Charles of Nassau-Siegen

Karl Heinrich von Nassau-Siegen (5 January 1743 - 10 April 1808), was a French-born fortune-seeker best known as Catherine II's least successful naval commander.

Charles Henry, in Catherine II's own words, "had everywhere the reputation of a crazy fellow". He sailed around the world with Bougainville, "fought tigers bare-handed" in Central Africa and reportedly seduced the Queen of Tahiti. His tiger hunt is the subject of a vast canvas by Francesco Casanova.

He was the son of Maximilien Guillaume Adolphe of Nassau-Siegen (d. 1748) and his wife Amicie de Monchy (d. 1752). Charles Henry's family and title were disputed. His father was in 1756 posthumously recognized in France to be a legitimate son of Emmanuel Ignatius of Nassau-Siegen, in turn the youngest son of Prince Johan Franz of Nassau-Siegen by his third (and morganatic) wife, Isabella Clara du Puget de la Serre. Emmanuel Ignatius (d. 1735) had an unhappy union with the French noblewoman Charlotte de Mailly-Nesle (d. 1769) and became separated from her after a few years of marriage, during which they had two short-lived sons; years later (in 1722) they reconciled, and Emmanuel Ignatius recognized the third and only surviving son of his wife, the aforementioned Maximilien Guillaume Adolphe, as his own; however, shortly before his death (26 August 1734), he repudiated the child, declaring him adulterous.

Citing descent from a princely dynasty in the male-line, Charles Henry claimed that under French law he was entitled to style himself "Prince of Nassau-Siegen", but neither title nor rank was recognized by the House of Nassau-Siegen or the Holy Roman Empire, which had declared his official grandfather, Emmanuel Ignatius de Nassau-Siegen, legitimate but born from a morganatic marriage.

Charles Henry entered the French Navy at the age of 15, but led a dissolute life as a gambler at the royal courts of Vienna, Warsaw, Madrid and Versailles. Probably to escape his creditors, he joined the 1766 expedition of Louis Antoine de Bougainville to explore the South Pacific Ocean. On this expedition, he was able to develop his diplomatic skills in establishing contacts with the natives. For instance, in 1768 he was able to convince King Ereti of Tahiti of the peaceful intentions of the French.

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