{{Infobox military person | name = Claude Pierre Pajol | image = Пажоль.jpg | caption = Claude Pierre Pajol | birth_date = {{birth-date|3 February 1772}} | death_date = {{death-date and age|20 March 1844|3 February 1772}} | birth_place = [[Aups]], France | death_place = [[Paris]], France | allegiance = {{flagicon|France}} [[French First Republic]]<br />[[First French Empire]]<br />[[Kingdom of France]] | branch = {{army|First French Republic}}<br />{{army|First French Empire}} | service_years = 1789–1815, 1830–1842 | rank = [[Général de division]] | awards = | battles = [[French Revolutionary Wars]]<br />[[Napoleonic Wars]]<br />[[July Revolution]] | commands = [[I Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée)|I Cavalry Corps]]<br />[[Military governor of Paris]] | other_work = }} '''Claude-Pierre''', [[Count|Comte]] de '''Pajol''' ({{IPA|fr|klod pjɛʁ paʒɔl}}; 3 February 1772 &ndash; 20 March 1844), was a French [[cavalry]] general and political during and after the [[French Revolutionary Wars|French Revolutionary]] and [[Napoleonic Wars]].

==Early life== He was born in [[Besançon]], as the son of a lawyer. He was intended to follow his father's profession, but the [[French Revolution|events of 1789]] led him to join the battalion of Besançon, where he took part in the political events of that year.

== Revolution == In 1791 he joined the [[French Revolutionary Army]] of the [[Upper Rhine]] with a volunteer battalion.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

He took part in the campaign of 1792 and was one of the stormers at [[Hochheim am Main|Hochheim]] (1793). From the [[Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine|Count of Custine]]'s staff he was transferred to that of [[Jean-Baptiste Kléber]], with whom he took part in the [[Sambre]] and [[Rhine]] campaigns (1794–96). After serving with [[Louis Lazare Hoche]] and [[André Masséna]] in [[List of states in the Holy Roman Empire|Germany]] and [[Switzerland]] (1797–99), Pajol took a cavalry command under [[Jean Victor Marie Moreau]] for the campaign on the upper Rhine.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==First Empire== In the short years of peace Pajol, now [[colonel]], successively served as envoy to the [[Batavian Republic]], and delegate at [[Napoleon]]'s [[Crown of Napoleon|coronation]] (the start of the [[First French Empire]]). In 1805, the emperor employed him with the light cavalry. He distinguished himself at the [[battle of Austerlitz]], and, after serving for a short time in the [[Italian Peninsula]], he rejoined the [[Grande Armée]] as a general of brigade, in time to take part in the [[Battle of Friedland|campaign of Friedland]]. The next year (1808) he was made a ''[[French nobility|Baron d'Empire]]''.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In 1809 he served on the [[Danube]], and in the [[French invasion of Russia|Russian War of 1812]] led a division, and afterwards a corps, of cavalry. He survived retreat, but his health was so broken that he retired to his native town of Besançon for a time. He was back again in active service, however, in time to be present at the [[battle of Dresden]], in which he played a conspicuous part. Again wounded in the [[battle of Leipzig]], Pajol was created a [[count]] of the Empire on 25 November 1813.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In 1814 he fought in the [[Six Days' Campaign]], commanding a corps of all arms in the [[Seine Valley]]. On the fall of Napoleon, Pajol gave his allegiance to the [[Bourbon Restoration in France|Restoration]] government, but he rejoined the Emperor immediately upon his return to France. The [[I Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée)|I Cavalry Corps]] (<abbr>1<sup>er</sup></abbr> corps de cavalerie) under his leadership played a prominent part in the campaign of 1815, both at [[Battle of Ligny|Ligny]] and in the advance on [[Wavre]] under the [[Emmanuel, marquis de Grouchy|Marquis de Grouchy]]. On receiving the news of the [[battle of Waterloo]], Pajol disengaged his command, and skillfully retreated to refuge in Paris. There he and his men played an active part in the actions that ended the war.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==Later life== The [[House of Bourbon|Bourbons]], on their return, dismissed him, although this treatment was not, compared to that applied to [[Michel Ney]] and others, excessively harsh. In 1830 he took part in the [[July Revolution]] and the overthrow of [[Charles X of France|Charles X]]. He suppressed the riots in Paris in 1831 and 1832, 1834 and 1839. A general, and a [[Peerage of France|peer of France]], he was put on the retired list in 1842 and died two years later.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==Family== His son, Count Charles Paul Victor Pajol (1821–1891), entered the army and reached the rank of ''[[Général|général de division]]'' when, during the [[Franco-Prussian War]], he was involved in the [[Siege of Metz (1870)|catastrophe of Metz]] (1870). He retired in 1877. Judged a competent soldier, he was also a sculptor of some merit, who executed statues of his father and of Napoleon. He wrote a life of his father and a history of the wars under [[Louis XV]] (Paris 1881–1891).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==References== {{reflist}} ;Attribution *{{EB1911|wstitle=Pajol, Claude Pierre, Count|volume=20 }}

{{Military governors of Paris}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pajol, Claude Pierre, Count}} [[Category:1772 births]] [[Category:1844 deaths]] [[Category:Military personnel from Besançon]] [[Category:Counts of the First French Empire]] [[Category:French commanders of the Napoleonic Wars]] [[Category:Generals of France]] [[Category:Military governors of Paris]] [[Category:Military leaders of the French Revolutionary Wars]] [[Category:Peers of France]] [[Category:Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery]] [[Category:Names inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe]]