John Maurice von Hauke
Encyclopedia
Count John Maurice Hauke (26 October 1775, Seifersdorf, near Dippoldiswalde
, Saxony
– 29 November 1830, Warsaw
, Congress Poland
, Russian Empire
) was a professional soldier.
origin and the son of a German teacher at the Warsaw Lyceum
(an exclusive Prussia
n school in Warsaw) Count Moritz Hauke served between 1790 and 1793 in the army of Poland
during the country's last years of independence
. He was involved in the Kościuszko Uprising
, fought in the Polish Legions in France and later in the army of the Duchy of Warsaw
in Austria
, Italy
, Germany and the Peninsular War
. After 1815 he joined the army of Congress Poland
, reaching the rank of full general
in 1826 and receiving a title of Polish nobility
. Recognizing his abilities, Tsar Nicholas I
appointed him Deputy Minister of War of Congress Poland
and elevated him in 1829 to count
.
In the uprising of 1830
led by revolutionary army cadets, the target was Grand Duke Constantine
, Poland
's Governor-General. Count Moritz Hauke was on his way to the Grand Duke who managed to escape, but Hauke was shot to death by the cadets on the street of Warsaw before the eyes of his wife Sophie Lafontaine and his three younger children. He was riding on a horse beside the carriage of his wife and having met a group of rebels who shouted "Be our leader, General!" Hauke reprimanded them and told them to go back to their quarters, whereupon they opened fire and killed him. His wife died shortly afterwards, and their younger children were made wards of the Tsar, while three elder sons joined the uprising and one of them, Maurice Leopold, fell during the battle of Ostrołęka in 1831 only 27 years old. After his victory over the Poles, the Tsar raised in 1841 an enormous obelisque in Warsaw, which was dedicated to the memory of Hauke and five other Polish generals who "preserved their fidelity to their Monarch". Detested by the inhabitants of the Polish capital, the obelisque was pulled down in 1917.
On 28 October 1851, his daughter Countess Julia Hauke, then lady-in-waiting
to the Russian Empress, married Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine
(Hesse-Darmstadt
), brother of the Empress. Elevated by Alexander's brother, Grand Duke Ludwig III of Hesse-Darmstadt
, to Countess of Hohenfels and in December 1858 to Princess of Battenberg
, she became an ancestor of the house of Mountbatten
, the British Royal House of Windsor
, and the current Spanish King
. His older daughter, Catarina, became the mistress of Paul Friedrich, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg
Dippoldiswalde
Dippoldiswalde is a town in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, administrative center of the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district. It is situated 23 km east of Freiberg, and 18 km south of Dresden....
, Saxony
Electorate of Saxony
The Electorate of Saxony , sometimes referred to as Upper Saxony, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire. It was established when Emperor Charles IV raised the Ascanian duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg to the status of an Electorate by the Golden Bull of 1356...
– 29 November 1830, Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, Congress Poland
Congress Poland
The Kingdom of Poland , informally known as Congress Poland , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire...
, Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
) was a professional soldier.
Life
Of GermanGermans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
origin and the son of a German teacher at the Warsaw Lyceum
Warsaw Lyceum
The Warsaw Lyceum was a secondary school that existed in Warsaw, under the Kingdom of Prussia and under the Kingdom of Poland, from 1804 to its closing in 1831 by Imperial Russia following the Polish November 1830 Uprising.-History:...
(an exclusive Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n school in Warsaw) Count Moritz Hauke served between 1790 and 1793 in the army of Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
during the country's last years of independence
Partitions of Poland
The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland for 123 years...
. He was involved in the Kościuszko Uprising
Kosciuszko Uprising
The Kościuszko Uprising was an uprising against Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia led by Tadeusz Kościuszko in Poland, Belarus and Lithuania in 1794...
, fought in the Polish Legions in France and later in the army of the Duchy of Warsaw
Duchy of Warsaw
The Duchy of Warsaw was a Polish state established by Napoleon I in 1807 from the Polish lands ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia under the terms of the Treaties of Tilsit. The duchy was held in personal union by one of Napoleon's allies, King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony...
in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Germany and 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...
. After 1815 he joined the army of Congress Poland
Congress Poland
The Kingdom of Poland , informally known as Congress Poland , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire...
, reaching the rank of full general
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
in 1826 and receiving a title of Polish nobility
Szlachta
The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...
. Recognizing his abilities, Tsar Nicholas I
Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...
appointed him Deputy Minister of War of Congress Poland
Congress Poland
The Kingdom of Poland , informally known as Congress Poland , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire...
and elevated him in 1829 to count
Count
A count or countess is an aristocratic nobleman in European countries. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The adjective form of the word is...
.
In the uprising of 1830
November Uprising
The November Uprising , Polish–Russian War 1830–31 also known as the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when the young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress...
led by revolutionary army cadets, the target was Grand Duke Constantine
Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia
Constantine Pavlovich was a grand duke of Russia and the second son of Emperor Paul I. He was the Tsesarevich of Russia throughout the reign of his elder brother Alexander I, but had secretly renounced his claim to the throne in 1823...
