Table of Contents
Scope and Contents of the Collection
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Overview of the Collection |
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| Creator: | Macdonald, Etienne-Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre, duc de Tarente, 1765-1840. |
| Title: | Alexandre Macdonald Letters |
| Inclusive Dates: | 1807-1840 |
| Quantity: | 2 folders (SC) |
| Abstract: | Letters from the French military leader and legislator to three generations of the Billacoys family. |
| Language: | French |
| Repository: |
Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries 222 Waverly Avenue Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 https://library.syracuse.edu/special-collections-research-center |
Biographical History
Étienne Jacques Joseph Alexandre MacDonald (1765-1840) was a Marshal of France and military leader during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, regarded with respect for both his military achievements and his personal character.
Born in France to Jacobite Scottish parents, he embarked on his military career in 1785. By 1793 he was a colonel in the French Army, and fought in Spain and Italy. In 1800 he was named commander of the Helvetic Republic (Switzerland) and in 1809 he became military adviser to the viceroy of the Kingdom of Italy. In recognition of his achievements that same year in the Battle of Wagram against the Austrians, Napoleon made him a Marshal of France and duke of Taranto (in Naples). After the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1814 MacDonald assisted in negotiating Napoleon's surrender and was named a peer of France, a Knight Grand-Croix of the Royal Order of St. Louis, and Chancellor of the Legion of Honor. He retired from public life in 1830 and died in 1840.
Although he visited his father's homeland, the island of Uist in the Outer Hebrides, only once, the island erected a plaque "to the memory of Marshal of France Jacques Macdonald" in May of 2010.
Scope and Contents of the Collection
The Alexandre MacDonald Letters consists of approximately 140 letters from MacDonald to three generations of the Billacoys family. The letters are personal and intimate in nature, many concerning the two Billacoys children who were sponsored by MacDonald and in whom he took a lively interest. Some discuss his activities in the French legislature and many give details of his life in Paris and at his chateau, with mention of mutual friends, including a number of important French personalities of the time.
There is little of military of political content, but the letters reveal a good deal of Macdonald's personality, character and philosophy and reflect the mores of France over a span of more than forty years.
Restrictions
Access Restrictions
The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.
Use Restrictions
Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.
Related Material
MacDonald's travel diary resides in the French National Archives and includes, according to an article in London's Sunday Times, "his impressions on his first visit to his ancestral homeland...[and] an account of a boisterous evening in the company of a drunken Sir Walter Scott."
Subject Headings
Persons
Places
Genres and Forms
Occupations
Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
Preferred citation for this material is as follows:
Alexandre MacDonald Letters,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries
Acquisition Information
Purchase, 1969.
Finding Aid Information
Created by: MRC
Date: 28 Jun 2010
Revision history: