Jan Chrzciciel Henryk Witold Wołodkowicz (, 17 September 1765 – 6 August 1825 or 20 August 1836) was a Polish-Lithuanian nobleman from the Wołodkowicz family of the

Radwan coat of arms Radwan () is a Polish knights' clan (''ród'') and a Polish coat of arms used by the noble families within the clan (''szlachta''). Blazon Gules: a Gonfanon or surmounted by a Maltese Cross of the last. Crest – on a crowned helmet – thre ...

. Initially, he served as cavalry captain in the

Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army The Lithuanian Armed Forces () are the military of Lithuania. The Lithuanian Armed Forces consist of the Lithuanian Land Forces, the Lithuanian Navy, the Lithuanian Air Force and the Lithuanian Special Operations Force. In wartime, the Lithuan ...

from 1789 to 1794. Joining the

French Revolutionary Army The French Revolutionary Army () was the French land force that fought the French Revolutionary Wars from 1792 to 1802. In the beginning, the French armies were characterised by their revolutionary fervour, their poor equipment and their great nu ...

in 1796, he rose to the rank of general, which he kept in the ''

Grande Armée The (; ) was the primary field army of the French Imperial Army (1804–1815), French Imperial Army during the Napoleonic Wars. Commanded by Napoleon, from 1804 to 1808 it won a series of military victories that allowed the First French Empi ...

''. He was also one of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

's Aide-de-camp.

Early life

Jan Wołodkowicz was born in in the Naugardukas Voivodeship. He was the son of Minsk's Stalininkas (born in 1730) and Regina née Broniec. Following the family's tradition, Jan assumed the land judge's office in Minsk in February 1789 or around 1790 as the Lithuanian chamberlain.

Grand Duchy of Lithuania

During the

Great Sejm The Great Sejm, also known as the Four-Year Sejm (Polish language, Polish: ''Sejm Wielki'' or ''Sejm Czteroletni''; Lithuanian language, Lithuanian: ''Didysis seimas'' or ''Ketverių metų seimas'') was a Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwea ...

, in October 1788, the combined size of the Polish and

Lithuanian Lithuanian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Lithuania, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe ** Lithuanian language ** Lithuanians, a Baltic ethnic group, native to Lithuania and the immediate geographical region ** L ...

armies was increased to 100,000. This increase included the target numbers of 10,650 for Lithuanian cavalry. The expansion of the military's size meant that the nobility's sons had a greater chance of a military career, and thus Wołodkowicz also decided to pursue this career. On 3 March 1789, he received a captain's

commission In-Commission or commissioning may refer to: Business and contracting * Commission (remuneration), a form of payment to an agent for services rendered ** Commission (art), the purchase or the creation of a piece of art most often on behalf of anot ...

in the 4th

Banner A banner can be a flag or another piece of cloth bearing a symbol, logo, slogan or another message. A flag whose design is the same as the shield in a coat of arms (but usually in a square or rectangular shape) is called a banner of arms. Also, ...

of the 1st Lithuanian National Cavalry Brigade. For unknown reasons, he left it around mid-September 1791, but the following year in the War of 1792, he was again among the brigade's captains. However, it is unknown and doubtful if he partook in the Battle of Mir. Thanks to this marriage with Anna Małgorzata Fergusson-Tepper, a wealthy Warsaw banker's daughter, on 29 June 1792, he increased his fortune to 150,000

Polish złoty The złoty (alternative spelling: ''zloty''; Polish: ''polski złoty'', ;The nominative plural, used for numbers ending in 2, 3 and 4 (except those in 12, 13 and 14), is ; the genitive plural, used for all other numbers, is abbreviation: z� ...

. On 21 November 1793, he was awarded the

Order of Saint Stanislaus The Order of Saint Stanislaus (, ), also spelled Stanislas, was a Polish order of knighthood founded in 1765 by King Stanisław August Poniatowski of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It remained under the Congress Poland, Kingdom of Pola ...

Stanisław August Poniatowski Stanisław II August (born Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski; 17 January 1732 – 12 February 1798), known also by his regnal Latin name Stanislaus II Augustus, and as Stanisław August Poniatowski (), was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuani ...

, but as the king had by then had joined the

Targowica Confederation The Targowica Confederation (, , ) was a confederation established by Polish and Lithuanian magnates on 27 April 1792, in Saint Petersburg, with the backing of the Russian Empress Catherine II. The confederation opposed the Constitution of 3 May ...

