Biographies

The younger brother of Habsburg emperor Francis (and the older brother of Archduke John), Charles was the most respected Austrian Army commander of the early to mid-Napoleonic period, and one of the rare, capable military leaders to emerge from the Austrian imperial house. During the first decade of the nineteenth century he was also an […]

Fact file Born Florence 20 January, 1782, died 1859, 9th son of Granduca di Firenze, Pietro-Leopoldo of Tuscany (future emperor Leopold II) Made colonel of the dragoons, 1795 Commander (de iure) of Army of Bavaria, 1800, beaten at Hohenlinden, 3 December, replaced by brother Charles as head of the army Director general of engineers and […]

Born into the Silesian (Protestant) branch of the ancient Haugwitz family, he studied law before being elected in 1791 by the Silesian estates as general director of the province. Frederick William II appointed him to the Prussian civil service and he became ambassador at Vienna in 1792, also becoming a member of the cabinet at […]

Though there is much confusion over the place and date, a majority of sources agree that Johann Freiherr von Hiller was born on 10 June, 1754 in Brody (Galicia). His father was a colonel in (and subsequently commander of) the garrison in Brody, later ennobled in 1772 in recompense for his 45-year military service. At […]

A member of the Württemberg nobility who entered Prussian military service in 1768 and fought in the Rhine theatre during  the War of the First Coalition, commanding a division at the successful defence of Kaiserlautern against Hoche in November 1793. At 60, he was one of the Prussian Army's more youthful commanders at the start […]

Prince Friedrich Franz Xaver von and zu Hohenzollern-Hechingen, Burggrave of Nurnberg, Graf zu Sigmaringen and Währingen, Privy Councillor and Chamberlain, Feldmareschall, Commander of the Order of Maria Theresa (1809), member of the Order of the golden Fleece (1826), and Grand Croix of the order of Leopold (1830). Friedrich Franz Xaver followed in his father's footsteps […]

The portrait painter of the great and the good of Europe, Isabey was born son of a merchant in Nancy in 1767. He studied painting in Nancy with two local Lorraine artists: Girardet (architecture and decoration) and Claudot (landscape). At the age of 19, in 1786, he went up to Paris, with a letter of […]

The man they called the “devin de Napoléon” (the man who guessed what Napoleon was about), because he wrote a definition of his way of making war, was born in Payerne (Switzerland), in the Vaud canton on 6 March, 1779, into a wealthy family (Payerne (Vaud) is 50 km S.-E. of Berne. Jomini was born at […]

(1763-1814) It is extremely difficulty to get a real historical picture of Josephine; such has been the power of the Josephine ‘legend'. Early 19th-century British caricatures presented Josephine in a sexual and political light. And still today, the colour of accounts of Josephine's life is set by the traditional story of her meeting with Napoleon, […]

Benito Juarez was born at San-Pablo-Guelatao (Oaxaca, Mexico) on 21 March, 1806, to poor indigenous parents of the Zapotec tribe (who died a few years after his birth). After a period of illiteracy and extreme poverty, Benito came to the city of Oaxaca to join his sister who worked as a servant for the Maza […]