Soldiers without a Country: Foreign Veterans in the Transition from Empire to Restoration

Despite the French state’s long history under the Old Regime and during the Revolution of favorable treatment toward foreign troops who served it, many of the foreign veterans present in France at the Napoleonic wars’ conclusion were ignored by the Restoration government. Meanwhile, some foreign troops were proscribed in their native countries for serving Napoleon. The experiences of these foreigners highlight three trends: the exclusion of foreign veterans from the program of social healing that the Restoration Bourbons undertook, the limits of the modern French state’s care for veterans, and the ambiguity of national identity after the revolutionary era.