92 



MURAT ML' RET. 



was afterwards removed as a terrorist, ami remained 

 without employment till his fate placed him in con- 

 nexion with Honnparte, whom lie accompanied as an 

 aid to Italy, in 1796. Here he distinguished himself 

 as a cavalry officer by his impetuous courage, and 

 followed the general to Egypt. He decided the vic- 

 tory over the Turks at Aboukir, and returned with 

 Bonaparte as general of division. On the 18th Bru- 

 maire, lie expelled the council of five hundred from 

 the hall of St Cloud, at the point of the bayonet, and 

 in 1800 married Marie Annonciade Caroline (born in 

 1782), the youngest sister of the first consul. He 

 was present at. the battle of Marengo, and, in 1804, 

 was made marshal of the empire, grand-admiral, and 

 prince of the French empire. His services in the 

 campaign of 1805, against Austria, in which he en- 

 tered Vienna at the head of the army, were rewarded, 

 in 1806. with the grand-duchy of Berg. The war of 

 1806 with Prussia, and of 1807 with Russia, where 

 he followed up the victories of his master, with his 

 cavalry, procured for him the distinction of occupy- 

 ing Madrid with a French army in 1808. Napoleon 

 placed him on the throne of Naples, July 15, 1808. 

 Murat, under the title of king Joachim Napoleon, 

 governed with prudence and vigour, chiefly following 

 the steps of Joseph. His attempt to conquer Sicily 

 miscarried. His wife, a woman of sense and charac- 

 ter, effected much good at home, while Murat him- 

 self was called to accompany Napoleon to Russia, at 

 the head of all his cavalry. He was here defeated 

 at Tarutina (October 18). Upon the retreat, Napo- 

 leon intrusted to him the command of the wreck of 

 the army. The emperor accused him, in the Moni- 

 teur, of incapacity in this command. Murat returned 

 to Naples full of indignation, and sought the friend- 

 ship of Austria. He, however, once more fought 

 with Napoleon, in the fatal campaign of Germany 

 (1813). After the battle of Leipsic, he returned 

 with his army to his kingdom, and negotiated for its 

 preservation with Austria and Britain. The former 

 actually concluded an alliance with him (June 11, 

 1814), to which Russia and Prussia acceded, in 1815; 

 but Britain would only enter into a truce, since 

 Ferdinand of Sicily, her ally, would receive no in- 

 demnification for Naples. The situation of Murat 

 was consequently doubtful. He advanced with his 

 nrmy, in February, 1814, as far as the Po ; but his 

 hesitation in attacking the French excited the mis- 

 trust of Britain, as much as the hesitation of Britain 

 to acknowledge him as an ally had excited his own 

 suspicions. At the congress at Vienna, the Bour- 

 bons solicited for his dethronement, and Britain 

 accused him of treachery. He took up arms, in 

 1815, for Napoleon, as was then thought, while he 

 was yet negotiating at Vienna, and formed a plan to 

 make himself master of Italy, as far as the Po. To- 

 wards the end of March, after Napoleon had entered 

 France, he advanced with his army, partly by 

 Rimini, partly by Rome, Florence, and Modena, 

 attacked the Austrians, and called the Italians to 

 independence, at the very time that Austria and the 

 allies, upon his repeated assurances in March, that lie 

 would remain true to them against Napoleon, had 

 determined to recognise him as king of Naples. It 

 was too late. Austria, therefore, took the field 

 against him. Forced to retreat at Ferrara by 

 Bianchi (April 12), surrounded by Nugent, defeated 

 by Bianchi at Macerata (or Tolentino) (May 2 and 

 3), Murat was deserted by the greater part of his 

 army. May 19, he entered Naples as a fugitive. 

 The country had now declared against him. He fled 

 in disguise to the. island of Ischft, from whence he 

 sailed for France, and landed at Cannes, May 25. 

