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Joachim, the youngest of twelve children, of innkeeper parents, undertakes studies at the seminar of the Vincentians of Toulouse. In February 1787, following a quarrel with a comrade, he abandoned the ecclesiastical way to engage in a regiment of chasseurs on horseback. In two years, he becomes a sergeant. Mixed with a mutiny, he is dismissed from the army. When his father sees him coming back, he closes his purse. Murat becomes a grocer. Already, his plume impresses and he is designated by his canton to participate in the feast of the Federation July 14, 1790. The following year, he gets to be reinstated in the ranks of the army as a private. He was appointed second lieutenant on May 30, 1791. A moment worried by the fall of Robespierre, this fervent Republican went so far as to adopt the name of Marat finally finds himself without affectation at the end of the year 1794, in Paris. At the dawn of 13-Vendémiaire, Barras and a young Corsican general, Bonaparte, ask a volunteer to recover the guns parked at the Sablons. Murat proposes himself. He returns with 40 pieces, which will stifle the royalist insurrection.By this gesture, Murat binds his fate to that of Bonaparte. The latter appointed him brigadier on 2 February 1796 and made him one of his aides-de-camp. As such, Murat accompanies him to Italy in 1796 where he stands out for his bravery. In charge of carrying the enemy flags to the Directory in Paris, he is also asked to intercede with Josephine to join her husband. He returns from Paris with the rank of Brigadier General. He participates in the siege of Mantua. After Campoformio, Bonaparte sends him to the Congress of Rastatt. In Egypt, Murat distinguished himself at the head of a brigade of cavalry. After the capture of Alexandria (July 2, 1798) and the Battle of the Pyramids (July 21, 1798), he was the first to assault Saint-Jean-d'Acre (March 28, 1799), during the Syria expedition. At the battle of Aboukir, July 25, 1799, he personally seized Pasha Mustapha, to whom he slices two fingers in the heat of the action. This earned him an unusual wound a bullet through his jaw through and the rank of Major General. Murat has become a popular figure. However, throughout the years spent together, Bonaparte will be abrupt with the one who gave him pledges of loyalty on 18-Brumaire by throwing his grenadiers in front of the flabbergasted parliamentarians: "Get me all this world out! ". Bonaparte granted him the hand of his sister Caroline, in February 1800, but after the intervention of Josephine. He made him marshal in 1804, grand admiral and prince the following year, but seems reluctant to entrust him with important commandments. Governor of Paris in 1804, Murat reluctantly signs the constitution of the commission which presides over the execution of the Duc d'Enghien. He leaves the following year for the campaign of Austria, at the head of all the cavalry. After the capture of Ulm (October 15-20, 1805), he pursued the Russian and Austrian armies along the Danube. While Napoleon ordered him to cover the flanks of the Grand Army, he entered Vienna at the head of his men on November 11, 1805. Napoleon made severe reprimands for this act of insubordination. Murat catches up with his conduct during the battle of Austerlitz, December 2. Napoleon granted him the Grand Duchy of Berg and Cleves in 1806; he needs a man of confidence to secure the continental blockade. Murat tastes in power, is concerned with the well-being of his subjects. This is an opportunity for new tensions with the Emperor, who will soon call him back in the ranks. In 1806, indeed, Prussia, England, Sweden and Russia declared war on France. Murat drove the Prussians to Leipzig, participated brilliantly in the battle of Jena on October 14, 1806, and had Blücher surrendered to Lübeck. He entered Warsaw first on November 28, 1806. At Eylau (February 8, 1807), he commanded all the French cavalry. On the orders of Napoleon, he launched his troops to repel the Russian center. This charge remains in the legend under the name of "charge of 80 squadrons". Napoleon offered Murat the crown of Naples in 1808, but provided he remained a pawn of imperial policy. Murat has no doubt dreamed of the Spanish throne for which he paid for himself. Sent to Spain without precise instructions, it is he who represses harshly the insurrection of May 2, 1808, organizes the exodus of Ferdinand VII and Charles IV to Bayonne. And this Neapolitan crown finally acquired, it trembles to be disheveled, like the King of Holland, whose kingdom is simply annexed to the Empire in 1810. The commoner is conscientious king. He introduces reforms, organizes an army ... Frictions with the Emperor resume, exacerbated by the dissension between Caroline and Murat, who are competing for power. In 1812, Napoleon called his brother-in-law by his side for the Russian campaign, again at the head of the cavalry. During the six months of the campaign, Murat will be in constant contact with the Russian armies. At the battle of Borodino on September 7, he charged at the head of 15,000 riders in front of the Russian guns. While Napoleon was in Moscow in October 1812, he failed to be encircled at Taroutino (October 18, 1812) but managed to disengage. In December, Napoleon left him the command of the Grand Army to return hastily to Paris. Murat does not want this command: he wants to save his kingdom. In Wilna, he loses his temper and abandons the Grande Armée. Back in Naples, he writes to Napoleon to explain his conduct. He asks to return to the service of the Emperor. He returns to participate in the summer campaign of 1813; Napoleon entrusted him with the command of the Southern Army, in charge of containing the Coalition of Schwarzenberg. After the defeat of Leipzig (16-19 October 1813), he returned to his kingdom. In January 1814, Murat signed a treaty with Austria. At the Vienna Congress of 1815, the generous subsidies he paid to diplomats, Talleyrand in particular, were of no avail. It is a question of restoring the Bourbons on the Neapolitan throne. Murat, desperate, tries to open on all sides; he wrote a cordial letter to Louis XVIII., returned to Napoleon exiled to the island of Elba. The latter informs him of his plans to return. Murat declares war on Austria as soon as he learns of the landing of the Emperor. He soon occupies Rome, Ancona, Bologna. From Rimini, he launches a proclamation in which he calls for the unification of Italy. But soon the Austrian troops, led by Neipperg, encircle it. It is the defeat of Tolentino, April 21, 1815. Murat must flee while Ferdinand returns to his throne. He arrives in France where Napoleon refuses to receive him. In Corsica, it brings together 600 men. That is enough for him to dream of reconquering Naples; he embarks for the Italian coast. Landed in Pizzo, he is taken prisoner, incarcerated. A decree of the King orders the commission which judges him to leave him a "half hour to receive the help of religion" before shooting him. Murat himself gives the order to shoot, October 13, 1815.