Mirabeau, André-Boniface-Louis Riqueti, vicomte de

▪ French soldier

born Nov. 30, 1754, Paris

died Sept. 15, 1792, Fribourg-en-Brisgau, Fr.

      brother of the famous orator, the comte de Mirabeau, and one of the reactionary leaders at the opening of the French Revolution.

      Sent to the army in Malta in 1776, he spent part of his two years there in prison for insulting a religious procession. During the War of American Independence he was in several sea fights with the English and was at the taking of Yorktown in 1781. In 1789, with his debts paid up by his father, he was elected by the noblesse of Limoges a deputy to the States General. He was a violent conservative and opposed everything that threatened the old regime. His drunkenness produced a corpulency which brought him the nickname Mirabeau Tonneau (“Barrel Mirabeau”), but he was not lacking in some of that insight that distinguished his brother. He shared fully in the eccentric family pride and boasted of his brother's genius even when bitterly opposing him. He emigrated about 1790 and raised a legion that was to bear his name; but his insolence alienated the German princes, and his command was taken from him.

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