Jan Henryk Wołodkowicz
Prince Jan Henryk Wolodkowciz | |
|---|---|
 Prince Jan Henryk Wolodkowicz | |
| Nickname(s) | Henry / Henri le beau |
| Born | 17 September 1765 Sienna, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth |
| Died | 6 August 1825 (aged 59) St. Petersburg, Russian Empire |
| Allegiance |  Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth First French Empire Duchy of Warsaw |
| Years of service | 1797–1815 |
| Rank | General de Brigade |
| Battles / wars | Kościuszko Uprising; French Revolutionary Wars; Napoleonic Wars |
| Awards | Légion d'honneur Virtuti Militari Order of Saint Stanislaus |
Prince Jan Henryk Wołodkowicz, Henry Jean-Witold in French, was born the 17 of September 1765 in Sienna and died the 6 of August 1825 in St. Petersburg. He first married Anna Isabel Tepper de Ferguson, daughter of the banker Ludwig-Wilhelm Tepper de Ferguson. They had one child Joseph (officer in the French army and knight of the Légion d'honneur) and divorced in 1804. In 1805 he married Marie Thérèse Lasserey, daughter of Jacques Ambroise Lasserey. They also had one child, Count Alexander Henryk, French Henri Alexandre (Knight of the Légion d'honneur) . Due to his implication in the 1794 uprising of Tadeusz Kościuszko he got stripped of his title of Prince, the title was reinstated 1903 by Nicholas II to Marie Thérèse Marguerite Wolodkowicz, his granddaughter. Henry also got granted the title of count by Napoleon I.[1]
Son of Josef Wołodkowicz and of Regina Broniec, he was a prominent member of the Polish nobility and military officer, who after the partitions of Poland emigrated to France in 1796 with 2 régiments paid on his own money and aided the French Revolution, becoming an officer and cavalry commander in the French Army. From 1807 he served in the military of Duchy of Warsaw, a temporary Polish state created and allied with Napoleon Bonaparte. Member of the French La Grande Armée in the Napoleon's Invasion of Russia, he was taken prisoner by Russians during the battle of Smolensk in 1812, in which his first son Joseph got killed, and deported to Siberia.[2]
According to some his name his carved on the west pillar of the Arc de Triomphe as "Henry", his surname given by Napoleon. The Wolodkowicz family tried three times to correct the name to Wolodkowicz, in 1840, in 1928 with the backing of the polish embassy and in 1980. The French government always replied, that they can´t alter a historic monument. Others argue it is the name of a French colonel Claude François Henry who died 1812 in Spain during the siege Valencia.
External links
- Andrzej Malejka, Wołodkowicz Jan Chrzciciel Henryk (1765-1825) (pol.)
- Henry, Claude François (fr.)
- Talk:Jan Henryk Wołodkowicz
References
- [Autobiographic Novel, "Printemps gris" ,written by Willy de Spens d´Estignols, Edtitions de la table ronde 1974]
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