Michel Ney was the French marshal executed by firing squad in 1815 after the Bourbon restoration. He was shot in Paris on 7 December 1815, following Napoleon’s defeat and the return of Louis XVIII.
Ney had first pledged loyalty to the restored Bourbon monarchy in 1814. During the Hundred Days, however, he joined Napoleon after Napoleon escaped from Elba and returned to power. Ney commanded French troops at Waterloo, where the army was defeated by the allied forces of Wellington and Blücher.
After Napoleon’s second abdication, the restored Bourbon government arrested Ney and charged him with treason. A military court declared itself incompetent, so he was tried by the Chamber of Peers. The chamber voted overwhelmingly for the death penalty, and Ney was executed near the Luxembourg Gardens.
Ney is often remembered by his nickname, “the bravest of the brave,” associated with his conduct during the Napoleonic Wars. Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte became king of Sweden, while Joachim Murat was executed in 1815 in Naples—but neither was the marshal executed by the Bourbon regime in Paris.