Charles Edward Jennings de Kilmaine

Who was Charles Edward Jennings de Kilmaine?

Charles Edward Jennings, commonly known as Brave Kilmaine, was a revolutionary and one of the greatest Irish soldiers to serve France in the eighteenth century. A gallant and celebrated general, philanthropist and baron, he was committed both to the cause of Irish independence and to that of the French Revolution. A devoted friend to Theobald Wolfe Tone and a close confidant of Napoleon I, he has been described as the only officer Bonaparte ever trusted completely.

Kilmaine is remembered and honored for his services in the American War of Independence and more significantly in the French Revolutionary Wars, to which he devoted most of his life. Often Irish historians fail to recognize the importance Kilmaine's contribution also brought to the ignition of an Irish Republic. Kilmaine was known for his extreme personal reserve and as one of the most charismatic Irish generals of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic period, focused his energies on liberating Ireland from British rule.