VOYAGES EN ITALIA 1832-1835

n.p.: Original Manuscript, 1832, 1833, 1834, 1835. Original Manuscript in French, of the travels by General Despans-Cubičres to Italy over the course of four years. The text includes significant considerations of military affairs, the mention and discussion of famous personages as well as historical observations and political affairs . 4to, the manuscripts now bound into a binding of terra-cotta paper over marbled boards with a hand-calligraphed label to the upper cover and the titles in black to the spine panel. 534 pp. A fine and beautifully preserved collection of manuscripts written over four years. A UNIQUE AND INTERESTING MANUSCRIPT BY ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS GENERALS IN ALL OF FRENCH HISTORY. 'Amédée Louis de Cubičres was the illegitimate son of the Marquis Louis Pierre de Cubičres (page to Louis XV and squire to Louis XVI then, in 1815, of Louis XVIII) by Madame Guesnon de Bonneuil (née Michelle Sentuary).
He served in the Austerlitz, Prussian and Polish campaigns, being mentioned in dispatches at Austerlitz and wounded at Jena (1806). Promoted to lieutenant on 30 November 1806 he received the cross of the Légion d'honneur at Eylau (1807). Aide-de-camp to general Morand (from 12 January 1808), he followed him in the Austrian campaign of 1809, the French invasion of Russia in 1812 and the 1813 German campaign. He fought with distinction at Eckmühl and rose to captain at Essling (7 June 1809). He assisted at the battle of Wagram (6 July 1809) and had three horses shot from under him at the battle of Borodino. Napoleon I of France made him an officer of the Légion d’honneur in reward for his good conduct in the 1813 campaign, in which he had become chef de bataillon (promoted 3 October 1813).
On Napoleon's return from Elba in 1815, colonel de Cubičres was made colonel ŕ la suite to the 1st Light Infantry Regiment, of which the titular colonel was Beurnonville. According to Jolyet, Napoleon reviewed this regiment on the day after his arrival back in Paris on 21 March and asked who was its commander. Cubičres replied "Sir, it is colonel de Beurnonville ; but he is ill." Napoleon replied "Beurnonville is not sick - it is you, colonel Cubičres, who shall nevertheless take command of the 1st Light Infantry". In 1815, Despans-Cubičres fought with his regiment at Waterloo and was wounded at Quatre-Bras and at Mont-Saint-Jean.
According to Jolyet, Cubičres was "the most valiant soldier and the best man-of-war that I have known. With this [he brought] a remarkable beauty, a brilliant spirit, [and] a generous and independent love".
Promoted to commander of the Légion d’honneur (21 March 1831), he was made commander-in-chief of the French troops which landed at Ancona in the Papal States (9 February 1832) to occupy the town in reprisal for Austrian intervention at Bologna. Returning to France in 1837 with the rank of lieutenant-general, he next became Minister for War in the 1839 transitional government (31 March-13 May 1839) then in Adolphe Thiers's second cabinet (1 March-29 October 1840). He attached his name to Paris's fortifications, to the decision to write a history of all France's regiments since Francis I and to the organisation of the chasseurs of Vincennes. Made a peer of France on 7 November 1839, he took part in the discussions of the Chambre des pairs on taxes and roads before being raised to grand officer of the Légion d’honneur on 27 April 1840.
When the 1844 novel The Count of Monte Cristo was published - according to Librairie Générale Française (1995), its character of Fernand Mondego was inspired by general Despans-Cubičres. On 17 August 1852 he won a decree of rehabilitation at the Court of Appeal at Rouen after an earlier trial on charges of corruption and was allowed to retire as a général de division on 1 January 1853