Regula Engel-Egli was born on March 5, 1761, in Zurich, Switzerland. Her father was a former officer in the Prussian army. Three years after the birth of the daughter, he separated from his wife. Regula grew up in the orphanage, later she lived with her mother in Chur.
More than twenty years, Regula Engel accompanied her husband on his campaigns across Europe and Egypt. Often "Mrs. Colonel Engel" also fought in uniform in the battle. After Napoleon's abdication in April 1814, the Angels followed him to Elba into exile, where they liked the quiet life. At the Battle of Waterloo In 1815, her husband and two sons fell. Regula was brought wounded in officer's uniform, severely wounded, to the hospital in Brussels.
After returning to Switzerland, she began destitute and alone to seek her last five children throughout Europe - in vain. She found her son Caspar dying in New Orleans, United States. In 1824 she returned to Switzerland after more than forty years, where she published her memoirs. These sold so well that a second edition was reprinted.
In 1827, Regula Engel-Egli wrote the second part of her memoir, which appeared a year later. In it, she provided the life story of a vital and courageous woman, who was not afraid to consider the Napoleonic army and the situation of Switzerland. Despite the good sales figures, she was in need of money and dependent on acquaintances; their hope for a pension of the French army was not fulfilled. Only twenty years after her return to Switzerland, she was allowed to stay as a boarder in the Zurich Predigerspital.
Regula is best known through her memoirs, which were published in 1821 and later titled L'amazone de Napoleon: Memoires de Regula Engle, Engle followed her common-law husband, Colonel Florian Engle, into the service of France.
Engle's varied activities and her large family earned her the epithet of "Mother Courage" that is widely used by biographers.
Regula Engel joined the side of her husband in the campaign of the French revolutionary army in Holland in 1798 and belonged to the expeditionary force of Napoleon Bonaparte, which conquered Egypt.
Regula Engel has participated in almost all Napoleonic campaigns: in 1805 against Austria, where she fought in the battle of Austerlitz.
Quotations:
"On this day I again played a role that was not assigned to me but paid me over the head with a sly blow of a sword which I cured, but which is still palpable now and serves me as a permanent memorial to the Battle of Austerlitz."
"My youngest son Joseph, only ten years old, fought by my side, his head was crushed by a bullet 'I saw that one eye' and his brain was squirting right in front of me."
In 1778, at the age of 17, Regula married Florian Engel. She gave birth to 21 children. Ten children died.
Napoleon is said to have called her "my little Swiss" and was not only her idol but also the godfather of her twins, born in Cairo, to whom he himself gave an emergency baptism, in the absence of a priest.
