Mac-Mahon, Maurice, count de

Mac-Mahon, (Marie-Edme-Patrice-) Maurice, count de

 later duke de Magenta

(born July 13, 1808, Sully, France—died Oct. 17, 1893, Loiret) French soldier and second president (1873–79) of the Third Republic. Descended from an Irish Jacobite family, he began his army career in 1827 and distinguished himself in the Crimean War and in the Italian campaign at the Battle of Magenta (1859), after which he was made a marshal of France and duke de Magenta. He was governor-general of Algeria (1864–70) and later a commander in the Franco-Prussian War. He was appointed head of the Versailles Army, which defeated the Paris Commune in 1871. He was elected president after the resignation of Adolphe Thiers. During his term the Constitutional Laws of 1875 were promulgated. Mac-Mahon resigned following a constitutional crisis that was resolved in favour of parliamentary control of the government. Thereafter in the Third Republic, the office of president became largely honorific.