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Jean Nicolas Stofflet

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JEAN NICOLAS STOFFLET (1751-1796), Vendean general, was born at Luneville, the son of a miller. Long a private soldier in a Swiss regiment in France, and afterwards gamekeeper to the comte de Colbert-Maulevrier, he joined the Vendeans when they rose against the Revolution to defend their religious and royalist principles. During the war in La Vendee he served first under Gigot d'Elbee, fought at Fontenay, Cholet and Saumur, and distinguished himself at the battles of Beaupreau, Laval and Antrain. He was appointed majorgeneral of the royalist army, and in 1794 succeeded La Rochejaquelein as commander-in-chief. But his quarrels with another Vendean leader, F. A. Charette, and the reverses sustained by the Vendean arms, led him to give in his submission and to accept the terms of the treaty of La Jaunaie (May 2, 1 795). He, however, soon violated this treaty, and at the instigation of royalist agents took arms in December 1795 on behalf of the count of Provence (the future Louis XVIII.), from whom he had received the rank of marechal-de-camp. This last attempt of Stofflet's failed completely. He was taken prisoner by the republicans, condemned to death by a military commission, and shot at Angers on the 23rd of February 1796.

See General d'Andigne, Memoires, edited by E. Bire (1900-1901); C. Loyer, "Cholet sous la domination de Stofflet," in L' Anjou historique, vol. iii. (1902-1903).