About

A Norman noble who sat with the constitutional minority of the nobility in the Constituent Assembly, Puisaye commanded the vanguard of the federalist force defeated at Pacy in 1793 and escaped into Brittany, where he set about welding the Chouans into a disciplined army and opened his own channel to the British government. He organised the émigré expedition that landed at Carnac in June 1795, hampered from the outset by a command divided with the comte d’Hervilly. When the position was lost he went aboard the British flagship, and some two thousand men were evacuated; more than seven hundred prisoners were afterwards shot. He was disavowed by the comte d’Artois and accused of cowardice and of serving England, charges never established. He founded a settlement in Upper Canada and died in England in 1827.