Marshal de Broglie, throughout the war in Germany, and won the cross of St Louis and the rank of colonel in the expedition to Corsica (1767). In 1770 he published his Essai général de tactique in London, and this celebrated work appeared in numerous subsequent editions and in English, German and even Persian translations (extracts also in Liskenne and Sauvan, Bibl. historique et militaire, Paris, 1845). Of this work (for a detailed critique of which see Max Jähns, Gesch. d. Kriegswissenschaften, vol. iii. pp. 2058–2070 and references therein) it may be said that it was the best essay on war produced by a soldier during a period in which tactics were discussed even in the salon and military literature was more abundant than at any time up to 1871. Apart from technical questions, in which Guibert’s enlightened conservatism stands in marked contrast to the doctrinaire progressiveness of Menil Durand, Folard and others, the book is chiefly valued for its broad outlook on the state of Europe, especially of military Europe in the period 1763–1792. One quotation may be given as being a most remarkable prophecy of the impending revolution in the art of war, a revolution which the “advanced” tacticians themselves scarcely foresaw. “The standing armies, while a burden on the people, are inadequate for the achievement of great and decisive results in war, and meanwhile the mass of the people, untrained in arms, degenerates.... The hegemony over Europe will fall to that nation which ... becomes possessed of manly virtues and creates a national army”—a prediction fulfilled almost to the letter within twenty years of Guibert’s death. In 1773 he visited Germany and was present at the Prussian regimental drills and army manœuvres; Frederick the Great, recognizing Guibert’s ability, showed great favour to the young colonel and freely discussed military questions with him. Guibert’s Journal d’un voyage en Allemagne was published, with a memoir, by Toulongeon (Paris, 1803). His Défense du système de guerre moderne, a reply to his many critics (Neuchâtel, 1779) is a reasoned and scientific defence of the Prussian method of tactics, which formed the basis of his work when in 1775 he began to co-operate with the count de St Germain in a series of much-needed and successful reforms in the French army. In 1777, however, St Germain fell into disgrace, and his fall involved that of Guibert who was promoted to the rank of maréchal de camp and relegated to a provincial staff appointment. In his semi-retirement he vigorously defended his old chief St Germain against his detractors. On the eve of the Revolution he was recalled to the War Office, but in his turn he became the object of attack and he died, practically of disappointment, on the 6th of May 1790. Other works of Guibert, besides those mentioned, are: Observations sur la constitution politique et militaire des armées de S. M. Prussienne (Amsterdam, 1778), Éloges of Marshal Catinat (1775), of Michel de l’Hôpital (1778), and of Frederick the Great (1787). Guibert was a member of the Academy from 1786, and he also wrote a tragedy, Le Connétable de Bourbon (1775) and a journal of travels in France and Switzerland.
See Toulongeon, Éloge véridique de Guibert (Paris, 1790); Madame de Stäel, Éloge de Guibert; Bardin, Notice historique du général Guibert (Paris, 1836); Flavian d’Aldeguier, Discours sur la vie et les écrits du comte de Guibert (Toulouse, 1855); Count Forestie, Biographie du comte de Guibert (Montauban, 1855); Count zur Lippe, “Friedr. der Grosse und Oberst Guibert” (Militär-Wochenblatt, 1873, 9 and 10).
GUICCIARDINI, FRANCESCO (1483–1540), the celebrated Italian historian and statesman, was born at Florence in the year 1483, when Marsilio Ficino held him at the font of baptism.
His family was illustrious and noble; and his ancestors for
many generations had held the highest posts of honour in the
state, as may be seen in his own genealogical Ricordi autobiografici
e di famiglia (Op. ined. vol. x.). After the usual education
of a boy in grammar and elementary classical studies, his
father, Piero, sent him to the universities of Ferrara and Padua,
where he stayed until the year 1505. The death of an uncle,
who had occupied the see of Cortona with great pomp, induced
the young Guicciardini to hanker after an ecclesiastical career.
