Charles Henry of Nassau-Siegen

Karl Heinrich Nikolaus Otto, Prince of Nassau- Siegen ( franz: Charles Henri Nicolas Othon, prince de Nassau-Siegen, born January 5, 1743 Senarpont, † April 10, 1808 in Tynna ) was a German - French adventurer and Sea Soldier.

Life

Nassau's family origin is controversial. His late father in 1748, Guillaume Adolphe Maximilien was posthumously in 1756 legitimized by the French judiciary as an illegitimate descendant of Emmanuel Ignatius of Nassau - Siegen. Based on this legal judgment Nassau was entitled to the title of " Prince de Nassau-Siegen " to perform in France, but this judgment by any members of the noble house of Nassau was ever recognized. At the age of fifteen, Nassau joined the Royal Navy of France.

Nassau led an existence as a libertine and gambler at the courts of Vienna, Warsaw, Madrid and Versailles. Well on the run from his creditors, he joined in 1766 the Weltumsegelungsexpedition Bougainville on which surround and ran through the Atlantic Ocean, the southern tip of South America through the Pacific leader and along the coast of Africa back to France. On this trip Nassau developed diplomatic skills in making contact with the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands. For example, in 1768 at the Tahitians, whose king Ereti he could convince them of the peaceful intentions of the French.

After the successful return of the expedition in 1769 in France Nassau took up a military career on the battlefields of Europe and fought it in French, Spanish and Russian service. In 1779 he undertook a hapless attempt to take the island of Jersey, by King Charles III. of Spain, he was nominated for his services at the siege of Gibraltar (1779-1783) to a Spanish grandee first class. From the Empress Catherine the Great in 1783, he was appointed Rear Admiral and won in 1788 almost entirely against a far superior Turkish fleet in the naval battle before Ochakiv what this city was conquered by the Russian troops. In the Russo- Swedish War (1788-1790), he won the first battle of the archipelago Svensksund 1789 the Swedes under King Gustavus III. and again. On 9 July 1790, he had the Björkösund 1790, however, in the second warping Battle of the Svensksund a complete defeat to the Swedes to accept, in which he lost a third of its fleet and the left end in a draw to war.

After Nassau was sent by the Empress to the Rhine, where he was to participate in the struggle against revolutionary France. However, after the Peace of Amiens in 1802, he returned to France, where he vainly sought for a post in the army of Napoleon Bonaparte. He returned it back to Russia, where he died in 1808 at the Ukrainian estate Tynna. In his travels through Europe Nassau had met, among others, Giacomo Casanova 1783 in Spa and the naturalist Georg Forster 1784 in Grodno.

Was married to Nassau since 1780 with the Polish Countess Karolina Gozdzka (* 1747, † 1807). The marriage remained childless.

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