François Jean Werlé was a Général de Brigade of the First French Empire

First French Empire

The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...

 who saw action during the Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

 and died fighting against the British during the Peninsular War

Peninsular War

The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...

.

Early career

Werlé received the rank of Chef de Brigade on 25 March 1799 and promoted to Général de Brigade on 29 August 1803. He commanded a brigade in Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Comte d'Erlon

Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Comte d'Erlon

Jean-Baptiste Drouet, comte d'Erlon was a marshal of France and a soldier in Napoleon's Army. D'Erlon notably commanded the I Corps of the Armée du Nord at the battle of Waterloo....

's division of Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte

Charles XIV John of Sweden

Charles XIV & III John, also Carl John, Swedish and Norwegian: Karl Johan was King of Sweden and King of Norway from 1818 until his death...

's I Corps at the Battle of Austerlitz

Battle of Austerlitz

The Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of Napoleon's greatest victories, where the French Empire effectively crushed the Third Coalition...

. Still serving as an I Corps brigadier, he played a role in the Battle of Schleiz

Battle of Schleiz

The Battle of Schleiz took place on October 9, 1806 in Schleiz, Germany between a Prussian-Saxon division under Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien and a part of Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte's I Corps under the command of Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Comte d'Erlon. It was the first clash of the War of...

 on 9 October 1806, clearing a forest of Prussian outposts. He participated in the pursuit of the Prussian Army after Emperor Napoleon's army defeated it at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt

Battle of Jena-Auerstedt

The twin battles of Jena and Auerstedt were fought on 14 October 1806 on the plateau west of the river Saale in today's Germany, between the forces of Napoleon I of France and Frederick William III of Prussia...

. He participated in the defeat of the Eugene Frederick Henry, Duke of Württemberg

Eugene Frederick Henry, Duke of Württemberg

Duke Eugen of Württemberg was a German nobleman. He was brother of Frederick I of Württemberg-Life:Duke Eugen was born at Schwedt, Margraviate of Brandenburg, third child of Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg , and his wife, Margravine Sophia Dorothea of Brandenburg-Schwedt...

's corps at the Battle of Halle

Battle of Halle

In the Battle of Halle on 17 October 1806 a French corps led by Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte fought the Prussian Reserve under Eugene Frederick Henry, Duke of Württemberg. The French defeated their opponents, forcing the Prussians to retreat northeast toward Dessau after suffering heavy losses. The...

 on 17 October. Later, he was in on the defeat and capture of Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Fürst von Wahlstatt , Graf , later elevated to Fürst von Wahlstatt, was a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall who led his army against Napoleon I at the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig in 1813 and at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 with the Duke of Wellington.He is...

's column in the Battle of Lübeck

Battle of Lübeck

The Battle of Lübeck took place on 6 November 1806 in Lübeck, Germany between soldiers of the Kingdom of Prussia led by Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher and troops of the First French Empire under Marshals Joachim Murat, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, and Nicolas Soult...

 on 6 November.

Peninsula

In November 1809, Werlé led a Polish division in IV Corps at the decisive French victory at the Battle of Ocana

Battle of Ocana

The Battle of Ocana or Battle of Ocaña was fought on 19 November 1809 between French forces under Marshal Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult and King Joseph Bonaparte and the Spanish army under Juan Carlos de Aréizaga, which suffered its greatest single defeat in the Peninsular War...

. His 5,600-man brigade (actually the size of a division) formed the French reserve at the Battle of Albuera

Battle of Albuera

The Battle of Albuera was an indecisive battle during the Peninsular War. A mixed British, Spanish and Portuguese corps engaged elements of the French Armée du Midi at the small Spanish village of Albuera, about 20 kilometres south of the frontier fortress-town of Badajoz, Spain.From...

. He was killed in that battle when Marshal Soult

Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult

Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult, 1st Duke of Dalmatia , the Hand of Iron, was a French general and statesman, named Marshal of the Empire in 1804. He was one of only six officers in French history to receive the distinction of Marshal General of France...

 sent the reserve into the battle. After a bitter firefight with Lowry Cole's British division, Werlé's French soldiers were defeated.

Aside from his military rank, Werlé became a Commander of the Légion d'Honneur

Légion d'honneur

The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...

 on 14 June 1804, and was made a Baron of the Empire

Nobility of the First French Empire

Napoleon Bonaparte created titles of nobility to institute a stable elite in the First French Empire, after the instability resulting from the French Revolution....

on 27 November 1808.