Pascal Giles (Napoleon's World)

Louis Pascal Giles (April 18, 1787 - February 21, 1860) was a French military commander, statesman and politician who was highly influential in the post-Imperial Wars period as well as in the post-Napoleonic era. He became a trusted advisor to Louis I and served as State Minister of the French Empire after his political rival Paul Seychard's forced retirement in 1857 until he resigned due to ill health in October of 1859, dying a few months later at the age of 73.

A brilliant cavalry officer, Giles made a name for himself in the Russian campaigns of 1813, the ensuing invasion of Austria and most prominently at Hastings, Carthill and Gowen Fields during the 1815 invasion of Great Britain. After the Imperial Wars ended with the Treaty of London, Giles was made a general and in the 1820's he became responsible for organizing the massive new Empire's cavalry divisions. By the mid-1830's, he was one of the most prominent military figures in France due to the deaths of figures like Ney, Jourdan and Massena. Giles became a fierce rival of Robert Legrange and joined other contemporaries such as Ricard Murburrien, Paul Seychard and Freidrich von Seidenberg to fight against Napoleon II in the War of Napoleonic Succession. He became aide-de-camp to the new Emperor Louis, eventually served as both Minister of War and Prime Minister of France, and was made State Minister of the Empire after a falling out with Seychard, who emerged as his chief political rival in the aftermath of the war.

Giles had a reputation as a selfless and bold leader with few personal ambitions, often to a contrast with Seychard, who has traditionally been portrayed as a ruthless, arrogant but brilliant and successful political figure in the post-Napoleonic age.