Bible Encyclopedias
Jacques Antoine Hippolyte, Comte de Guibert

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

Search for…

Enter query below:

or

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

Prev Entry
Jacques Ancelot

Next Entry
Jacques Antoine Manuel

Resource Toolbox

Print Article

Advanced" tacticians themselves scarcely foresaw. "The standing armies, while a burden on the people, are inadequate for the achievement of great and decisive results in war, and meanwhile the mass of the people, untrained in arms, degenerates.. .. The hegemony over Europe will fall to that nation which. .. becomes possessed of manly virtues and creates a national army " - a prediction fulfilled almost to the letter within twenty years of Guibert's death. In 1773 he visited Germany and was present at the Prussian regimental drills and army manoeuvres; Frederick the Great, recognizing Guibert's ability, showed great favour to the young colonel and freely discussed military questions with him. Guibert's Journal d'un voyage en Allemagne was published, with a memoir, by Toulongeon (Paris, 1803). His Defense du systeme de guerre moderne, a reply to his many critics (Neuchatel, 1779) is a reasoned and scientific defence of the Prussian method of tactics, which formed the basis of his work when in 1775 he began to co-operate with the count de St Germain in a series of muchneeded and successful reforms in the French army. In 1777, however, St Germain fell into disgrace, and his fall involved that of Guibert who was promoted to the rank of marechal de camp and relegated to a provincial staff appointment. In his semiretirement he vigorously defended his old chief St Germain against his detractors. On the eve of the Revolution he was recalled to the War Office, but in his turn he became the object of attack and he died, practically of disappointment, on the 6th of May 1790. Other works of Guibert, besides those mentioned, are: Observations sur la constitution politique et militaire des armees de S. M. Prussienne (Amsterdam, 1778), Eloges of Marshal Catinat (r775), of Michel de l'Hopital (1778), and of Frederick the Great (1787). Guibert was a. member of the Academy from 1786, and he also wrote a tragedy, Le Connetable de Bourbon (1775) and a journal of travels in France and Switzerland.

See Toulongeon, Eloge veridique de Guibert (Paris, 1790); Madame de Steel, Eloge de Guibert; Bardin, Notice historique du general Guibert (Paris, 1836); Flavian d'Aldeguier, Discours sur la vie et les ecrits du comic de Guibert (Toulouse, 1855); Count Forestie, Biographic du comic de Guibert (Montauban, 1855); Count zur Lippe, "Friedr. der Grosse and Oberst Guibert" ( Militar-Wochenblatt, 1873, 9 and io).