Benoît de Boigne

Who was Benoît de Boigne?

Benoît Leborgne, better known as Count Benoît de Boigne or General Count de Boigne, was a military adventurer from the Duchy of Savoy, who made his fortune and name in India with the Marathas. He was also named president of the general council of the French département of Mont-Blanc by Napoleon I.

The son of shopkeepers, Leborgne was a career military man. He was trained in European regiments and then became a success in India in the service of Mahadaji Sindhia of Gwalior in central India, who ruled over the Maratha Empire. Sindhia entrusted him with the creation and organization of an army. He became its general, and trained and commanded a force of nearly 100,000 men organized on the European model, which allowed the Maratha Empire to dominate north India and be the last native state of Hindustan to resist the British Empire. Along with his career in the army, Benoît de Boigne also worked in commerce and administration. Among other titles, he became a jaghir which gave him enormous land holdings in India.