 His family went on board the British fleet, and found 

 iu Austria protection and a home. Napoleon would 



not permit him to come to Paris. But he kept up u 

 correspondence from Toulon with his adherents in 

 Italy. After the overthrow of Napoleon, he escaped, 

 in the midst of continual Dangers, to Corsica, while 

 his agent, Macirone, treated with the allies for a 

 place of refuge for him. But, pursued as a rebel in 

 Corsica, invited to return to Naples by his adherents 

 and by traitors (see. Medici), and encouraged to do so 

 by several brave officers, who were devoted to him, 

 he determined to sail, with 250 of his adherents, to 

 Naples, to recover his lost throne. Every thing was 

 prepared, when his aid, Macirone, brought an Aus- 

 trian passport, and the permission to reside in Aus- 

 tria. It was too late. Murat set sail that very 

 night (September 28), with six barks. A gale, on 

 the 6th October, off the coast of Calabria, dispersed 

 his fleet. Only two of the vessels entered the road 

 of S. Lucido. Murat now wished to sail for Trieste, 

 but the captain of his vessel declared that he must 

 land for provisions. Murat then determined to go 

 on shore. General Franceschetti and twenty-six 

 soldiers attended him (October 8). But his declara- 

 tion, " I am Joachim, your king," produced no 

 effect. He was pursued. He forced his way back 

 to the water, and leaped into a boat to go to Ms ship, 

 but was seized and carried in chains to Pizzo, where 

 he was brought before a court-martial, and con- 

 demned to be shot. The sentence was executed 

 October 13. He met his fate with courage. See 

 the Histoire des six derniers Mois de la f'ie de 

 Joachim Murat (from the Italian of general Colletta, 

 Neapolitan minister of war during the constitutional 

 government, Paris, 1821); and general Franceschetti 's 

 Mem. sur les Evenemens qui ont precede la Mori de 

 Joachim I. (Paris, 1826). Murat's widow (see Bona 

 parte) is now called countess of Lipano, and lives 

 upon the protection of Austria, near Trieste, where 

 she has carefully educated her four children. Her se- 

 cond daughter was married (1825) to count Rusponi ot 

 Ravenna. His eldest son, Achille, who resided in 

 Florida, author of Lettres sur les Etats-Unis, has 

 returned to France. 



MURATORI, Louis ANTHONY ; a distinguished 

 Italian antiquarian and historian. He was born at 

 Vignola, in the Modenese territories, in 1672. Hav- 

 ing adopted the ecclesiastical profession, and re- 

 ceived the order of priesthood, he obtained some pre- 

 ferment in the church. In 1684, he was made keeper 

 of the Ambrosian library at Milan, and, subsequently, 

 librarian and archivist to the duke of Modena. His 

 literary productions are voluminous and valuable ; 

 but his fame principally depends on his labours as an 

 editor of the works of others. His works fill forty- 

 six folio, thirty-four quarto, and thirteen octavo, 

 volumes. Among them are Delia perfetta Poesia 

 Italiana (1706, 2 vols., 4to) ; Antiquitates Italica 

 Medii ;Evi (1638,6 vols., folio); Novus Thesaurus 

 J'eterum Inscriptinnum (1739, 4 vols., folio); Anec- 

 dota Latino (4 vols., 4to) ; Anecdota Grteca (4to) ; 

 his great collection Rerum Italicarum Scriptores ab 

 Anno 500 ad 1500 (27 vols., folio), of which the two 

 supplementary volumes appeared after his deatii. 

 He was also the author of Annali d' Italia (1744 

 1749, 12 vols., 4to, repeatedly republished in 18 

 vols., 8vo), Dissertazioni sopra Antichitd Italiant 

 (1751, 3 vols., 4to). Muratori died in 1750. 



MURET, or MURETUS, MARK ANTONY; a 

 learned French grammarian, so called from a village 

 of the same name, in the neighbourhood of Limoges, 

 where he was born in April, 1526. In his eighteenth 

 year, he taught the languages at Villeneuve, and 

 afterwards at Poictiers, Bonrdeaux, and Paris. In 

 the latter place, an accusation of an infamous nature 

 caused him to be thrown into prison. At Toulouse, 

 where he had settled, after obtaining his liberation, 



