Louis d'Elbée

Maurice-Joseph-Louis Gigost d'Elbée; 21 March 1752 – 6 January 1794) was a French Royalist military

leader. Initially enthusiastic about the Revolution, he became disenchanted with the disestablishment of the Catholic Church and retired to his estates in Brittany. He was the second commander in chief of the Royal and Catholic Armyformed by Royalist forces of the Vendean insurrection against the Republic and the French Revolution.

Life
Louis d'Elbee was born in Dresden, Electorate of Saxony to a French family in 1752. He moved to France in 1777, becoming a naturalised citizen and joining the French Royal Army. He embarked on a military career, reaching the rank of lieutenant, but resigned from the army in 1783 and married, thereafter living a retired country life near Beaupréau in Anjou. He then served as an officer in the army of Frederick Augustus I, the Prince-Elector of Saxony. After the Revolution, he returned in obedience to the law which ordered emigrants to return to France.