Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois

Counter-Admiral Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand, comte de Linois (27 January 1761 – 2 December 1848) was a French Navy officer and colonial administrator who served in the American Revolutionary War and French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He commanded the combined Franco-Spanish fleet during the Algeciras campaign in 1801, winning the campaign's first battle but losing its second battle after Juan Joaquín Moreno de Mondragón took command.

In March 1803, Linois set out on an ultimately unsuccessful campaign against British trade in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea, fighting in the Battle of Pulo Aura in 1804, where a commercial East India Company fleet defeated him using aggressive and deceptive tactics. Linois continued his campaign until being captured by the British at the action of 13 March 1806; an infuriated Napoleon refused to exchange him, and Linois was not released until 1814.

Following the Bourbon Restoration in France, Linois was appointed governor of Guadeloupe, and supported Napoleon during the Hundred Days. This led to an Anglo-Bourbon expeditionary force capturing Guadeloupe in 1815 and deposing Linois. Upon his return to France, he was forced to resign and court martialled. Although acquitted, Linois never held an office again until his death in 1848.

Early life

Born in Brest, Linois joined the French Navy as a volunteer in 1776, when he was 15 years old, serving aboard the ships Cesar and Protée in his home port. In August 1778, during the American War of Independence, he joined Bien-Aimé , part of d'Orvilliers' fleet in the Caribbean where, after only eight months service, he was temporarily appointed, lieutenant de frégate pour le campagne.