become
Boulangisme, a term used by its partisans and adversaries alike. Immediately, the option was backed by notable figueres such as
Henri Rochefort,
Count Arthur Dillon,
Alfred Joseph Naquet,
Anne de Mortemart-Rochechouart (
Duchess of Uzès, who financed him with immense sums),
Arthur Meyer,
Paul Déroulède (and his
Ligue des Patriotes).
Boulanger's name was briefly implicated in the
political corruption scandal surrounding
Daniel Wilson, the President's son-in-law, and his illegal traffic in medals and awards. Nonetheless, his position became essential after
President Jules Grévy was forced to resign: in January
1888, the
boulangistes promised to back any candidate for the presidency that would in turn offer his support to Boulanger for the post of War Minister (France was a
parliamentary republic). The crisis was cut short by the election of
Marie François Sadi Carnot and the appointment of
Pierre Tirard as
Prime Minister - Tirard refused to include Boulanger in his cabinet. During the period, Boulanger was in
Switzerland, where he met with
Jérôme Napoleon Bonaparte II, technically a
Bonapartist, who offered his full support to the cause. The Bonapartists had attached themselves to the general, and even the Comte de Paris encouraged his followers to support him.
Although he wasn't in fact a legal candidate for the French
Chamber of Deputies (since he was a military man), Boulanger ran with Bonapartist backing in seven separate
départements. Soon expelled from the army, he refined his political program in order to attract forces opposing the Republic for distinct reasons, and promised to use his political capital for the creation of a
Constituent Assembly; from that moment on,
boulangiste candidates were present in every
département. Consequently, he and many of his supporters were voted to the Chamber, and accompanied by a large crowd on July 12, the day of their swearing in (the general himself was elected in the
constituency of
Nord).
The
boulangistes were, nonetheless, a minority in the Chamber. Since Boulanger couldn't pass legislation, his actions were directed to maintaining his public image. Neither his failure as an orator nor his defeat in a duel with
Charles Thomas Floquet, then an elderly civilian and the
minister of the interior, reduced the enthusiasm of his popular following.
During 1888 his personality was the dominating feature of French politics, and, when he resigned his seat as a protest against the reception given by the Chamber to his proposals, constituencies vied with one another in selecting him as their representative. His name was the theme of the popular song
C'est Boulanger qu'il nous faut ("Boulanger Is the One We Need"), he and his black horse became the idol of the Parisian population, and he was urged to run for the presidency. The general agreed, but his personal ambitions soon alienated his republican supporters, who recognised in him a potential
military dictator. Numerous monarchists continued to give him financial aid, even though Boulanger saw himself as a leader rather than a restorer of kings.
Scandal
In January
1889, he ran as a deputy for Paris, and, after an intense campaign, took the seat with 244,000 votes against the 160,000 of his main adversary. A
coup d'état seemed probable, and was as Boulanger had now become a threat to the parliamentary Republic. Had he immediately placed himself at the head of a revolt he might have effected the coup which many of his partisans had worked for, and might even have governed France; but the opportunity passed with his procrastination on
January 27.
Boulanger decided that it would be better to contest the general election and take power legally. This, however, gave his enemies the time they needed to stike back.
Ernest Constant, the
Minister of the Interior, decided to investigate the matter, and attacked the
Ligue des Patriotes using the law banning the activities of
secret societies.
Shortly afterward the French government issued a warrant for Boulanger's arrest for
conspiracy and
treasonable activity. To the astonishment of his supporters, on
April 1 he fled from Paris before it could be executed, going first to
Brussels and then to
London. On April 4, the Parliament stripped him of his
immunity from prosecution; the
French Senate condemned him, Rochefort, and Count Dillon for treason, sentencing all three to
deportation and confinement.
After his flight, support for him dwindled, and the Boulangists were defeated in the general elections of July 1889 (after the government forbade Boulanger from running). Boulanger himself went to live in
Jersey before returning to the
Ixelles Cemetery in Brussels in September 1891 to commit suicide by a bullet to the head on the grave of his mistress, Madame de Bonnemains (née
Marguerite Crouzet) who had died in the preceding July. He was interred in the same grave in Ixelles. He indeed committed suicide on his own (future) grave.
Several incidents followed Boulanger's death, including an armed attack carried out by a
boulangiste against the Republican politician
Jules Ferry, in December of the same year. Although largely discredited, the trend started by Boulanger was still visible inside the
far right (the
anti-Dreyfusards) during France's next major scandal, the
Dreyfus Affair.
Israeli historian
Zeev Sternhell cites
boulangisme as a major influence on
Fascism, alongside
Anarcho-syndicalism and the
Cercle Proudhon.
Quotes
- "We can finally renounce our unfortunate defensive policy [towardsGermany]; France ought to increasingly follow the offensive policy." (1886, during a speech in Libourne)
- "Boulangisme: (...) a vague and mystical aspiration of a nation towards a democratic, authoritarian, liberating ideal; the state of mind of a country that's searching, after the various deceptions to which she was exposed by the established parties which she'd trusted up to then, and outside the usual ways, something else altogether, without knowing either what or how, and summoning all those who are dissatisfied and vanquished in its search for the unknown. (...) General Boulanger was born out of this state of mind. He didn't create the boulangisme, it is boulangisme that created him. He had the chance to arrive at the psychological and spiritual moment from which he profits. (Arthur Meyer in Le Gaulois, October 11 1889)
- "A Saint Arnaud of the café-concert." (Jules Ferry on Boulanger)
- "Five minutes past midnight, gentlemen. It's been five minutes since boulangisme has started to decrease." (a boulangiste on January 27, immediately after Boulanger's refusal to lead a coup)
- "He died as he's lived: a second lieutenant." (Georges Clemenceau upon hearing news of Boulanger's suicide)
In popular culture
Général Boulanger inspired the
Jean Renoir movie
Elena and Her Men, a musical fantasy loosely based on the end of his political career. The role of
Général François Rollan, a Boulanger-like character, was played by
Jean Marais.
IMDB notes that there was also a French television programme about Boulanger in the early 1980s,
La Nuit du général Boulanger
, where Boulanger is played by
Maurice Ronet.
Further Information
Get more info on 'General Boulanger'.
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