, Poland
Congress Poland
The Kingdom of Poland , informally known as Congress Poland , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire...
's Governor-General. Count Moritz Hauke was on his way to the Grand Duke who managed to escape, but Hauke was shot to death by the cadets on the street of Warsaw before the eyes of his wife Sophie Lafontaine and his three younger children. He was riding on a horse beside the carriage of his wife and having met a group of rebels who shouted "Be our leader, General!" Hauke reprimanded them and told them to go back to their quarters, whereupon they opened fire and killed him. His wife died shortly afterwards, and their younger children were made wards of the Tsar, while three elder sons joined the uprising and one of them, Maurice Leopold, fell during the battle of Ostrołęka in 1831 only 27 years old. After his victory over the Poles, the Tsar raised in 1841 an enormous obelisque in Warsaw, which was dedicated to the memory of Hauke and five other Polish generals who "preserved their fidelity to their Monarch". Detested by the inhabitants of the Polish capital, the obelisque was pulled down in 1917.
On 28 October 1851, his daughter Countess Julia Hauke, then lady-in-waiting
Lady-in-waiting
A lady-in-waiting is a female personal assistant at a royal court, attending on a queen, a princess, or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman from a family highly thought of in good society, but was of lower rank than the woman on whom she...
to the Russian Empress, married Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine
Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine
Prince Alexander Ludwig Georg Friedrich Emil of Hesse, GCB was the third son and fourth child of Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse and Wilhelmina of Baden.-Questioned parentage:...
(Hesse-Darmstadt
Grand Duchy of Hesse
The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine , or, between 1806 and 1816, Grand Duchy of Hesse —as it was also known after 1816—was a member state of the German Confederation from 1806, when the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt was elevated to a Grand Duchy, until 1918, when all the German...
), brother of the Empress. Elevated by Alexander's brother, Grand Duke Ludwig III of Hesse-Darmstadt
Louis III, Grand Duke of Hesse
Louis III was Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine from 1848 until his death. He was succeeded by his nephew, Louis IV....
, to Countess of Hohenfels and in December 1858 to Princess of Battenberg
Battenberg family
The Battenberg family was a morganatic branch of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt, rulers of the Grand Duchy of Hesse in Germany. The first member was Julia Hauke, whose brother-in-law Grand Duke Louis III of Hesse created her Countess of Battenberg with the style Illustrious Highness in 1851, at her...
, she became an ancestor of the house of Mountbatten
Mountbatten
Mountbatten is the family name originally adopted by a branch of the Battenberg family due to rising anti-German sentiment among the British public during World War I...
, the British Royal House of Windsor
House of Windsor
The House of Windsor is the royal house of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded by King George V by royal proclamation on the 17 July 1917, when he changed the name of his family from the German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the English Windsor, due to the anti-German sentiment in the United Kingdom...
, and the current Spanish King
Juan Carlos I of Spain
Juan Carlos I |Italy]]) is the reigning King of Spain.On 22 November 1975, two days after the death of General Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos was designated king according to the law of succession promulgated by Franco. Spain had no monarch for 38 years in 1969 when Franco named Juan Carlos as the...
. His older daughter, Catarina, became the mistress of Paul Friedrich, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg
Orders and decorations
- Legion of Honour, 1807
- Virtuti MilitariVirtuti MilitariThe Order Wojenny Virtuti Militari is Poland's highest military decoration for heroism and courage in the face of the enemy at war...
(Knight's Cross, 3rd class, very rarely awarded) - Order of Saint StanislausOrder of Saint StanislausThe Order of Saint Stanislaus , also spelled Stanislas, was an Order in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and The Kingdom of Poland between 1765 and 1831 and of Russian Empire from 1831 to 1917.-History of the Order of Saint Stanislaus:Stanisław August Poniatowski, King of Poland, established the...
, 1st class, 1814 - Order of St. AnnaOrder of St. AnnaThe Order of St. Anna ) is a Holstein and then Russian Imperial order of chivalry established by Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp on 14 February 1735, in honour of his wife Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great of Russia...
, 1st class, 1815 - Order of St. AnnaOrder of St. AnnaThe Order of St. Anna ) is a Holstein and then Russian Imperial order of chivalry established by Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp on 14 February 1735, in honour of his wife Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great of Russia...
, 1st class with diamondDiamondIn mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions...
s, 1818 - Order of St. Alexander NevskyOrder of St. Alexander NevskyThe Imperial Order of St. Alexander Nevsky was an order of chivalry of the Russian Empire.-History:The introduction of the Imperial Order of St. Alexander Nevsky was planned by Emperor Peter I of Russia...
, 1820 - Order of the White Eagle, 1829
Ancestry
Sources
- Polski Słownik Biograficzny (Polish Dictionary of Biography), vol. 2, Cracow 1938