Louis Pierre Alexis Pothuau by Reutlinger

Louis Pierre Alexis Pothuau (28 October 1815,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

– 7 October 1882) was a French naval officer and politician. He served as deputy for Paris, then as a sénateur inamovible. He was twice Minister for the Navy and the Colonies and ended his career as France's ambassador to the United Kingdom.

Life

His family originated on

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...

. He left he naval school in 1832 and (under the

prince de Joinville The first known lord of Joinville (French ''sire'' or ''seigneur de Joinville'') in the county of Champagne appears in the middle of the eleventh century. The former lordship was raised into the Principality of Joinville under the House of Guise ...

's command) took part in the

bombardment of Mogador The Bombardment of Mogador took place August 15-17, 1844, when French Navy forces under the Prince de Joinville attacked the Moroccan city of Mogador, modern Essaouira, and the island facing the city, Mogador island. The campaign was part of the ...

in 1844, then in the

bombardment of Odessa The Bombardment of Odessa was an action during the Crimean War in which a joint Anglo-French squadron of warships attacked the Russian port of Odessa. Background and formation On 6 April 1854, soon after the declaration of war by Britain and F ...

and the

siege of Sebastopol A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition warfare, attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity con ...

. He was made '' contre-amiral'' in 1864 and during the siege of Paris in 1870 commanded the forts in the south of the city, then headed a division in the battle at Gare-aux-Bœufs. He was promoted to vice-admiral and elected deputy for Paris in the national assembly. He joined the ''Centre gauche'' parliamentary group and entered the first ministry formed by Thiers as minister for the navy and the colonies (19 February 1871 – 25 May 1873). He was made a sénateur inamovible in 1875 and sided with the opposition during the

16 May 1877 crisis The 16 May 1877 crisis (french: link=no, Crise du seize mai) was a constitutional crisis in the French Third Republic concerning the distribution of power between the president and the legislature. When the royalist president Patrice MacMahon ...

. Due to this he was re-appointed as naval minister in Dufaure's ministry (13 December 1877 – 4 February 1879). Finally he became ambassador to London between 1878 and 1880. On 12 October 1882 he was buried in the 14th division of cimetière du Père-Lachaise. In 1893 a cruiser named after him was launched.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pothau, Louis 1815 births 1882 deaths Politicians from Paris French Naval Ministers Members of the National Assembly (1871) French life senators Ambassadors of France to the United Kingdom French military personnel of the Crimean War French military personnel of the Franco-Prussian War Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery French Navy admirals