He already saw the scarlet of a cardinal awaiting him, and to
this eminence he would assuredly have risen. His father, however,
checked this ambition, declaring that, though he had five
sons, he would not suffer one of them to enter the church in its
then state of corruption and debasement. Guicciardini, whose
motives were confessedly ambitious (see Ricordi, Op. ined.
x. 68), turned his attention to law, and at the age of twenty-three
was appointed by the Signoria of Florence to read the Institutes
in public. Shortly afterwards he engaged himself in marriage
to Maria, daughter of Alamanno Salviati, prompted, as he
frankly tells us, by the political support which an alliance with
that great family would bring him (ib. x. 71). He was then
practising at the bar, where he won so much distinction that the
Signoria, in 1512, entrusted him with an embassy to the court
of Ferdinand the Catholic. Thus he entered on the real work
of his life as a diplomatist and statesman. His conduct upon that
legation was afterwards severely criticized; for his political
antagonists accused him of betraying the true interests of the
commonwealth, and using his influence for the restoration of
the exiled house of Medici to power. His Spanish correspondence
with the Signoria (Op. ined. vol. vi.) reveals the extraordinary
power of observation and analysis which was a chief
quality of his mind; and in Ferdinand, hypocritical and profoundly
dissimulative, he found a proper object for his scientific
study. To suppose that the young statesman learned his frigid
statecraft in Spain would be perhaps too simple a solution of
the problem offered by his character, and scarcely fair to the
Italian proficients in perfidy. It is clear from Guicciardini’s
autobiographical memoirs that he was ambitious, calculating,
avaricious and power-loving from his earliest years; and in
Spain he had no more than an opportunity of studying on a
large scale those political vices which already ruled the minor
potentates of Italy. Still the school was pregnant with instructions
for so apt a pupil. Guicciardini issued from this first
trial of his skill with an assured reputation for diplomatic ability,
as that was understood in Italy. To unravel plots and weave
counterplots; to meet treachery with fraud; to parry force
with sleights of hand; to credit human nature with the basest
motives, while the blackest crimes were contemplated with cold
enthusiasm for their cleverness, was reckoned then the height
of political sagacity. Guicciardini could play the game to perfection.
In 1515 Leo X. took him into service, and made him
governor of Reggio and Modena. In 1521 Parma was added to
his rule, and in 1523 he was appointed viceregent of Romagna
by Clement VII. These high offices rendered Guicciardini the
virtual master of the papal states beyond the Apennines, during
a period of great bewilderment and difficulty. The copious
correspondence relating to his administration has recently been
published (Op. ined. vols. vii., viii.). In 1526 Clement gave him
still higher rank as lieutenant-general of the papal army. While
holding this commission, he had the humiliation of witnessing
from a distance the sack of Rome and the imprisonment of
Clement, without being able to rouse the perfidious duke of
Urbino into activity. The blame of Clement’s downfall did not
rest with him; for it was merely his duty to attend the camp,
and keep his master informed of the proceedings of the generals
(see the Correspondence, Op. ined. vols. iv., v.). Yet Guicciardini’s
conscience accused him, for he had previously counselled
the pope to declare war, as he notes in a curious letter to himself
written in 1527 (Op. ined., x. 104). Clement did not, however,
withdraw his confidence, and in 1531 Guicciardini was advanced
to the governorship of Bologna, the most important of all the
papallord-lieutenancies (Correspondence, Op. ined. vol. ix.). This
post he resigned in 1534 on the election of Paul III., preferring
to follow the fortunes of the Medicean princes. It may here be
noticed that though Guicciardini served three popes through a
period of twenty years, or perhaps because of this, he hated the
papacy with a deep and frozen bitterness, attributing the woes
of Italy to the ambition of the church, and declaring he had
seen enough of sacerdotal abominations to make him a Lutheran
(see Op. ined. i. 27, 104, 96, and Ist. d’ It., ed. Ros., ii. 218).
The same discord between his private opinions and his public
actions may be traced in his conduct subsequent to 1534. As a
