Charles de Lorencez
Charles Ferdinand Latrille, Comte de Lorencez was a French Army general under Emperor Maximilian of Mexico during the 19th century. He was a relative of the Empress Charlotte, who was the only daughter of King Leopold I, King of the Belgians and wife of Emperor Maximilian.
Lorencez was born in Paris to a noble family. He studied at the military academy of Saint-Cyr from 1830 to 1832, graduating as a third lieutenant. He served first in Algeria, where he was promoted to the rank of colonel in 1852. In 1855, at the Battle of Malakoff during the Crimean War, he won a commission to major general.
Latrille de Lorencez then served in the French intervention in Mexico. Most notably, he fought at the Battle of Puebla, on 5 May 1862, where the French troops under his command were defeated by Mexican troops led by General Ignacio Zaragoza. Latrille de Lorencez left Veracruz on 17 December 1862.
He later fought during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. His contraction of yellow fever in Mexico compelled him to retire from active service two years later. He was survived by his wife the Comtesse Emilia Alvarez de Perez and his daughter the Comtesse Emilia Latrille de Lorencez.
