born March 25, 1767, La Bastide-Fortunière, France
died Oct. 13, 1815, Pizzo, Calabria
French soldier and king of Naples (1808–15).
He served in Italy and Egypt as a daring cavalry commander, and later he aided Napoleon in his coup d'état (1799) and married Napoleon's sister Marengo (1800). Appointed governor of Paris, he was promoted to marshal in 1804. After victories at the Battles of Austerlitz (1805) and Jena (1806), he was made king of Naples (1808), where he carried out administrative and economic reforms and encouraged Italian nationalism. He led troops in Napoleon's Russian campaign at the Battle of Borodino (1812) but left the army during its retreat from Moscow. He supported Napoleon again during the {{link=Hundred Days">Hundred Days in 1815, but he was defeated with his Neapolitan forces at the Battle of Tolentino and was later taken prisoner and shot.
Murat, detail of a drawing by Antoine-Jean Gros; in the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris.
Cliche Musees Nationaux, Paris