Biographies

After serving with distinction during the war against the Turks (1788-1790), in early 1796 he served under Archduke Charles in Germany, being towards the end of the year transferred to Alvinczy's staff in Italy. There he drafted the plan for the combat at Bassano, where the Austrians were defeated. In 1799, he served under Kray […]

Robert Thomas Wilson was born in London in 1777. He took up a cornetcy in 15th Light Dragoons in 1793, where he made lieutenant. His service during the Revolutionary Wars saw Wilson distinguish himself a number of times, in particular at the Battle of Villers-en-Cauchies (24 April, 1794) where he was involved in saving Francis […]

Peter Wittgenstein came from an aristocratic family of Prussian origin. He was born on 5 January, 1769, and at the age of 21 enlisted as a sergeant on 1 April, 1781, in the Life Guard Semeyonovsk Regiment. He was an excellent and courageous horseman who fought in the Russo-Polish War in 1794, during which time […]

Karl Philip Freiherr von Wrede was born in Heidelberg in 1767. On joining the Elector's army he rose to colonel in 1795. Fighting under the orders of the Austrian Erzherzog Karl, he covered the retreat of the defeated Austrian army after Hohenlinden (3 December, 1800). When Bavaria entered into an alliance with the French, he […]

Born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, 21 February 1783 and died, in Lausanne, Switzerland, 29th of Novemeber 1835, Princess Catherine of Wurtemburg was Duchess of Swabia and of Teck, daughter of Frederick I of Wurtemberg and the princess Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfen-Büttel. She married King Jérôme-Napoléon on the 22nd of August 1807 and bore three children: Prince Jerome […]

After Princess Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, eldest daughter of Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg, Frederick later married Princess Charlotte of Wales, Princess Royal, the oldest daughter of King George III and Queen Charlotte. They had one child, a stillborn daughter, born in 1798. Traditionally, anti-French, the Duke (he had become so on the death of his […]

Polish politician, author of the national anthem Wybicki was born on 29 September, 1747 in Bendomin, in northern Poland. He had seven sisters, at least four of whom became nuns, and a brother, who was a priest. After graduating from the Jesuit College in Danzig, he quickly entered into politics and became a member of […]