Marmont was born at Châtillon-sur-Seine, the son of an ex-officer in the army who belonged to the petite noblesse and adopted the principles of the Revolution.

He was present at the coup d'état of the 18th Brumaire and organized the artillery for the expedition to Italy, which he commanded with great effect at Marengo.

For the next five years, he was military and civil governor of Dalmatia, and traces of his beneficent régime still survive both in great public works and in the memories of the people.

[3] In the subsequent pursuit of Archduke Charles, Marmont's corps was in a compromising position and was rescued only by the arrival of Napoleon with heavy reinforcements.

Of the three marshals created after Wagram, the French soldiers said, MacDonald is France's choiceOudinot is the army's choiceMarmont is friendship's choice.

Marmont's forces fought a fighting retreat back to the commanding position of Essonne, inflicting high casualties on the enemy.

[citation needed] Marmont then took upon himself a political role, seeking to halt what he now saw as a pointless prolonging of a war that France would now assuredly lose.

[6] Marmont stayed loyal to the restored Bourbon king Louis XVIII during the Hundred Days, and following Waterloo, voted in favour of the execution of Marshal Ney.

Himself opposed to the court policy, he nevertheless tried to do his duty and only gave up the attempt to suppress the revolution when it became clear that his troops were outmatched.

His desire to return to France was never gratified and he wandered in central and eastern Europe, settling finally in Vienna, where he was well received by the Austrian government.

Strangely, he was made tutor to the Duke of Reichstadt, the young man who had once for a few weeks been styled Napoleon II.

[1] Despite his long friendship with Napoleon, by this time the verb "raguser"—derived from his title, the Duke of Ragusa—was a household word in France that meant "to betray".

He performed wonderfully in Dalmatia making what John Elting calls "a remarkable 300-mile march through frequently roadless country, scattering two Austrian forces, but clinging to his independent status..."[7] Perhaps even more impressive is his study and evaluation of the Spanish theater of the war.