Jan Maurycy Hauke (26 October 1775 – 29 November 1830) was a Polish general and professional soldier of the Hauke family, which had Flemish and Saxon origins.
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Life
Maurycy Hauke was the son of Fryderyk Karol Emanuel Hauke (1737–1810), a professor at the Warsaw Lyceum, and served between 1790 and 1793 in the army of Poland during the country's last years of independence. Maurycy Hauke was an alumnus of Warsaw's Corps of Cadets, and fought in the Kościuszko Uprising, the Polish Legions in France and later served in the army of the Duchy of Warsaw in Austria, Italy, Germany and the Peninsular War. After 1815, Maurycy joined the army of Congress Poland, reaching the rank of full general in 1826 and receiving a Polish noble title. 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. Count Maurycy Hauke was on his way to the Grand Duke who managed to escape, but Hauke was shot to death by the cadets on the street of Warsaw before the eyes of his wife, Sophie Lafontaine (daughter of Franz Leopold Lafontaine), and his three younger children.
He was riding on a horse beside the carriage of his wife and having met a group of rebels who shouted: "Be our leader, General!" Hauke reprimanded them and told them to go back to their quarters, whereupon they opened fire and killed him. His wife died shortly afterward, and their younger children were made wards of the Tsar, while three elder sons joined the uprising and one of them, Maurice Leopold, fell during the battle of Ostrołęka in 1831 only 17 years old. After his victory over the Poles, the Tsar raised in 1841 an enormous obelisk 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 obelisk was pulled down in 1917.