In 1804 Napoleon created 18 'Marshals of the Empire', to serve as the senior officers of the Grande Armée. He created a further 8 before his abdication. A few were aristocrats, but others were the sons of shopkeepers or tailors. The most favoured became princes and kings. Among their ranks were legendary figures such as Marshals Lannes, Ney, Soult, Davout and Massena, but also much less well know figures like Pérignon, Brune and Moncey. Our series will explore the lives of all 26 Marshals, and rank them according to our own judgement of their achievements as Marshals. Thank you to our series historical consultant émy Porte, whose blog on military history (in French) you can read here: Visit our online bookshop to find great books on this and other topics: UK site - US site - As a affiliate we earn from qualifying purchases while donating 10% of sales to support independent bookshops! 📚 Recommended reading: 📖 Leipzig 1813: The Battle of the Nations 📖 Austerlitz 1805: The Fate of Empires 📖 Napoleon's Guard Infantry Vol.1 🎶🎶 Music from Filmstro: Get 20% off an annual license with code EPICHISTORYTV_ANN 🎶 Additional music from Kevin MacLeod (): 'Egmont Overture', Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Thank you to Alexander Averyanov for permission to use his artwork, 'Battle of Eylau' and 'Fighting for the Bagration Flèches'. Support Epic History TV on Patreon from $1 per video, and get perks including ad-free early access & votes on future topics: #EpicHistoryTV #NapoleonicWars #Napoleon #NapoleonsMarshals
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