, this award was a dubious honor at that time. Regardless, Wołodkowicz joined the ranks of the rebels in the

Kościuszko Uprising The Kościuszko Uprising, also known as the Polish Uprising of 1794, Second Polish War, Polish Campaign of 1794, and the Polish Revolution of 1794, was an uprising against the Russian and Prussian influence on the Polish–Lithuanian Common ...

. At the turn of May and June, being trusted by the Lithuanian insurrectional authorities, still with a captain's rank in the 1st Lithuanian National Cavalry Brigade, he carried out reconnaissance on the strategically important

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

- Minskas route, mainly in the vicinity of

Ašmena Ashmyany or Oshmyany is a city in Grodno Region, Belarus. It is located from Vilnius in Lithuania, and serves as the administrative center of Ashmyany District. The river Ashmyanka passes through the city. As of 2025, it has a population of 16 ...

. He led a regular cavalry unit of about 100 cavalrymen, at the head of which (or a patrol separated from it) he skirmished with a Cossack unit from General Bennigsen's group. The clash ended with a small success for the Russians, with minimal Lithuanian losses.

French Revolutionary Wars

In 1796, Jan Henryk Wołodkowicz joined the

. From then on to 1801, he served in the Army of Italy. In 1799 and 1800, he served as a cavalry Général de brigade, serving as commander of the Army of Italy's cavalry's left wing. On 9 August 1801, at 36 years of age, he was made a reformed officer. He was a radical republican and distrustful of Napoleon.

Napoleonic Wars

On 23 September 1806, as ''Général de brigade'', he began organizing the 2nd Legion of the North at

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

. Jan Henryk Wołodkowicz fought in the Prussian and Polish campaigns of the

War of the Fourth Coalition The War of the Fourth Coalition () was a war spanning 1806–1807 that saw a multinational coalition fight against Napoleon's First French Empire, French Empire, subsequently being defeated. The main coalition partners were Kingdom of Prussia, ...

. On 27 September 1807, he was transferred to serve the Grand Duchy of Warsaw by order of the Emperor, but after Wołodkowicz's complaints, the order was rescinded. In 1809, during the

War of the Fifth Coalition The War of the Fifth Coalition was a European conflict in 1809 that was part of the Napoleonic Wars and the Coalition Wars. The main conflict took place in Central Europe between the Austrian Empire of Francis I and Napoleon's French Emp ...

, he was a general of the

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (, , ), is the principal Army, land warfare force of France, and the largest component of the French Armed Forces; it is responsible to the Government of France, alongside the French Navy, Fren ...

. On the 1st of July 1812, he was made Governor of Minsk with the rank of Maréchal granted by Napoléon. Member of ''Grande Armée'' during

Napoleon's Invasion of Russia The French invasion of Russia, also known as the Russian campaign (), the Second Polish War, and in Russia as the Patriotic War of 1812 (), was initiated by Napoleon with the aim of compelling the Russian Empire to comply with the continent ...

, he was taken prisoner and deported to Siberia by the Russians during the battle of Smolensk in 1812, in which his eldest son Joseph got killed.Andrzej Malejka, Wołodkowicz Jan Chrzciciel Henryk (1765-1825) (pol.) He spent the years from 1812 to 1814 or 1815 in Russian captivity. He was the last Général of the

to be released.

After 1815

After being released in 1815 he spent the rest of his life fighting legal battles in St. Petersburg, to regain his confiscated and usurped estates in Poland and Belarus.

Arc de Triomphe

According to some, his name is carved on the west pillar of the

Arc de Triomphe The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, often called simply the Arc de Triomphe, is one of the most famous monuments in Paris, France, standing at the western end of the Champs-Élysées at the centre of Place Charles de Gaulle, formerly named Plac ...

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 1980. The French government always replied that they can not alter a historic monument. Others argue it is the name of a French colonel Claude François Henry who died in 1812 in Spain during the siege of Valencia.

Private life

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 The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

) and divorced in 1804. In 1805 he married Marie Thérèse Lasserey, daughter of Jacques Ambroise Lasserey. They also had one child, Alexander Henryk, French Henri Alexandre (Knight of the

References

Sources

External links

Andrzej Malejka, ''Wołodkowicz Jan Chrzciciel Henryk (1765-1825)'' (pol.)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolodkowicz, Jan Henryk 1765 births 1825 deaths 18th-century Lithuanian nobility 19th-century Lithuanian nobility 18th-century Polish nobility 19th-century Polish nobility 18th-century Polish military personnel 19th-century Polish military personnel Lithuanian generals Polish generals 18th-century Polish–Lithuanian nobility People from the Russian Empire