Biographies : 187
-
BiographyPLEYEL, Camille
Born Strasbourg 1788, died Paris 1855.After studying the piano notably with his father and the composer Dussek, Camille began touring southern France (1811-1813) giving piano recitals and selling sheet music and pianos. Although he became officially his father's business partner in 1815, he nevertheless spent the whole of the Hundred Days in England, supposedly to […]
-
BiographyPLEYEL, Joseph Ignaz
Joseph Ignaz Pleyel was born in Austria in 1757. That he was precociously successful is shown by the fact that he found patronage in Count Ladislaus Erdödy, a family related to the Esterhazys, who paid for lodgings and lessons with Josef Haydn in about 1772. Pleyel is thought to have had a close relationship with […]
-
BiographyPONIATOWSKI, Józef
Born in 1763 in Vienna, Józef Poniatowski was the son of a Polish nobleman who had served as an artillery officer in the Austrian army and had been made Austrian ambassador to Poland. After the death of his father, Józef followed in his father's footsteps by enrolling in the Austrian army in 1780 with the […]
-
BiographyPORTALIS, Jean-Etienne-Marie
Factfile Born Beausset (Var) 1 April 1746, Died Paris, 25 August, 1807.1765 lawyer at the Parlement d'Aix 1778 to 1781 Assesseur d'AixFrom 1794 lawyer in Paris1795 member of the Conseil des Anciens then deported after the Fructidor Coup d'Etat1798 Government Commissaire at the Conseil des Prises (Prize booty commission)1800 to 1804 Conseiller d'Etat attached to […]
-
BiographyQUEEN LOUISE
The daugther of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, she married the future Prussian king Frederick William III in 1793, and was the dominant figure at the Prussian court from his accession in 1797. Universally recognized as a strong-willed champion of Prussian national interests, she was far more popular than her husband, attracting a powerful circle of […]
-
BiographyRapp, Jean
Jean Rapp was born on 27 April, 1771, in Colmar (Haut-Rhin), into a bourgeois family. Although two of his uncles served in the royal army, Rapp’s parents, being Lutherans, wanted him to become a pastor. A difficult but incredible strong child, he was not cut out for a sedentary profession and in 1788 enrolled in […]
-
BiographyREGNAUD DE SAINT-JEAN D’ANGELY, Auguste, Comte
The future Maréchal was born in Paris on 30 July, 1794: his birth certificate indicates that he was the “son of Marie-Louise-Augustine Chenié, artist and of Michel-Louis-Etienne Desrichards, employee in the Armée du Nord”. In actual fact, his father was Michel-Louis-Etienne Regnaud (1760-1819): Desrichards was the name of the property that belonged to his father's […]
-
BiographyREILLE, Honoré Charles, Comte
A promising start Honoré Reille was born on 1 September, 1775, into a bourgeois family, and began his military career at the age of fourteen by volunteering for the Garde Nationale d'Antibes in 1789. He became a grenadier in the 1er bataillon du Var on 1 October, 1791 and served under Dumouriez in 1792. His […]
-
BiographyRICHEPANCE, Antoine
Fact file Born Metz, 25 March, 1770, died Basse Terre (Guadeloupe) 3 September, 1802. Son of a pennant bearer of the Régiment des dragons de Boufflers Son of the regiment, officially joined the Régiment de Conti-Cavalerie, 22 August, 1774 Joined the Chasseurs d'Alsace (later the 1er chasseurs à cheval), 20 October, 1785 Maréchal des logis, […]
-
BiographyRÜCHEL, Ernst Friedrich Wilhelm Philipp von
Born 21 July, 1754, in Zizenow in Pomerania, died in Haseley, Pomerania, 13 January 1823. Almost the model of an 18-century Prussian infantry general, renowned for his dislike of the French and a very lively spirit, Rüchel began his military career at the Berlin cadet school on 14 January 1767. His first rank was as Fahnenjunker […]