Background
Of German origin and the son of a German professor at the Warsaw Lyceum (an exclusive Prussian school in Warsaw), Count Moritz Hauke served between 1790 and 1793 in the army of Poland during the country"s last years of independence.
Of German origin and the son of a German professor at the Warsaw Lyceum (an exclusive Prussian 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.
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.
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. Orders and decorations
Legion of Honour, 1807
Virtuti Militari (Knight"s Cross, 3rd class, very rarely awarded)
Order of Saint Stanislaus, 1st class, 1814
Order of Saint Anna, 1st class, 1815
Order of Saint Anna, 1st class with diamonds, 1818
Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky, 1820
Order of the White Eagle, 1829.