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Historical person

Jean-de-Dieu Soult

1769–1851

Jean-de-Dieu Soult rose from an infantry private to become a marshal of France under Napoleon. He fought with distinction at Austerlitz, commanded in Spain and Portugal and served as Napoleon’s chief of staff during the Waterloo campaign.

After the Restoration he adapted repeatedly to changing regimes and later served as war minister and prime minister. His long career combined tactical skill, political flexibility and a controversial reputation for acquiring art during the Peninsular War. Jean-de-Dieu Soult was born in Saint-Amans-Soult.

In Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe’s Storm, after Wellington’s victory at the Battle of Nivelle, Sharpe is ordered to protect Rear-Admiral Joel Chase while the naval officer examines how the army might bridge the rivers around Bayonne. Chase’s determination to witness the fighting turns the escort into a series of dangerous reconnaissances close to Marshal Soult’s lines. Jean-de-Dieu Soult is treated fictionally in Griff Hosker’s Bloody Badajoz, Griff Hosker’s British Light Dragoon, Griff Hosker’s Napoleon’s Guard, Griff Hosker’s The Lines of Torres Vedras, Griff Hosker’s The Road to France, and Adrian Goldsworthy’s Whose Business Is to Die.

Periods

Periods linked to Jean-de-Dieu Soult

Peninsular War1807–1814 CE Waterloo Campaign1815-06

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Jean-de-Dieu Soult (3 series)

Napoleonic Horseman in Order

by Griff Hosker 10 books 4.4(12,740)

Napoleonic Horseman follows a cavalryman through the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The series moves between French and British service, espionage, the Peninsular War, sieges and Waterloo, using mounted warfare to show how individual soldiers are pulled through the largest conflicts of the age.

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Sharpe in Order

by Bernard Cornwell 26 books 4.3(358,248)

The Sharpe series follows Richard Sharpe from service as a private soldier in India to command in the British Army during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The novels place him at the Siege of Seringapatam, Battle of Assaye, Siege of Gawilghur, Battle of Trafalgar, British attack on Copenhagen,…

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Napoleonic Wars in Order

by Adrian Goldsworthy 6 books 4.3(4,354)

The Napoleonic Wars series follows officers and soldiers of the fictional 106th Regiment of Foot through Wellington’s campaigns. The novels move from the first British intervention in Spain through Moore’s retreat to Corunna, Talavera, Ciudad Rodrigo, Cádiz and Albuera, showing the war through ordinary officers rather than generals…

All books in this series