Giuseppe Lechi
Giuseppe Lechi | |
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| Born | 5 December 1766 San Zeno Naviglio,Republic of Venice |
| Died | 9 August 1836 Montirone,Kingdom of Italy(aged 69) |
| Allegiance |  Most Serene Republic of Venice(until 1797), Kingdom of Italy(1797–1801), Kingdom of Naples(1802–1815) |
| Rank | CaptainDivision General |
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Giuseppe( "Joseph" )Lechi(5 December 1766 – 9 August 1836) was anItaliangeneralin theKingdom of Italyduring theNapoleonic Wars.
Biography
[edit]Born inAspesand being the first son of Faustino Lechi and his wife Doralice Bielli, the general Giuseppe Lechi was already considered a man of great light and shadows ( "dark and gloomy" ), reckless and unscrupulous similar to his uncle the CountGalliano Lechi,[1]who was very dear, and a model, to Giuseppe. His grandfatherPietrowas a famousFreemasonand a follower of theEnlightenment.
Born a subject of theMost Serene Republic of Venice,he undertook the military career in the Austrian army up to the rank of captain. On the arrival ofNapoleonin Italy, influenced also by his brother Giacomo, Giuseppe organized with his other brothersTeodoroandAngeloand other friends – all of them members of the "Casino dei Buoni Amici" free-masonnic secret society – the Bresciana revolution of 18 March 1797.
Giuseppe entered the temporary government of Brescia and organized the Brescian Legion that General Bonaparte sent to fighting in Emilia, Marche and then in Central Italy.
It was inCittà di Castello,in 1798, that happened the famous episode of the discussed donation ofRaphael's painting "The Marriage of the Virgin"to Giuseppe Lechi by the City Council.[2]
LeConsulte de la République cisalpine réunie en comices à Lyon pour décerner la présidence aupremier consul.
Nicolas-André Monsiau,1806–1808.
In the spring of 1799 Giuseppe Lechi with his unit was engaged in a military campaign inValtellinaattempting to curb an anti-French revolt. Forced to retreat by the Austro-Russians, he joined theItalian Legionof GeneralPietro TeuliéinDijon.
Back in Italy with Napoleon he fought atMarengo(14 June 1800) where he was promoted to the rank ofdivision generalon the field itself.
After thePeace of Lunéville(9 February 1801) he became commander of division underJoachim Muratand one of his friends, followers and advisors. In the same time, Giuseppe entered the new legislative body of theItalian Republic.
More and more bound up with the "Murat's circle", General Lechi joined theMasonryof theScottish Rite(becoming in the follow the Great Master of theGrand Lodgeof Naples) and those groups of patriots who supported the ideal of theItalian unification.
In 1804, Giuseppe Lechi participated in the conquest of theKingdom of Naplesfighting in theAdriaticregions under generalSaint-Cyr.In 1805 he was again in Naples with Murat andJoseph Bonaparte,to whom too he would become closely tied by friendship and personal fidelity.
In the years 1808 and 1809 Lechi was in Spain at the service ofJoseph Bonapartethat has yielded away in the meantime the Kingdom of Naples to Murat; Joseph conquered the city ofBarcelonaand becomes temporarily the governor there.
In 1809 he faced a trial in France (apparently for claims of violence, embezzlement and abuse) but escaped the judgment and was sent back to Naples at the service of his friend, the new king, Joachim Murat.
Lechi was also involved in the conspiracies of generalDomenico Pino,probably also as a link for Murat himself in the plot.
On 31 January 1814, Giuseppe was governor ofTuscanyhanding overLivornoto the English Fleet in an attempt made by Murat to bargain a separate peace with Austria. In 1815 "Joseph" Lechi was as always at Murat's side in his last and hopeless stand against the Austrians at theBattle of Tolentino(2–3 May 1815). As a prisoner of war, Lechi refused to swear any fidelity to the new Habsburgic regime and remained jailed in Lubiana till 1818.
Freed, Lechi settled down in his family's Villa ofMontironenearBresciaand married Eleonora, daughter ofJoseph Jérôme, Comte Siméon.He then died of cholera[3]in 1836 in Montirone.
Notes
[edit]- ^Fausto or Faustino Lechi, who was a minor brother of the notorious CountGalliano Lechiportrayed in a book byStendhalas "Count Vitelleschi". A sister of Giuseppe Lechi's Franca, or "Fanny", became a Stendhal's character too as also his brother the generalTeodoro,Napoleon's "mon beau général", who was portrayed in the character of the model gentleman and soldier "Count of Pietranera" in the bookThe Charterhouse of Parma(1839).
- ^The painting was actually preserved at theAcademy of Brera,in Milan, Italy.
- ^"Ragionamenti di cose patrie ad uso della gioventü del conte cavaliere Francesco Gambara".1840.
External links
[edit]- http://www.storiadimilano.it/Personaggi/Milanesi%20illustri/personaggi_avventurosi.htm
- Istituto Storico delleInsorgenze,L'insurrezione di Brescia
- Paolo Martinucci: "PREMESSE STORICHE E CULTURALI DELL’INSORGENZA NEL BERGAMASCO E NEL BRESCIANO",http://www.identitanazionale.it/inso_1002.php
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