The victory of
Marengo restored his freedom, and Soult received the command of the southern part of the kingdom of
Naples, and in 1802 he was appointed one of the four generals commanding the consular guard. Though he was one of those generals who had served under Moreau, and who therefore, as a rule, disliked and despised
Napoleon Bonaparte, Soult had the wisdom to show his devotion to the ruling
power; in consequence he was in August 1803 appointed to the command-in-chief of the camp of
Boulogne, and in May 1804 he was made one of the first marshals of France. He commanded a corps in the advance on
Ulm, and at
Austerlitz he led the decisive attack on the allied centre.
He played a great part in all the famous battles of the
Grande Armée, except the
Battle of Friedland (on the day of which he forced his way into
Königsberg), and after the conclusion of the
Peace of Tilsit he returned to France and was created (1808) duke of
Dalmatia. The award of this title greatly displeased him, for he felt that his proper title would be duke of Austerlitz, a title Napoleon had reserved for himself. In the following year he was appointed to the command of the II corps of the army with which
Napoleon intended to conquer
Spain, and after winning the
Battle of Gamonal he was detailed by the emperor to pursue
Sir John Moore, with whom he only caught up at
Corunna.
For the next four years Soult remained in Spain, and his military history is that of the
Peninsular War. In 1809, after being stalemated by Sir John Moore, he invaded
Portugal and took
Oporto, but was isolated by General
Silveira's strategy of contention. Busying himself with the political settlement of his conquests in the French interests and, as he hoped, for his own ultimate benefit as a possible candidate for the Portuguese throne, he attracted the hatred of Republican officers in his Army. Unable to move, he was eventually
dislodged from Oporto by
Arthur Wellesley, making a painful and almost disastrous retreat over the mountains, pursued by
Beresford and Silveira. After the
Battle of Talavera (1809) he was made chief of staff of the French troops in Spain with extended powers, and on
November 19 1809 won the great victory of
Ocana.
In
1810 he invaded
Andalusia, which he speedily reduced, with the exception of
Cádiz. In 1811 he marched north into
Extremadura, and took
Badajoz, and when the Anglo-Portuguese army laid siege to it he marched to its rescue, and fought and nearly won the famous
Battle of Albuera (
May 16). In 1812, however, he was obliged, after the
Duke of Wellington's great victory of
Salamanca, to evacuate Andalusia, and was soon after recalled from Spain at the request of
Joseph Bonaparte, with whom, as with the other marshals, he had always disagreed.
In March
1813 he assumed the command of
IV Corps of the
Grande Armée and commanded the centre at
Lützen and
Bautzen, but he was soon sent, with unlimited powers, to the South of France to repair the damage done by the great defeat of
Vitoria. His campaign there is the finest proof of his talents as a general, although he was repeatedly defeated by the Allies under Wellington, for his soldiers were but raw conscripts, while the Allies were the veterans of many campaigns. His last offensives into Spain were turned back by Wellington in the
Battle of the Pyrenees (
Sorauren) and by
Freire's Spaniards at
San Marcial. Pursued onto French soil, Soult was maneuvered out of several positions at
Nivelle, Nive, and
Orthez, before dealing Wellington a final bloody blow at
Toulouse.
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