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Jacques Jourquin explore ici les deux faces de Michel Ney : sa bravoure hors norme et sa fragilité de caractère. Le portrait que nous offre l’auteur raconte une vie de tumultes, de bonheurs, d’honneurs et l’ultime égarement, fatal. Les dernières campagnes, Russie et Waterloo, firent de lui un héros national, un martyr des Bourbons, lui qui ne cherchait plus que la mort.

Jacques Jourquin’s carefully chosen title for this article says it all. Michel Ney was, on the one hand, extraordinarily brave and yet, on the other, beset by huge character flaws. The portrait here tells of a tumultuous life, of happiness, of honours, and of a final, fatal error of judgement. His last campaigns, those of Russia and Waterloo, made him a national hero, a martyr for the Bourbons, when in fact all he sought was death.