The Making of a Patriot

Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle entered the world on November 22, 1890, in Lille, a industrial city in northern France that would, within his lifetime, twice fall under German occupation. His birthplace—a bourgeois household at 9 rue Princesse—embodied the contradictions that would mark his life: deeply Catholic yet republican, aristocratic in temperament yet middle-class in reality, provincial in origin yet national in aspiration.

His father, Henri de Gaulle, was a professor of philosophy and literature who had fought in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870—a defeat that scarred the French national psyche and shaped young Charles's worldview. Henri was a monarchist who had nevertheless made peace with the Republic, a devout Catholic who respected secular learning, a teacher who instilled in his children both deep patriotism and intellectual rigor.

His mother, Jeanne Maillot-Delannoy, came from a family of industrialists from the Pas-de-Calais. Where Henri provided intellectual stimulation, Jeanne offered emotional stability and unwavering Catholic faith. She would outlive her husband by many years, witnessing her son's rise to become the savior and reshaper of France.

A Childhood Steeped in History

The de Gaulle household was one where history lived and breathed. Henri de Gaulle would read aloud from French classics—Corneille, Racine, Chateaubriand—while young Charles and his siblings (he was the third of five children) listened with rapt attention. Family discussions ranged from the greatness of Charlemagne to the tragedy of France's recent defeat by Prussia.

"My father was a thoughtful, cultivated, traditional man, imbued with a feeling for the dignity of France," de Gaulle would later write. "He made me aware of her history." This awareness was not mere academic exercise; it was a living connection to what the family saw as France's essential greatness, temporarily obscured by military defeat and political instability.

The young Charles was a serious child, tall for his age (a physical trait that would later become part of his commanding presence), with a prodigious memory and an early fascination with military history. His childhood games invariably involved playing soldier, with Charles always insisting on being the French commander. His siblings would later recall his absolute refusal to play the role of the enemy, even in make-believe.

Religious Formation and Republican Tensions

The de Gaulle family's Catholicism was not merely nominal. They attended Mass regularly, observed feast days, and saw their faith as integral to their French identity. This put them at odds with the increasingly anticlerical Third Republic. The Dreyfus Affair, which divided France when Charles was a child, illustrated these tensions perfectly. While many Catholics sided with the army against Dreyfus, Henri de Gaulle, despite his conservative leanings, believed in Dreyfus's innocence—a position that demonstrated the intellectual independence he passed on to his son.

Charles's education began with the Jesuits at the Collège de l'Immaculée-Conception in Paris, where the family had moved in 1900. The Jesuits, with their emphasis on discipline, hierarchy, and intellectual rigor, reinforced patterns already established at home. However, the 1905 law separating church and state forced Charles to complete his education at the Collège Stanislas, run by secular priests more accommodating to Republican laws.

This early exposure to the tensions between Catholic France and Republican France would profoundly influence de Gaulle's later ability to transcend traditional political divisions. He learned early that one could be both deeply Catholic and genuinely republican, both respectful of tradition and open to necessary change.

The Call to Arms

From an early age, Charles de Gaulle knew he would be a soldier. This was not merely a career choice but a vocation, almost religious in its intensity. In 1909, after completing his baccalaureate with distinction, he spent a year preparing for the competitive examination to enter the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, France's premier military academy.

His classmates at Saint-Cyr would remember him as brilliant but aloof, more comfortable with books than with the camaraderie of mess hall. Standing at 6'5", he literally stood above his peers, earning him the nickname "the Asparagus." But if some mocked his height and his seriousness, none doubted his intelligence or his absolute dedication to his chosen profession.

The military education at Saint-Cyr was designed to produce not just warriors but thinking soldiers. Cadets studied history, geography, and languages alongside tactics and weapons training. De Gaulle excelled in all subjects but showed particular aptitude for military history and theory. His essays demonstrated not just knowledge but original thinking—a trait that would both advance and hinder his military career.

First Taste of Command

Upon graduating from Saint-Cyr in 1912, ranked 13th out of 211, de Gaulle chose to join the 33rd Infantry Regiment at Arras, commanded by Colonel Philippe Pétain. This choice would prove fateful in ways the young lieutenant could never have imagined. Pétain, then seen as one of the army's most competent commanders, became de Gaulle's first military mentor.

The 33rd Regiment gave de Gaulle his first taste of command and his first exposure to the ordinary French soldiers—the poilus—who would later form the backbone of Free France. Unlike many officers of his background, de Gaulle took genuine interest in his men's welfare, learning their names, their histories, their concerns. This was not mere noblesse oblige but a recognition that understanding one's soldiers was essential to effective command.

The pre-war army was still dominated by the doctrine of the offensive à outrance—the all-out offensive that held that French élan would overcome any enemy. De Gaulle, even as a junior officer, harbored doubts about this doctrine, particularly after observing German military maneuvers. But these were private doubts; publicly, he was a model junior officer, efficient, dedicated, and unquestioningly loyal.

The Shadow of War

As 1914 approached, the European powder keg needed only a spark. De Gaulle, like many of his generation, sensed that war was coming. Unlike many, he did not welcome it with naive enthusiasm. His study of military history had taught him that modern war would be unlike anything that had come before. The increasing power of artillery, the development of machine guns, the possibilities of aerial reconnaissance—all suggested that the next war would be a test not just of courage but of industrial might and tactical innovation.

In letters home during this period, de Gaulle revealed both his intellectual interests and his emotional depth. He wrote to his mother about his reading—not just military texts but philosophy, literature, and poetry. He showed particular interest in Bergson's philosophy of creative evolution, which would later influence his understanding of how institutions must adapt to survive.

The young officer also revealed a romantic side, falling briefly but intensely in love with a young woman in Arras. The relationship ended when her family deemed a junior officer with modest means an unsuitable match. De Gaulle took the rejection stoically, at least outwardly, throwing himself even more intensely into his military duties.