In 1783, Louis Phélippeaux met Napoleon Bonaparte at the École Militaire in Paris where the two young men became lifelong enemies.
Phélippeaux was also an enemy of the state to France, due to his loyalty to the Ancien Régime[1] and his participation in many anti-revolutionary movements.
Louis-Edmond Antoine le Picard de Phélippeaux was born on April 1, 1767, in Angles-sur-l'Anglin, Vienne.
[3] At one point during training, a sergeant major Picot de Peccaduc [fr] was forced to get between the two quarrelers, but he was kicked in the process.
In 1789, Louis-Edmond Antoine le Picard de Phélippeaux was promoted to Captain of the Besançon regiment.
Two years later, he resigned and emigrated from France to Great Britain, presumably to escape from the French Revolution, being a monarchist like his father.
[2] Two years later, in 1797, Antoine de Phélippeaux returned to Paris in order to free English naval officer Sir William Sidney Smith from Temple prison.
The elaborate plan included the construction of a tunnel from a nearby house to the prison, and involved the help of a mason to chip away at bricks and a seven-year-old girl to serve as a decoy.
The group slept in a safe house in the rue de l'Université, and the next morning Phélippeaux led their path to the coast.
[2] Phélippeaux's efforts enabled the defence to defeat Napoleon Bonaparte in the battle of Acre.