{{Short description|French eccentric (1868–1919)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2025}} {{Infobox royalty | name = Jacques Lebaudy | title = Commander of the Faithful, King of Tarfaia, Duke of Arleuf and Prince of Chal-Huin | image = Jacques Lebaudy.jpg | image_size = 175px | alt = A 1904 photograph of Lebaudy | caption = A 1904 photograph of Lebaudy | succession = Emperor of the Sahara | moretext = <br><small>self-proclaimed</small> | reign = June 1903 – {{circa|1904}} | reign-type = Reign | coronation = 1 January 1904 <br> (planned)<ref name=":1" /> | cor-type = Enthronement | predecessor = ''Empire established '' | successor = ''Empire dissolved'' | regent = George Edward Gouraud | reg-type = Governor-General | birth_name = Jacques Lebaudy | birth_date = {{Birth year|1868}} | birth_place = France | death_date = {{Death date and age|1919|1|11|1868|||df=yes}} | death_place = Westbury, Long Island, New York, US | burial_date = 17 January 1919 | burial_place = Cemetery of the Holy Rood | spouse = Marguerite Augustine Doliere | consort = yes | issue = Jaqueline Lebaudy | regnal name = Jacques I | house = Lebaudy | father = Jules Lebaudy | mother = Amicie | religion = Roman Catholic | occupation = | module = }} '''Jacques Lebaudy''' (1868 – 11 January 1919) was a Frenchman from an extremely wealthy family of sugar refiners, known for his eccentricity and his attempt to establish a new nation, the Empire of the Sahara. The circumstances of his death in 1919 in Westbury, Long Island resulted in a sensational grand jury proceeding.
==Family and early life== Born in 1868, Jacques Lebaudy was the oldest son of Jules Lebaudy (1828–1892), who with his brother Gustave (1827–1889) owned the family sugar refining business, Lebaudy Frères. Jules also owned property in Paris, including the Théâtre du Vaudeville. Jacques' mother Amicie (1847–1917) founded a charity to provide low-cost housing to the working poor which is still in existence.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.fondationlebaudy.fr|title=Accueil - Fondation de Madame Jules Lebaudy|website=Fondation de Madame Jules Lebaudy|language=fr-FR|access-date=16 October 2018}}</ref> Lebaudy and his three siblings were reported as inheriting 227 million francs each on the death of their father.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article193983673|title=Blackmailing in France|date=13 March 1896|work=Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954)|access-date=9 April 2019|pages=5}}</ref> The death of Jacques' younger brother Max, aged 21, in a military hospital in 1895 after being conscripted for military service despite a serious illness caused a scandal in France. His brother had allegedly attempted to bribe his way out of the service.<ref name=":0" />
Jacques' cousins Paul and Pierre Lebaudy were notable builders of airships, such as ''La République''.
By the late 1890s Lebaudy had involved himself in breeding race horses.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39650801|title=Sporting|date=29 May 1897|work=Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 - 1899)|access-date=9 April 2019|pages=10}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article163807531|title=English Sporting Notes.|date=2 July 1898|work=Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912)|access-date=9 April 2019|pages=48}}</ref>
==The Empire of the Sahara== thumb|left|The Emperor of the Sahara's Stampage, Throne, Coinage and Flag In June 1903, Lebaudy sailed with his yacht ''Frasquita'' and two other boats to an area near Cape Juby on the Moroccan coast and proclaimed the "Empire of the Sahara". Backed by as many as 400 hired soldiers and sixteen Hotchkiss guns,<ref>''Current Literature'', October 1903, p. 412-3</ref> Lebaudy established a camp and set up a throne for himself in a large tent, and stated he was now to be known as "Jacques I, Najin-al-Den, Emperor of the Sahara, Commander of the Faithful, King of Tarfaia, Duke of Arleuf and Prince of Chal-Huin".<ref name=":1" /> He had various projects for ruling and improving his new domain, but European governments disapproved of his venture, and some of his mercenaries were captured by local Moorish bandits. (They later sued Lebaudy for damages for abandoning them, after being rescued by a French warship).<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vdhWenAcwCUC&q=jacques+Lebaudy&pg=PA311|title=Occasional, Critical, and Political Writing|last=Joyce|first=James|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2000|isbn=9780192833532|pages=100–101, 311|language=en}}</ref> As Spain also had an interest in the area, his attempts at kingdom founding proved politically sensitive to the French government, and in an attempt to put a stop to his ambitions, they issued warrants for his conscription into the French army. He retreated to the Hague to bring his case before an international court.<ref name=":1" /> By October 1903 Lebaudy had taken up residence at the Savoy Hotel in London, setting up an imperial court complete with throne and installing his government there, appointing American adventurer George Edward Gouraud as his "Governor-General".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19040316.2.42|title=Reclaiming the Sahara|date=16 March 1904|work=Taranaki Daily News|access-date=10 April 2019}}</ref><ref>Note: George Gouraud was not closely related to Henri Gouraud, a French officer active at that time in West Africa.</ref> Reportedly the orchestra in the Savoy restaurant would play his national anthem whenever he entered to dine under his imperial purple canopy.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/the-emperor-of-the-sahara-1198247.html|title=The Emperor of the Sahara|last=Maxwell|first=Bennet|date=15 September 1998|work=The Independent|access-date=16 October 2018|language=en-GB}}</ref> He also found himself an Empress, former actress Marguerite Augustine Doliere and they produced a daughter, known as "the Princess Jaqueline" <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/news/24-karat-crazy-sugar-scion-met-bitter-hands-wife-article-1.133493|title=24-karat crazy Sugar scion met bitter end at hands of wife|last=Bovsun|first=Mara|date=6 February 2011|website=NY Daily News|access-date=10 April 2019}}</ref> After announcing "the throne will remain in the Sahara, with nobody on it; but his Imperial Majesty wishes it to be known that usurpers will be severely dealt with" he left Europe.<ref name=":1" />
