Patrice de Mac-Mahon

Patrice de Mac-Mahon (1808-1893), French soldier and statesman. Marie Edme Patrice Maurice, Comte de Mac-Mahon was born in Sully, and educated at the military college of St Cyr. For his distinguished service in Algeria he was made brigadier general in 1848. He commanded a division during the Crimean War and in the Algerian campaign of 1857-1858. After the campaign of Magenta against Austria in 1859 he was created a marshal of France and Duke of Magenta. In 1864 he was made governor-general of Algeria and served in that position until 1870, when he was given command of the first army corps during the Franco-Prussian War. He was instrumental in the dissolution of the Paris Commune of 1871. Backed by the monarchists, he became second president of the Third Republic in 1873. During a struggle with the Republicans in 1877 he dissolved the Chamber of Deputies. When the Republicans won the new election, Mac-Mahon was forced to resign (1879), and he retired from public life.