Biographies

Karl Friedrich was the son of Hereditary Prince Friedrich of Baden and Anna of Nassau-Dietz-Orange (October 13, 1710 – September 17, 1777), the daughter of William Friso of Nassau-Dietz-Orange.

Born into a noble Georgian family, he began his military career in 1782. He fought in the campaigns of 1792 and 1794 against the Poles. He found favour with Suvarov and was chosen as one of the latter's lieutenants for the Swiss and Italian campaigns of 1799. Here again he showed great bravery and intelligence, […]

Achille Baraguey d'Hilliers was born in Paris on 6 September, 1795. He entered the 9e dragoon regiment in 1806 before going on to attend military academy a year later. He completed his studies and left on 3 September 1812 with the grade of second lieutenant. He served with the 2e regiment de chasseurs à cheval […]

Barbé-Marbois had an extremely long (sixty-six years) and chequered (he was sacked by Napoleon twice) career. Born in Metz the son of grocer he soon became director of the Metz mint. After serving briefly as a diplomat in Europe (Ratisbon, Dresden, Munich) he accompanied his boss to America where he became freindly with George Washington […]

1765-1825 Principal publications:– Catalogue de la bibliothèque du conseil d'Etat (Paris, 1803)– Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes, (Paris, 1806-1808), and still in use today (a second edition of this work was in progress when he died in 1825).– Nouvelle bibliothèque d'un homme de goût (Paris, 1808-1810) Prior to the Revolution, Barbier was a maths and physics […]

Barclay de Tolly was born on 24 December 1757, in Pamuskis, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (now Zeimiai, Lithuania) and raised in Livonia, which then belonged to Russia and is now part of Estonia and Latvia. He was a German-speaking descendant of a Scottish family which had settled in Livonia in the 17th century. His grandfather served as the mayor […]

Achille Bazaine came from a family established in Scy, near Metz. His grandfather was a wine maker who as a result of the Revolution “went up to Paris” to become a Contrôleur-Jaugeur; he also wrote a book on the new metric system that was proving difficult to apply in France. The Larousse dictionary describes the […]

The infancy of Eugène de Beauharnais and Hortense was much more marked by the death of their father, Alexandre, than by the poor state of relations between their parents. That death brought the siblings not only closer together but also closer to their mother – indeed in his last letter Alexandre had entrusted his children […]

Hortense’s premature birth, on 10 April, 1783, was the pretext for the separation of her parents, Alexandre and Rose de Beauharnais. Alexandre even initially denied that he was Hortense’s father (though he later recognised her as his), and Hortense was taken by her mother to the Antilles in 1788-1790. Whilst such an experience certainly left […]

Daughter of Claude III de Beauharnais (1756-1819) and his first wife Gabrielle de Lezay-Marnézia – Claude III and Alexandre de Beauharnais (father of Eugène and Hortense) were first cousins, therefore Stéphanie and Eugène and Hortense were second cousins. On the death of her mother, Stéphanie was brought up by the Englishwoman, Lady Bath. She was […]