DUMOURIEZ (Charles François du Perier). ÉTAT Présent du Royaume de Portugal, en L’Année MDCCLXVI. A Lausanne. 1775.

DUMOURIEZ (Charles François du Perier). ÉTAT Présent du Royaume de Portugal, en L’Année MDCCLXVI. A Lausanne. 1775.
DUMOURIEZ (Charles François du Perier)
ÉTAT Présent du Royaume de Portugal, en L’Année MDCCLXVI. A Lausanne: Chez François Grasset & Comp., 1775.

†6, *2, A-M12, N8; XVI, 304 pp.; 170 mm.

Dumouriez (1739-1823) was an important French General who commanded important victories of the French Revolution in 1792-93, after which he defected to Austria. The son of a war commissioner, he entered the French army in 1758, serving with flying colors against the Prussians in the Seven Years' War (1756-63). Louis XV sent him on secret diplomatic missions to Madrid (1767), Poland (1770-72) and Sweden (1773), but he was recalled and imprisoned on charges of conspiracy. After his release, in 1778 he was appointed commander in Cherbourg where for the next eleven years he supervised the development of the proto. The Revolution of 1789 opened new opportunities for Dumouriez, joining the Jacobins in 1790. In 1792 he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. Leading the French army against Austria, he suffered a series of setbacks that prevented him from realizing his desire to win the battle quickly. Still in 1792, he was appointed Minister of War, resigning three days later to assume command of the Northern army. Meanwhile, Prussia allies itself with Austria. Associated with François Christophe Kellermann, Dumouriez managed to defeat the Prussian army at the Battle of Valmy and forced them out of French territory and soon after conquered Belgium by crushing the Austrian army at the Battle of Jemappes. In 1793, Dumouriez invaded Holland. Forced to withdraw to Belgium, he was defeated by the Austrians at Neerwinden and Louvain. He then negotiated an armistice with the enemy and made plans to march on Paris and seize the National Convention. When the Convention sent the Minister of War, Pierre Riel, and four commissioners to withdraw his command, Dumouriez handed them over to the Austrians. His troops deserted and in April he too defected to the Austrian side. Following his desertion in June 1793, Dumouriez traveled across Europe, later settling in England where he secured a pension in the early 1800s. After the restoration of the French monarchy, he tried to return to his country, but Louis XVII always refused. your request. This work of his was written during a diplomatic mission in 1766, before the mission to Madrid, and includes general assessments about our country, namely its continental geography, colonies, army, government and social characteristics, including in this last part chapters about D. João V, the Count of Oeiras, the University of Coimbra, etc. Rare and valuable.

¶ Duarte Sousa, v.1, n.369