Armée des Émigrés

The Armée des émigrés (English: Army of the Émigrés) were counter-revolutionary armies raised outside France by and out of royalist émigrés, with the aim of overthrowing the First French Republic and restoring the monarchy. These were aided by royalist armies within France itself, such as the Chouans, and by allied countries such as Great Britain. They fought, for example, at the sieges of Lyon and Toulon.

They were formed from:

• Volunteers from the French nobility, either descendants of the royal family, and other refugees who had fled France
• Troops raised by the refugees through covert subsidies from other European monarchies, or through their own means
• Units of the French Royal Army which had also emigrated, such as the Régiment de Saxe Hussards and the Irish Brigade

Even Napoleon I said of them "True, they are paid by our enemies, but they were or should have been bound to the cause of their King. France gave death to their action, and tears to their courage. All devotion is heroic".

1802, Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul, decreed a general amnesty for all but around a thousand of the Émigrés, with the exception of commanders and those who held ranks in armies hostile to the French Republic.