Castelnau - The Vanished Marshal 1851-1944

General de Castelnau spans a century of French military and political history. Regarded by his contemporaries as one of the fathers of victory in the First World War, he fell victim to political machinations tied to his reputation as a Catholic conservative. Nicknamed the "booted friar" by Clemenceau, he was three times denied the marshal's baton that public opinion considered his due.

In this definitive biography, Jean-Louis Thiériot portrays a visionary commander of broad culture, resistant to the doctrine of all-out offensive and respectful of his men's lives. Fresh out of Saint-Cyr, Castelnau honed his craft during the debacle of 1870. In the summer of 1914, he won, at the Trouée de Charmes and at Nancy, the only French victories before the Marne. After various commands, he was appointed Joffre's deputy at Grand Headquarters and played a major role in the defence of Verdun.

Marked by the war, which claimed three of his sons, he subsequently devoted himself to politics as a deputy before founding the Fédération nationale catholique, in response to the left-wing cartels and anticlericalism of the day. From 1933 onwards, he persistently warned French public opinion against the prevailing pacifism and German rearmament. In 1940, he immediately denounced the armistice and Marshal Pétain's submission to the occupier. An adversary of Vichy and close to the Resistance movements, he died without witnessing the long-hoped-for Liberation.