La Grande Armée (Episode 2) - The Infantry & Officer Corps [66:30-68:16]

Louis Amalric, the Compte N'abonne. N'abonne is almost alone as an example of a high-ranking noble serving as a colonel of infantry until appointment as Minister of War II Louis XVI. Louis Nicolas de Vue, in contrast, held from a poor noble family in the yarn. Here's was the far more typical story for an ex-noble who continued to serve. He began his military career in a military academy, followed by a posting to the Army as a lieutenant. That trajectory ought to sound doubly familiar, as it's exactly the same as Napoleon's own early life and education. The overwhelming majority of the officers of the Royal Army were royalists, specifically absolutists who supported King Louis XVI to the Hilt. The rest, including N'abonne, were constitutional monarchists who supported the monarchy but not the King per se, and whose liberal leanings led them to support the Revolution and the abolition of nobility. After the King's flight to Varenne and the revolutionary chips were down, the old officer corps was obliterated. Absolutists fled or were purged, leading the constitutional monarchists to assume their vacated positions. Then, as the monarchy was abolished in favor of the Republic, the constitutional monarchist yielded to Republicans like Napoleon. Thus, within a few short years, from 1789 to 1792, the French officer corps had churned through two generations, leading it to be dominated by the younger up-and-comers who had benefited from education in the military theories and principles of the Old Order, but would never have made it far within that system or into a lack of social standing. The list of these officers reads like an honor roll of some of France's most effective soldiers and leaders. Antoine de Salle, Amadel Larp,