==United States== thumb|Jacqueline Lebaudy, age 16 (1921) About 1908, Lebaudy moved to the United States with his wife Augustine and daughter Jacqueline, residing mostly in expensive New York City hotels, and his behavior became more erratic. In 1915 he was placed in an asylum at the request of his wife; he at first fled the local sheriff on horseback, before surrendering<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/08/19/104652535.pdf|title=Emperor of the Sahara surrenders to U.S.|date=19 August 1915|work=The New York Times|access-date=16 October 2018}}</ref> but soon escaped,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/08/20/105038289.pdf|title=Sahara's 'Emperor' Flees Sanitarium|date=20 August 1915|work=The New York Times|access-date=16 October 2018}}</ref> only to be recaptured after a few days.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Emperor goes cattle shopping|date=24 August 1915|newspaper=The Washington Post (1877-1922)|id = {{ProQuest|145414535}}}}</ref> Lebaudy reportedly tried several times to have his wife and daughter killed, and was finally shot and killed by his wife on 11 January 1919 at her home in Westbury on Long Island.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19190322.2.125|title=Jaques Lebaudy "Emperor of the Sahara" shot dead by his wife"|date=22 March 1919|work=Evening Post|access-date=16 October 2018|via=Papers Past}}</ref> A grand jury refused to indict.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/01/22/97060820.pdf|title=Clear Mrs.Lebaudy of killing husband|date=22 January 1919|work=The New York Times|access-date=16 October 2018}}</ref> He left a large estate, having inherited additional portions of the family money from his brother Max and his mother. He also had the reputation, despite his mental problems, of being at times a shrewd investor in stocks and property; he reportedly made a profit of over $1,000,000 in the stock of the Erie Railroad in 1907 when it became the subject of a takeover.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/01/12/103454944.pdf|title=Jaques Lebaudy shot dead by his wife in her home|date=12 January 1919|work=The New York Times|access-date=16 October 2018}}</ref>
Lebaudy was buried on 17 January 1919, in the Catholic parish cemetery of St. Brigid's, Westbury,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/01/18/97058911.pdf|title=Jacques Lebaudy Buried|date=17 January 1919|work=The New York Times|access-date=10 April 2019}}</ref> now part of the Catholic Cemetery of the Holy Rood.
In 1922, his wife remarried a French detective in a double wedding with her daughter, who married his son.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SU19221005.2.55&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1|title=Widow of Jacques Lebaudy and Daughter Have Double Wedding|date=5 October 1922|work=Sacramento Union|access-date=16 October 2018|issue=26134|volume=228|page=2|via=California Digital Newspaper Collection|archive-date=16 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181016165409/https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SU19221005.2.55&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==In popular culture== thumb|Lebaudy among a group of world leaders; he is the one peering at the area of the Sahara on the globe. Eugène Ogé, 1904 alt=Banner of Arms of the Empire of the Sahara|thumb|Banner of Arms of the Empire of the Sahara Lebaudy was the subject of wide public interest, first in France and then worldwide.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article82979085|title=M. JACQUES LEBAUDY|date=12 September 1905|work=Daily News (Perth, WA)|access-date=16 October 2018|pages=5|via=Trove}}</ref> Caricatures of him include that by Sem and a 1904 poster of world political figures by Eugène Ogé. He was the subject of several lampoons in London publications by the young P. G. Wodehouse.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://madameulalie.org/tmordue/the_parrot/poem15.html|title=The Parrot - Poem 15|website=madameulalie|language=en|access-date=16 October 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.madameulalie.org/dchron/the_emperors_song.html|title=Madame Eulalie - The Daily Chronicle (UK)|website=www.madameulalie.org|access-date=2018-10-16}}</ref> ''The Romance of Terence O’Rourke, Gentleman Adventurer'' by Louis Joseph Vance, a pulp novel from 1907 probably based on magazine stories published in 1904, is a romanticized version of the "Empire of the Sahara", with Terence O'Rourke being an American adventurer who is recruited to help a cowardly French millionaire become the "Emperor of the Sahara".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1870|title=LOUIS JOSEPH VANCE – Terence O'Rourke, Gentleman Adventurer.|last=Vineyard|first=David L.|website=mysteryfile|access-date=16 October 2018}}</ref> Another work on Lebaudy was English artist John Copley's 1909 collection of lithographs "The Fall and Rise of His Imperial Majesty Jacques Démodé".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://orbexpress.library.yale.edu/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=11695660|title=The fall and rise of His Imperial Majesty Jacques Démodé, Emperor of the Sahara|last=Copley|first=John|date=1909|location=England|oclc=859659635 }}</ref> The adventures of Lebaudy even inspired a French game-maker to produce a wire puzzle in his honor.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.jeuxanciensdecollection.com/article-l-empereur-du-sahara-ou-sacre-jacques-122104126.html|title=L' Empereur du SAHARA, ou sacré JACQUES|last=Koli|first=Alain|work=Collection de Jeux Anciens|access-date=16 October 2018|language=fr-FR}}</ref>
==References== * Philippe Di Folco, ''L'Empereur du Sahara'', illustrated biography, Galaade éditions, Paris 2014, {{ISBN|978-2-35176-251-6}}
==Notes== <references/>
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lebaudy, Jacques}} Category:1868 births Category:1919 deaths Category:French businesspeople Category:20th century in Morocco Category:Deaths by firearm in New York (state) Category:Self-proclaimed monarchy Category:French expatriates in the United States Category:Micronational leaders