Philippe Antoine d'Ornano

Philippe Antoine d'Ornano, 1st Comte d'Ornano (January 17, 1784 - October 13, 1863) was a French soldier and political figure who rose to the rank of Marshal of France. He was made Count d'Ornano of the French Empire in 1808. He was born a son of Lodovico Antonio Ornano and Isabella Maria Buonaparte, making him a second cousin of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Born in Ajaccio, Corsica, he served in Italy during the French Revolutionary Wars (in 1798 and 1799), and later took part in the expedition to Saint-Domingue. D'Ornano served in the campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars from 1805 on. He commanded the 5th Dragoon regiment during the battle of Fuentes de Oñoro, after a brave attack of cavalry, he was promoted to brigadier general.

He returned to France and took part in the Russian campaign of 1812. At the Battle of Borodino, d'Ornano was promoted to général de division. D'Ornano was wounded at the Battle of Krasnoi.

In 1813, after the death of Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bessières, he commanded the cavalry of the Imperial Guard. He accompanied Napoleon to the south of France until the emperor embarked for Elba, and was exiled from France by the Bourbon Restoration. In 1816, d'Ornano married Napoléon's former mistress Marie Walewska - she died in childbirth in 1817. Her heart was placed in the crypt of the d'Ornano family at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris and her body was brought back to Poland for burial. (In 1869, however, her coffin was found to be empty. It was speculated that some unknown necrophile had removed her remains.)

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