Nicolas Luckner

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Image:Nicolas luckner.jpg Nikolaus, Count Luckner (* January 12, 1722 - January 4 1794 in Paris) was a German in French army service who rose to Marshal of France. Great grandfather of Felix von Luckner.

Luckner originated in Cham in eastern Bavaria and got his early education with the Jesuits in Passau. Before entering French service, Luckner fought in the Bavarian, Dutch and Hanoverian armies. He fought as commander of hussars during the Seven Year War against the French. Luckner joined the French army in 1763 as a lieutenant general. In 1784 he was made a Danish count.

He supported the French Revolution, and the year 1791 saw Luckner being made a Marshal of France. In 1792, Luckner first served as commander of the Army of the Rhine, during which time Rouget de Lisle dedicated to him the Chant de Guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin, which was to become better known as the Marseillaise. As commander of the Army of the North he captured the Flemish cities of Menen and Kortrijk but then had to retreat towards Lille. After the flight of Lafayette he was made generalissimo with orders of building a Reserve Army near Châlons-sur-Marne. The National Convention was not satisfied with his progress and Choderlos de Laclos was ordered to support or replace him. Luckner, at over 70 years, then asked for dismissal and went to Paris, where he was arrested by the Revolutionary Tribunal and sentenced to death. He died under the guillotine in Paris in 1794.

The carillon of the town hall in the Bavarian town of Cham rings the Marseillaise every day at 12.05 p.m. to commemorate the city's most famous son, Nikolaus Graf von Luckner [1].de:Nicolas Luckner fr:Nicolas Luckner sv:Nicolaus von Luckner